General Forum

As with the wholesale clubs, it can be hit or miss with any item, we have gotten 4" binders in 2-packs at BJ's for the same price as 1 at Staples. We have also gotten 10-packs of smaller ones (maybe 1", maybe 1.5"?) there.

As with all things - shop around!

since I am cheap, I get at thrift stores when I need binders

mark

I have about 20 complete sets in binders and a few tidbits on storing them.  First thing  I have to say is to lay them flat.  Standing them can ruin the binder and thus the cards.  I have also seen cards warp from standing in a binder.  If you look or use your cards a lot I would recommend sheet lifters.  However, it is not required if you use caution while turning pages and closing the binder.  Always use d ring binders.  If stacking make sure pages are not ruined by the weight.  I recommend storing binders in plastic totes with the ability to use a padlock on them.  You may want to pull out stars and high value cards and store them in pencil pouches in the front of the pages.  This will allow you to store any graded cards.  Also, it will prevent the cover from damaging the pages by providing a buffer.  Good luck!!

Everyone has mostly covered what I would have said, but here's a suggestion that hasn't been mentioned.

Sheet lifters aren't a common find in stores, so I've found a workaround. I'd prefer the sheet lifters, but until I can get enough of them, I had to do something. Using page savers with a sheet of cardboard in them works just as good for the front as the lifters do. They are also a decent temporary fix for the back of the album. Page savers are meant to protect a sheet of paper, but some poeple also store magazines in them. They are very cheap and wider than card pages. With a sheet of thin cardboard (like a cereal box front or back), they are easy to grab and pull back from the rings if they shift while turning pages or closing the cover. Since I started using those, I moved all of the lifters that I do have to the backs of albums and used the page savers for the fronts.

Instead of sheet lifters, I have used old magazines for the back of the binder.  They are about the height of the ring contraption, so it flattens out the sheets at the bottom.

I haven't tried that b/c the only magazine I get is Astronomy magazine. I keep all of those together in a seperate place on a bookshelf. I have every issue for the last 14 years. Most other magazines I've gotten in that time were oddly shaped or went in the recycling bin before I ever started using the page savers (or sheet protectors, as some are called).

Here's a couple short video links on page lifters in action.

What do sheet lifters do?   and   Sheet lifter demo