Cabinet Card Storage
 

Hello all,

(Please note, that I really did try and use the search function to locate an answer to the question I am about to ask. If I missed the thread, could someone please just link me to it, and I will take it from there? Thanks in advance for helping out a cabinet card noob.)

Short of having SGC grade a cabinet card, how do you store your cabinet cards? I have looked on google and found a couple of options and I am trying to figure out which way to go. Bags unlimited offers a cabinet card storage box that holds their POLYPROPYLENE sleeves. So I might go that way. Although I read on the2buds that the Library of Congress recommends mylar over POLYPROPYLENE, so I am a bit confused. Is POLYPROPYLENE ok for long term storage?

Please help me, if you can. Thanks for reading.

Alan

I put a lot of mine in small acrylic frames, and some in wooden frames -- all under five dollars. Here are a few examples.

Greg
http://www.baseballbasement.com

Sweet! Thanks for posting. Those display well. If I end up wanting to display them, that is the way I might want to go. But, for now, as I lack the display space, I was looking for strictly storage options. As an aside, when I checked out the link to your site, I instantly craved a finished basement to display my stuff. Nice site.

Alan

Cabinet card storage
 

Alan,

I highly recommend Talas (talasonline.com). You can purchase mylar presentation sleeves, pre-cut museum board backing and a storage box from them. Gaylord offers similar archival products, but I have been less pleased with their customer service. Cabinet photographs, like all photographs containing silver, are best stored away from light, humidity and wood to prevent the silver particles from oxidizing. If displayed, the photographs should be behind UV glass.

Thanks for the info.

Cabinet cards are usually dried out due to age, so they are much less likely to stick to plastic or whatever than modern photos or baseball cards. You know, how a family snapshot might stick to the plastic in an album-- probably won't happen with cabinet cards. Thus, it's easier to store them.

To clear up how I have my cabinets stored right now, I have them in 5 x 7 acid free "Penny" sleeves from the2buds, then slid into a 6 x 9 top loader. is that sufficient, or would you recommend mylar sleeves, or some other method?

Alan

I've been looking into this type of storage too, for my T3's, but the closest size I could find was 8x10 and my safety box is only 10" wide, which I think might be too tight a fit- the T's are 5 3/4"x 8".
I must have missed the 6x9 top loaders, could you point me to where I can get some? They should work for me unless there's a problem I'm unaware of.
Thanks,

http://www.the2buds.com/surs6x9.htm

I believe that I bought mine here.

There are also penny sleeves that are supposed to fit inside the 6 x 9 toploaders, but they don't fit. They are about 1mm too wide for the 6 x 9 holder. this is why I use a 5 x 7 penny sleeve inside the 6 x 9 toploader I linked to above.

Alan

Thank you so much, those should work nicely for safety deposit box storage.

Here is my approach, something I've shared with others previously. I like to store my cabinets in three ring binders, slid into magazine albumn pages, within an 8x10" top loader and soft sleeve insert. Working through this backwards . . .

1) Custom made soft sleeve inserts. I haven't had to order these in years but I believe they (Atlantic Protective Pouches) are still taking orders. I ordered 3mil mylar polyester sleeves that measure 7 7/8" wide x 11 1/2" high, open on one short side (this is a custom size that works well for large assortment of cabinets that I like to stick in 8x10 top loaders). I usually cut these down to only 9 7/8" high so they can fully fit within an 8x10 top loader.
http://www.atlanticprotectivepouches.com/

2) I then slide #1 above into an 8x10 BCW Photo Top Loader
http://cgi.ebay.com/25-BCW-8-x-10-Ph...item53e1f03870

3) I take #2 (& #1) and slide them into a BCW 1 Pocket 8 1/2 x 11 Magazine Album Page
http://cgi.ebay.com/100-BCW-1-Pocket...item5ade811987

I arrange 1, 2, & 3 such that it would be difficult for a splash of water to reach the card by alternating the open end of the sleeve/top loader/page. That is, the open side of the sleeve is at top of the cabinet while the open side of top loader is at the bottom while the page is open at top. So water would have to come in from the top of the page and reach the bottom where it could enter the top loader but then has to travel back up to the top before it enters the soft sleeve. Lastly, I store the pages in a zippered 3 ring binder.

Wow! Good stuff, Joe. Thanks for sharing. I am not sure if I want to start grading cabinets, so your idea seems pretty good for storage, as well as for being able to easily view the cards (which was another concern I had). I was thinking about scanning my cabinet cards, and starting a photobucket account (or something similar). Then I would store the cards and not have to expose them to light every time I wanted to look at them. We'll see. Good advice, though, and thanks again for posting it. -Alan

Joe: Could you show a photo of one of your cabinets ? Thanks Mike

Check your local Staples store, they have lots of items for displaying various sized items. I bought a few to display photos 8 by 10's etc. Good for programs, T3 etc. Probably any Office supply place would have items available but I know Staples does. They have a base so you can set them right on a desk etc.

I use the large size mylar sleeves and slip them in to Vario pages so they can go in a 3 ring binder.

Would really like to strangle the guy that thought grading cabinets was a good idea. Any more and I'll need a storage building. I crack the lower grade one's out, but only a fool would crack out the 6' 7's and 8's. :)

Joe must live in a flood zone!! Water is the least of my concerns, occasionally beer does become a hazard!

Sorry for the delay, here are some examples of the storage option I described above. While it requires buying several products to pull it off, I feel it offers excellent protection in an attractive loooking package. The flimsy mylar sleeve easily accepts the cabinet without risking a scrath which in turn slips into the top loader which provides some structural support and then slides into an album page held by the 3 ring binder. This option will store cabinets and just about any item that measures less than 8x10.

For larger items such as letters, magazines, graded cabinets, etc., I ditch the top loader and just slide the items into the 8 1/2" x 11" album page.

awesome, Joe. Thanks for posting.

Alan

Zippered Binders
 

I've also been asked about which binder I'm using. There are many options but I stuck with something rather simple from Samsill. Here is an example from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Samsill-15250-...5320699&sr=1-1

While this 1 1/2" Samsill is cheaper than a lot of options at ~$25, it can add up quick if you need to buy in quantity. I personally would rather a "D" ring and maybe a brushed nickel vs the gold plating but have yet to find it at a similar price. I'd like to see what others might recommend.

Joe, approximately how many ungraded cabinet cards can you fit in the
1 1/2" Samsill binder, using the above-described set-up? Thanks in advance.

Alan

With one cabinet per page, 26 fills it up (26 pages). If you place cabinets back-to-back in one page (two 8x10 top loaders per page), you can get 30 cabinets comfortably (15 pages).

Solid, Joe. Thanks again. I feel like a copycat, but I like your storage solution. I ordered the mylar sleeves and the binder already. I'll post some pics after I make the switch.

Joe,

How many graded cabinet cards will that hold? I am guessing about a half-dozen?

You can fit only 5 SGC graded cabinets in a 1 1/2" binder (they are ~5/16" thick). If you have more than 5 to store, you might want to consider a larger binder. Of all the items I store in the binders, I'm least satisfied with the graded cabinets. They are heavy and a bit undersized for the album page. I've been contemplating making an insert that spans the gap from the slab to the album page perimeter.

The 6x9 looks like it might be too tight of a fit for the Turkey Reds...I know the Turkey Reds are slightly smaller, but wouldn't you want more than a 1/8" of room per side?