How to store your cards.
APBA has team envelopes which are great. But these can wear out or have the flaps tear etc. And like the original cards, all the years look the same.
Strat-O-Matic and most other sets do not have team envelopes.
Rubberbands have many advantages and a few disadvantages. Many gamers place their teams in plastic baggies. These can protect the cards but then storing them with a bunch of other teams is a little awkward. Storing them with a ton of other teams is near impossible.
I have heard some use file cabinets / old library cabinets etc. Never appealed to me. 1) don't like my cards kept in large quantities (say a whole season etc) without divisions, and no room for the furniture.
I did the sleeving thing for about 6-7 years. Had 60-70,000 cards sleeved (at a very expensive price). Each card was beautifully individually protected. Protected from rubber band stains, ink, blood, tears, accidental problems. But 90-95% of my cards I never played so they really did not need that protecting anyway. And storing them became a little trickier, the sleeves added a little length, a little width, and some height. The sizes were increased just enough so they would no longer fit comfortably in the boxes I was storing them in. And I actually preferred the old bank boxes I used which was perfect for strat cards - 5 columns and 2 rows. So after 2 incarnations of shoe boxes (both with inventories of over 80 each), the first set was from The Container Store and were clear rectangular shoe boxes, later upgraded to Sterilite light blue shoe boxes with locking lids and a teeny bit larger, about 15-18 months ago I de-sleeved all of my cards and went back to the old off white cardboard bank boxes.
So without the protection of sleeves, is rubberbanding OK?
First, you need to have the right size and right quality rubber band. There are horror stories of the 1984 strat cards which used a new inferior rubber band that bled all over the cards. It is hard to find a 1984 set today without many cards with rubber band stains. I found a nice collection of #16 and #18 rubber bands at Office Max which I used for many years, but they switched vendors about 2-3 years ago and the quality went way down. Last year (or earlier this year) I was in need of some slightly smaller #14 rubberbands and found a nice very large bag on ebay for about 8.50 with free shipping. Liked them very much.
So yesterday I noticed I was almost out of #16 rubber bands and the #18 size was pretty low as well, just not as acute. So I went online at ebay and found the same vendor and ordered 3 each 1 lb bags, (sizes 14, 16, 18) all at free shipping. Total cost was about 28 bucks with tax and they arrived within 24 hours. I should be good for 18-27 months now.
Many years ago I found the key to not having rubber band problems (besides starting with "high quality" rb) was to audit, inventory and rotate/replace your rubber bands at least twice a year, if not 3-4 times a year. Just make it a habit or even give yourself a reminder in one of your calendars.
pictured: 3 large bags of rubber bands size 14, size 16 and size 18 ..., the sunglasses are included just for size reference
No comments:
Post a Comment