General Forum

I think they provide a false sense of protection.  That flimsy plastic is only doing marginally better than a penny sleeve, IMO.

I always feel like I'm damaging the card when I take one out.  Especially if a seller used tape on it.

We call them Card Ruiners in this house. They do not protect cards at all from being bent.

They are perfectly fine for sending a 1987 Topps common in the mail to protect the corners somewhat, but even then, the design of the device lends itself to pinching the bottom corners. There is in essence no way to use one without doing some sort of damage to a card (unless the card is plastic itself, in which case it wouldn't need the protection).

They are GREAT in the 3,200-count "shoe" boxes for separating items based on how you organize. They work best with no cards in them.

I use an old pair of socks or underwear, preferably washed and dried.  I am partial to the underwear as the elastic band provides that extra margin of security.

Unless all of your boxes are nearly full, I don't see how this could be an option.  You'd need a ton of underwear to fill out half of an 800 count box.

I'm just assuming we all wear these, right guys?

Guys?

Lol, I've never used socks or underwear, but I have thrown a microbiber towel in a couple boxes before.

As for the cards savers, I bought some a couple months ago, but haven't even opened em up to try em.  I kinda figured I wouldn't like them since it seems harder to get the card in and out of, plus it leaves a lot of slack all around the card.  The card might not be able to move around in it, but I still think I'd prefer the more precise fit of the top loaders.  I'll probably just use the ones I got the same way that's been suggested....as dividers in my shoebox.

 The pair in the upper right looks like the official underwear of the Texas Longhorns.

I use them for non standard things like coins and thick mem cards as long as I have a penny sleeve on them so they don't get scratched up.

As others have said they pinch the cards too tight and are too flimsy to be mailed in. Yet many Ebay sellers and Sportlots sellers use them, and abuse the cards they put in them. Far too often they use regular cellophane tape to close them and don't even attempt to protect the card inside. Often they don't even include a penny sleeve. Some semi-smart sellers will put a piece of paper between the opening and the tape. They are OK for storage and display purposes, but my biggest beef with them has been when receiving them through the mail, often in PWEs with no protection for the card(s) (you can fit 3 maybe 4 thinner modern cards in one without too much damage to the cards. They are basically an ID badge holder, hmm some badge holders if they were large enough would be a little more protective than the "savers". I have had a few damage close calls from careless sellers using the tape and of course the card inside managed to get attached to the tape. In most cases I've been able to free the cards with little or no damage to the cards. However, once or twice the tape was just too stuck to the card and it managed to take some ink/paint off the edge of the card I was freeing.

These are some of my favorite threads.  I recently began saving various shaped styrofoam inserts from various purchases and trying to cut them to size, which gets messy.  Buying various sized boxes throws off how you can pile them, so that didn’t seem an option for some sets.  The sponge idea is great, I am going to try it.  Storage and organization is a key part to this hobby that gets overwhelming and discouraging and threads like this work wonders for the part of the hobby that isn’t sexy, but necessary!  Great thread!