Storing and enjoying cards in binders

[Blackie]

So I know its been mentioned, quite possibly more than once on the boards but wanted to revisit the way of storing and enjoying card sets. I recently began the "migration" back to binders from CardSaver 1's. Yeah I did and still do have most of my in progress sets in Card Savers but I notice that one can enjoy as well as a binder. Binders take up less room and i guess when you have no plans to sell just enjoy and pass down it seems more effective for enjoyment. Anyone with me on this? The 78 Topps baseball set which I am 41 cards from completion along with the 81 Topps football set I enjoy storing in binders. I was able to purchase a beautiful (and not like my norm a centered solid NMMT 81 set) a few years ago from a board member. I love to hear other stories of how the set collectors enjoy looking through these beautiful pieces of pasteboard. Please share if you get time.....

[mikemb]

Hi Robert

I have most of my sets in binders. All of my sets up to 1995 are in binders.

The sets from 1965 (the first year I collected) on are set up by team. The league leaders are usually first, then world series cards, all-star cards and then checklists. Then each team. For the teams, the first slot is the team card and the second is the manager card. Stars and favorite players are in the "center square".

Sets prior to 1965 are in numerical order.

I only have one card per slot so I can also view the back of the cards. I look at a different set probably 2 or 3 tines per week. Brings back great memories. Many cards have their own story (last card in a set or series if I can remember., etc.)

Also have at least one wrapper for each set. Some of my favorite cards are the checklists I marked up as a youngster and stull proudly display.

Good luck and enjoy!

Mike

[Blackie]

Mike that is awesome!! Thank you for sharing. I do that as well in regards to only putting one card in. I'm kinda odd and enjoy reading the backs of cards. Some nights I pull out a set i am working on and just read the backs until I fall asleep and have PT in the morning. So many good memories with cards. I still remember the taste of the square gum, powdery yet we still chewed it. Every card was looked at......favorite players or teams being put to the side then (in my case) a lot went into groups with a rubber band around em........there was not grading then.....just pure enjoyment. I also agree that the checklists ......though at the time i may have shunned them are quite essential to the complete set nowadays. Just wish i would have saved the wrappers. Have a few but none from my childhood. If a pack wasn't so high i would get an 81 football just to keep and look at.......but for now....its a pipe dream.

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by Blackie

Mike that is awesome!! Thank you for sharing. I do that as well in regards to only putting one card in. I'm kinda odd and enjoy reading the backs of cards. Some nights I pull out a set i am working on and just read the backs until I fall asleep and have PT in the morning. So many good memories with cards. I still remember the taste of the square gum, powdery yet we still chewed it. Every card was looked at......favorite players or teams being put to the side then (in my case) a lot went into groups with a rubber band around em........there was not grading then.....just pure enjoyment. I also agree that the checklists ......though at the time i may have shunned them are quite essential to the complete set nowadays. Just wish i would have saved the wrappers. Have a few but none from my childhood. If a pack wasn't so high i would get an 81 football just to keep and look at.......but for now....its a pipe dream.

Never, ever, anything odd about reading the backs of baseball cards. I did that today while looking through my 1976 set. Just think of them as a large book with each card being its own little chapter, complete with a picture.

[Blackie]

Butch agreed! Never though of it like that also....it is a book. Good point indeed.

[Blackie]

Have a few hundred 75 Topps i am putting in pages tonight........good gosh this is great. So so far from this set but nice to see it done. Took a label maker and made a nice stamp for the binder. One of my college kids is tying to get the 75 pack and make a graphic.......with her touch on it for display. Very fun now i have my college kid involved. This is cool

[Vintagevault13]

Enjoyed catching up on this thread this morning. I love all the pics of your binders. Like many here, I have gone back and forth on binders vs. toploaders, etc. but always go back to binders because of how great it is to (carefully) flip through the pages. I wanted to share a little about how I collect. I am in the process of building back the sets I collected as a kid (73-79). I am doing this for enjoyment AND to pass on to my kids at some point. As I build each set, I approach the project like a glimpse into my childhood. As a result, I try to build a time capsule for each year. In addition to the set, I include all variations of that year’s wrappers because the ads bring back so many memories (t-shirts, lockers, etc). I also include a copy of that year’s Street and Smiths Baseball Yearbook. As a kid, the arrival of new cards and the new Street and Smiths went hand-in-hand. Flipping through the yearbooks is an absolute joy, especially looking at the ads from the various dealers! Finally, I create a short narrative with information on the set and specific memories that the set holds for me and what I was doing at that point as a kid. While I do this to inform my kids when they get the cards one day, I find that it also helps me relive some awesome memories.

