General Forum

Id like to share some findings as i begin to divide and display my card collections in different ways and medium.My oldman never collected anything as a young adult,maybe motor oil and traffic tix,dont know.He hit his 50s and all heck broke lose.He purchased all the late 80s and 90s cards and boxes K-Mart had to sell,not a bad thing tho.His choice of card holders,bad.Im taking a Cal Ripken Jr 1996 Pinnacle Team Spirt 5 of 12 insert out of what i will call a "Slab" holder.Its made of Lucite,is two pieces with a hole drilled in all 8 corners.I was shocked when i removed the screws to free Cal from the two slabs,gently i might add,and the card went from being a single to a double.Now i know theyve used many ways to build these cards but out of 30,000 cards ive never seen one split perfectly like this.Im enclosung corresponding photos but beware when using these 5 lbs of plastic horror.Lucite is  for kitchen floors not your card collections.This is how "I" feel about these hard plastic holders and im putting the 2 slabs back together screws and all just as found,Just say no to Lucite.To be continued......Irish Womens Basketball great luck Ladies!  Peace

Colloquially called "screw-downs" in the hobby for years, they are not the only item in the hobby world that wasn't good for cards.

We also had plastic pages that broke down, and would meld with the cards. They're always fun, too.

We had plastci boxes that did not have 90 degree corners but rather rounded corners AND the snapped shut - almost always snagging at least one card in the process - unless you were super careful every time. But the rounded corners certainly didn't protect the cards if they were shaken to any extent in the case.

And I'm sure we can get a nice long dissertation from other members here about the "Card Savers".

Thank goodness, the hobby has recognized (most of) these card hazards and has stepped up the game with better top-loaders, 2-piece slide top plastic boxes, and better plastic pages. We still have Card Savers. Boo!

Dan,

I would not put anything directly into a Card Saver without using a sleeve.

Kevin

I appreciate all input,any input is good input...Gracias

Still use card savers. I put them in sleeves before it goes in. Only problem is you can’t put thick cards in. 

Wow. That sucks! There's a guy who owns a card booth at my local flea market that I frequent on weekends. He said that he stopped buying slabbed cards in screw-downs from customers because of this same reason. After buying the cards and the customer is long gone, the cards would come apart or tear trying to get them out of the slab. Now, if he does show interest in buying a slabbed card in a screw-down, he has the customer remove the card right there on the spot at the booth before he commits to buying it.

I had heard that screwdowns were bad news and potentially damaged cards. However, I wasn't aware the damage involved splitting the card in half! Very interesting.

The early ones did not have a recess for the card to sit in, so they were literally pressed directly into the lucite with as much force as the person tightened it (and they were usually tightened as much as possible, or they risked the card sliding out). So when a card is pressed tightly to lucite for years, there is certainly the risk of it adhering to both surfaces. And with the lucite not being able to bend, like you can with "bricked" stacks, they peel apart. If the card was in a penny sleeve and then in the screw-down, better chance of survival.

So, that's the screw downs with screws in each corner, correct Dan?

Any problems with the ones that had just a single screw in the top? From memory they had a recess.

I have always been wary of them too, though never sure exactly why.

This is correct.

The single screw holders were recessed and are much newer. I know I have some around here, but I don't think I have any cards in them.