@Juke, I also have small hands and I still find it difficult to slide the card directly in.

@SciFi Cards, This is one of those issues that can go unthought about. It's similar to how people use a public bathroom, turn on the faucet to wash their hands, then right after washing their hands touch the faucet again that they and several others have touched right after urinating and defecating. That's a real design flaw, yet most people don't even consider it.

Similar to penny sleeves, most people are just jamming their cards in these things not really considering what exactly is happening. And obviously a lot of people have had an issue with it because Ultra-Pro did make an entirely new product to address this problem.

As for grading, well I see a lot cards with sub 10 grades, maybe some of their grades got subtracted because of soft corners. Do we have statistics on all the cards that have ever been graded and why they got the grades they got? Perhaps if we did have those statistics it would show a disproportionate amount of corner wear on the bottom corners.

quote:

Originally posted by ewok7:
As for grading, well I see a lot cards with sub 10 grades, maybe some of their grades got subtracted because of soft corners. Do we have statistics on all the cards that have ever been graded and why they got the grades they got? Perhaps if we did have those statistics it would show a disproportionate amount of corner wear on the bottom corners.

Beckett Grading does provide statistics on specific cards they have graded and you can search through their data, but they rate a small percentage of non-sport cards as compared to sports cards. PSA is the other big one and they have to be keeping tabs too.

In any event, 10s are not handed out with anywhere near the regularity you seem to think they deserve by any of the grading companies. Cards taken straight out of packs that are basically untouched by human hands usually get a 9.5 or less, even when they are essentially perfect. The 10 is pristine and they don't want to give that out easily, so any minor thing that is invisible to a reasonable person may be considered an imperfection to a grading service.

While card condition is an issue, the whole grading business never became as important with non-sports card collectors as it was with sports card collectors at one time. Now grading has also fallen off with the sports card crowd too.

Grades also mean very little unless you are looking to sell cards, and not average cards either. They have to be valuable enough to warrant the expense of grading and the added premium you would have to attach to the price of the card to make up for it.

It is your right to apply any condition standard you want on the cards you collect, but a 10 is not the bar, it is the exception.

quote:

Originally posted by juke:


Do they fit?? Aren't they a little smaller than the standard collectible card size?

They fit but it's a tight fit.

I've also noticed that for some thicker cards that I get these micro stubs when inserted them into sleeves. I just tried something a bit different that seemed to work. It may not work for some of the really, really thick cards. The process takes a bit longer but may be worth the extra effort.

I took two low value thin cards that I care nothing about and stacked them one on top of the other. Then inserted the two cards about one third of the way down into the penny sleeve. With the part that is still outside of the penny sleeve, separate the two thin cards and insert the thick card between the two thin cards. Slide the thick card down into the penny sleeve and pull the two thin cards out.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggerhouse:
I've also noticed that for some thicker cards that I get these micro stubs when inserted them into sleeves. I just tried something a bit different that seemed to work. It may not work for some of the really, really thick cards. The process takes a bit longer but may be worth the extra effort.

I took two low value thin cards that I care nothing about and stacked them one on top of the other. Then inserted the two cards about one third of the way down into the penny sleeve. With the part that is still outside of the penny sleeve, separate the two thin cards and insert the thick card between the two thin cards. Slide the thick card down into the penny sleeve and pull the two thin cards out.

That is brilliant Tiggerhouse! thank you for sharing that tip.

I just had this problem too not long ago trying to get a GotG auto in a sleeve and because they are a bit thicker than the usual a had such trouble getting it in without catching the corner.
I got so frustrated in the end that I kind of stretched the opening of the sleeve first which helped, but I like your method waaay better.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggerhouse:
I've also noticed that for some thicker cards that I get these micro stubs when inserted them into sleeves. I just tried something a bit different that seemed to work. It may not work for some of the really, really thick cards. The process takes a bit longer but may be worth the extra effort.

I took two low value thin cards that I care nothing about and stacked them one on top of the other. Then inserted the two cards about one third of the way down into the penny sleeve. With the part that is still outside of the penny sleeve, separate the two thin cards and insert the thick card between the two thin cards. Slide the thick card down into the penny sleeve and pull the two thin cards out.

This method works well. You can also cut the corner off or cut a small slit on the side of a penny sleeve which makes the opening bigger. I did this for some of the Star Wars cards.

Ten years later...I've wondered how there could be Gem Mint grades or 9 to 9.5's if the cards were in sleeves. Most of the time, a card does catch slightly on the edge of a sleeve while inserting it. This has to do something to a card. I've looked at a lot of my cards under magnification while editing them for posting (putting the front and back side-by-side) and all of those look like they have at least one "bad/soft" corner when you do that.

My problem lately is that I've bought two packs of the widevision size sleeves (maybe a year apart) and all the sleeves I've tried so far from them are not wide enough to fit a card in and that's the short (2 1/2-inch) side. I thought maybe the cards were slightly wider but when I compare a widevision sleeve on a card sleeved years ago, I see the newer sleeve is maybe 1/16 of an inch less on that edge.

I do the ‘cut top edge’ thing and it works pretty well. Chrome cards will have a much less chance of being dinged than paper cards with their sharp corners and hardish material. Also it depends on penny sleeve brand sometimes, some like Ultra Pro seem pretty easy to slide the card in. But I’ve had the nick thing happen when I’m going fast and not being super careful. It’s actually easier to slide a card into a binder page, where you just lift up the pocket and slide card in.

I am always obsessively trying to find a best storage solution. I do wonder about penny sleeves sometimes- they say polypropylene is totally inert but Im pretty sure I’ve seen glossy/foil cards adhered to the sleeve in old collections. Furthermore, if you inspect many penny sleeves in use (like take the card out of it and examine the sleeve close up), you often will find small indents and nicks on the sleeve..I wonder if that would affect the card surface long term. But even with all that, penny sleeve does seem better than alternatives like just putting raw in toploader or using binders. I personally like penny sleeve/toploader or better yet penny sleeve one-touch over raw in a one-touch. Another option would he having it graded/slabbed to not have to worry about storage…though I’m not convinced even slabs are 100% impervious to the card taking on wear.