How To Protect Your Trading Cards

Mike

TP9 | VC15
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So you want to know how to protect your trading cards from accidental damages? After all, those cards are worth next to nothing if they have a large crease running through the middle, or if the corners are all dinged up.

The first thing you should do is get yourself some "penny" card sleeves. They're called penny sleeves because you can usually find them for about a penny a piece. These will be used to help protect the surface of your cards from scratches. This is a cheap way to MINIMALLY protect your cards. All cards should be in penny sleeves, unless you're using some card holders (which we'll talk about later). These are also made in larger sizes for those thick patch cards.

Penny Sleeve
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Next, you'll want to protect your card's edges and corners, and keep them from getting bent. The cheapest, and likely most popular, way to manage this is to use toploaders. A toploader is a rigid plastic case that your card will slide into, thus adding another layer of protection from accidents. Toploaders, just like penny sleeves also come in different sizes to protect thicker patch and autograph cards too.

Here's a tip: Once your cards are in a penny sleeve and toploader, you can also then slide them into a team bag, which will prevent the cards from falling out of the toploader.

Toploaders
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Another, and probably the most successful, way to protect your cards is to use trading card holders. These holders are rigid, usually made from a thicker plastic, that offer the best method for protecting your cards. Holders come in all different sizes, but also come made differently too. You can get ones that use a magnet to hold the 2 sides together, sandwiching the card inside, which are easiest to use but also the most likely to fail. Then there are holders that screw together. These screw holders are what I would recommend for any high end cards that you want to have protected the best. Some holders attach at all 4 corners, and some just snap together on the bottom and attach at the top.

One Touch Holder
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These aren't the only method to protecting your cards. These are just some tips to help you keep your cards safer. No matter what method you use to protect your cards, just make sure they are protected. Even if you just store them in a shoe box, that's better than having them strung around the desk.
 
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