Sorry for the long post, but just wanted to share my projects and thank all of my fellow “binder folks” for the continuing inspiration.


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[frankhardy]

Originally Posted by Vintagevault13

Enjoyed catching up on this thread this morning. I love all the pics of your binders. Like many here, I have gone back and forth on binders vs. toploaders, etc. but always go back to binders because of how great it is to (carefully) flip through the pages. I wanted to share a little about how I collect. I am in the process of building back the sets I collected as a kid (73-79). I am doing this for enjoyment AND to pass on to my kids at some point. As I build each set, I approach the project like a glimpse into my childhood. As a result, I try to build a time capsule for each year. In addition to the set, I include all variations of that year’s wrappers because the ads bring back so many memories (t-shirts, lockers, etc). I also include a copy of that year’s Street and Smiths Baseball Yearbook. As a kid, the arrival of new cards and the new Street and Smiths went hand-in-hand. Flipping through the yearbooks is an absolute joy, especially looking at the ads from the various dealers! Finally, I create a short narrative with information on the set and specific memories that the set holds for me and what I was doing at that point as a kid. While I do this to inform my kids when they get the cards one day, I find that it also helps me relive some awesome memories.

Sorry for the long post, but just wanted to share my projects and thank all of my fellow “binder folks” for the continuing inspiration.


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Even though I don't do that personally, I love the idea of the Street and Smith yearbook going with each set. I don't have the memory of the yearbooks like you had so it would not make sense for me. But building and recreating memories is what it is all about. Having your personal archive with a personal touch it's a great way to collect

I do however remember the Street and Smith basketball yearbook in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Michael Jordan on the front. I still have them. As a teen kid I collected all of the Sports Illustrated covers with Jordan on the front and sold them off years ago regrettably. A couple of years ago I collected them back and still have them.

[whitehse]

After I sold the majority of my collection 20 years ago I went back to collecting the sets I put together as a kid, starting with the 73 - 77 time frame. This collection I sold included complete sets from the early 60's, a few 50's complete sets and a variety of stuff that was all in binders.

With the current collection sleeves and top loaders was my storage method. I hated leafing through the top loaders and went to card savers but it was such a pain to pull out the boxes and look at the sets I generally never did. Last year, after I completed my '56 Topps set that is in card savers, I started the 65 Topps set and decided to put them in pages as I had a stack of them laying around. I never really loved the design of the '65 set but soon changed my mind as I put them in pages and admired the beauty of the design. Fast forward to the last few months and I have now put all of my sets, except for the '56 in sleeves and am happy I did it. It is so much easier to just grab the binder and look through these cards and truly enjoy them and not just collect them.

[jchcollins]

Just being honest - and it's fine if I'm the only one - but I hate binders, and have for a long time. Today I have my first two childhood sets (1986 and '87 Topps) in large binders, but that's the only thing of consequence - to me, even if they aren't worth much monetarily.

Growing up they all just seemed to fall apart, and eventually the (less than 21st century quality Ultra Pro) pages seemed to get sticky or develop other problems. Of course, storing at least 2 cards front and back in each pocket probably didn't help me out much either.

Don't get me wrong, I don't disparage any of you who are binder fans. It's certainly more compact and economical in terms of storage for those of you who are given to caring about such things. But 95% of my collection is singles and stars, not sets, and just in terms of the physical space - stacks of toploaders, mag cases, and slabs aren't necessarily going to ruin me in my personal space at home assuming I collect for the next 20 years on roughly the same budget. In terms of the two sets I am actually working on right now - '67 and '72 Topps - I'm doing it the hard way, stubbornly collecting both in penny sleeves, card savers and toploaders, and then putting those into boxes.

[bb66]

Vintagevault13 that sounds awesome----love the stories.