General Forum

Hello there!

I know many of you collect and I have one question for you:

What is your policy, in your own collection, of using Penny or Sports Card Sleeves?

Thank you

A must have for top-loaders. Anyone who sells a card not in one, loose in a top-loader, well let's just say it makes me want to unleash some violence.

I buy a minimum of a 1,000 at a time, Ultra Pro. BCW have tended to be, I don't know, kind of wavy, though they can be ok. I also find that out of say 10, I am lucky to be able to use 5, almost always something wrong with one. I toss a lot out.

Nearly any I get from eBay sellers, go right in the trash. If they look fairly decent, I'll reuse them for any I may need to send to someone else.

Never bother with them with pages, know some do though, just seems it's too tight a fit to bother going that far.

Agree 100%

I generally only use them when I am trading a card, I don't use them for my own collection, except cards that are sticky. Some of the clear plastic cards of the 1990s, the 2000 Topps Olympic basketball set, and some early Finests are usually sticky, so they go in one. I'm still working on the package of penny sleeves I bought in...1999? Just guessing. I've actually lost it and refound it several times, I use on average about 5 a year. (Sometimes I'll reuse one that I got something in; only if it is clear with no scratches. Oh, I also keep my 1948 Bowmans in penny sleeves.

At one point in time I started putting each card into a sleeve, but it made them way too slippery. I was spending more time chasing after them than sorting them. It didn't last long. I'd guess less than a week. That would have been 1996, and I'm still using the sleeves as need be that I bought back then, as the package I got in 1999 is MIA again.

all my cards are in penny sleeves and then top loaders.. no way around it.. if i have many dups of a base, ill use just the penny or a larger box or plastic count box-- and i don't use scotch tape on top.. hate it!!! if i'm mailing or something, i use the blue painters tape

I've been collecting for 65 yrs. off an on and the greatest thing that ever came along was the penny sleeve, top loader and snap tight or screw downs. If a card is going into a top loader it has a penny sleeve also most of my Gu'd & Auto cards, I'll trim the penny sleeve so it will fit inside the screw down or snap tight as I like to ID most of my Gu'd, Auto and high end cards with their current BV at the time I'm registering the card in my collection. That's why if you look at my collection page you will see a BV attached to most of my cards.

Also when I put a set together and put them into any one of the different count boxes that relate to the number of cards that is in the set I will use penny sleeves especially the cards from the 90's on up as I found that when you store the cards away but later on want to look at the set the cards have a tendency to stick together because of the new type of coating or chemicals that they use in the manufacturing of the cards now.

I use them for black border cards, cards with surface prone to scratches, odd shaped cards (like that old USA Basketball set with round bottoms) and some undersized cards to make them easier to pull from boxes. But most of this kind of stuff would ideally be in albums instead of storage boxes anyway.

Yep, penny sleeve required for anything going in a top loader.  And if shipping, I just throw a spot of tape over the top to keep it from sliding out.  I have no problems reusing penny sleeves or top loaders, especially for shipping stuff out (which I rarely do anymore since I don't buy anymore).

Ditto to all that. All my cards are in binders, so I shouldn't need them for my collection, but all my pre-1980 HOFers are in penny sleeves in the plastic sheets. I just don't want to damage them when I take them out, so they get the double protection (despite the fact that it might stifle the smell of the card ;-) ). 

All cards of value (IMO anyway) go into penny sleeves and top loaders, standard set collecting I only bother with the SP and RCs unless its a high end set then I'll penny sleeve em. I wish they made penny sleeves like they do top loaders, in different widths so that some of these monoliths they call memorabilia cards would fit in them as I don't like the larger ones with the sticky flap. I only use those when shipping.