Approach to Building Sets

[Volod]

If you're sticking with graded exclusively, my two cents isn't needed, but one thing I did when putting together sets came back to haunt me years later. Back in the '80's, picking up most of my cards at dealer shows, I came to strongly dislike the look of cards displayed in albums. I wanted to hold and handle them individually, but also protect them at the same time. I settled for storing sets like NM '53 Topps cards in mylar sleeves, but I stacked them together in boxes with the cards standing on end. After a long period of storage and not looking at them for about a decade due to other issues in my life, I pulled out a box one day and saw to my unhappiness that the cards had developed a noticeable bend from the depredations of gravity. Upshot is that old cards should always be stored lying flat, if possible, or at least on their sides, or if you don't look at them for long periods of time, maybe sell them.

[Matthew80]

Thanks, Volod. I'll make sure mine are flat. I would have never thought of that!

[Big Six]

Originally Posted by Volod

If you're sticking with graded exclusively, my two cents isn't needed, but one thing I did when putting together sets came back to haunt me years later. Back in the '80's, picking up most of my cards at dealer shows, I came to strongly dislike the look of cards displayed in albums. I wanted to hold and handle them individually, but also protect them at the same time. I settled for storing sets like NM '53 Topps cards in mylar sleeves, but I stacked them together in boxes with the cards standing on end. After a long period of storage and not looking at them for about a decade due to other issues in my life, I pulled out a box one day and saw to my unhappiness that the cards had developed a noticeable bend from the depredations of gravity. Upshot is that old cards should always be stored lying flat, if possible, or at least on their sides, or if you don't look at them for long periods of time, maybe sell them.

Does this mean storing cards in albums will lead to bending too? All my albums are stored vertical (like books on a shelf)...

[ALR-bishop]

Matt--I have a full Topps run and they are all in binders through 1994 ( beyond that, with the exception of the Heritage sets, they are still in factory boxes ) I keep the binders vertical and have not had bending issues, but the binders and sheets are fairly packed together on shelves.

[darkhorse9]

I have every one of my sets (1954 - today in 3-inch binders standing vertically. I only have one set that seems included to bend (1963 for some reason.)

The real problem I had was with the smaller sets (i.e. 1954-1956) where there aren't enough pages worth of cards to fill up an entire 3" binder. I didn't want to use 2" because of aesthetics. What I did was create a sort of "pillow" that was the same size as the sheets and that hooks into the three rings and fills the space behind the set. Usually a 3/4 inch filler works. That keeps the cards from slouching in the binders.

[Big Six]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

I have every one of my sets (1954 - today in 3-inch binders standing vertically. I only have one set that seems included to bend (1963 for some reason.)

The real problem I had was with the smaller sets (i.e. 1954-1956) where there aren't enough pages worth of cards to fill up an entire 3" binder. I didn't want to use 2" because of aesthetics. What I did was create a sort of "pillow" that was the same size as the sheets and that hooks into the three rings and fills the space behind the set. Usually a 3/4 inch filler works. That keeps the cards from slouching in the binders.

Phew! Thanks...one more thing I didn't want to have to worry about...

[Volod]

I believe the problem I encountered with bending was due to the cards being stored individually, and on end, in relatively thin and flexible sleeves. That allowed gravity to pull on each card in a way that would not affect them in heavy album pages. After I noticed the problem, the solution was to just turn the boxes so that the cards were on their sides and gravity could no longer bend them.

[ALR-bishop]

There is no doubt something else you need to worry about Matt....think.

[betafolio2]

For what it's worth, I store my binders either lying flat or standing on end. By lying flat, I mean just that -- they're sitting on a shelf in the same orientation that they would be if they were sitting on a table in front of me, about to open and enjoy looking at the cards (and isn't that what it's REALLY all about?). And by standing on end, I mean they're open-end down inside a storage box, so looking down into the box you can see the spines. I figured this would be a safe way to store them because then all the card pages are evenly suspended from the D-rings, with no pressure on the cards. Anyone else out there store their binders this way?