You may be wondering, what’s a Penny Sleeve? Keep reading and you will learn the importance of Penny Sleeves and How To Protect Sports Cards.
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This is the first part of a three part series on how to protect sports cards. In this series of posts we will cover the basics and some of the nuances to storing and protecting sports cards. Once again, like everything we write about here at Cardboard Glory, this information is meant to help you the collector become more informed on some very basic topics.
We will break the parts of this series up as such:
- The Importance of Penny Sleeves
- Top Loaders , Semi-Rigid, and One-Touch
- Tips & Tricks Of Card Protection
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What is a Penny Sleeve?
As described by Ultra-Pro, a leading manufacturer of card protection products;
Ultra PRO’s original clear Soft Trading Card Sleeves are made with non-PVC, archival safe, and acid-free polypropylene film. These sleeves protect your valuable trading cards and collectible game cards from dust, dirt, and natural oils from your hands during handling and storage of the cards. Designed to hold standard size (2-1/2″ X 3-1/2″) trading cards up to 35 points in thickness, these sleeves also minimize surface scratches on your cards during sorting, display, or, for gaming cards, during gameplay.
- The original “Penny Sleeves”, Ultra PRO’s clear Soft Trading Card Sleeves protect your valuable trading cards and gaming cards during sorting and gameplay
- Designed to hold 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″ (63.5mm x 88.9mm) standard size cards up to 35 points in thickness
- Made with clear non-PVC, acid-free, and archival-safe polypropylene film
Where To Begin…
Everything in sports card protection and storage begins with the Penny Sleeve. It is only fitting that we start here on the journey of protecting your cards. The Penny Sleeve, or “soft sleeve” as it is also known, is the bare minimum for card protection. It should be the first thing we do with a card of value!
The image below is an example of a card that I left in a 800 count box with no protection for the past 2 weeks. This is an extreme example, but also, one of the motivations for writing this post.
Now, you may be saying, “That doesn’t look so bad!” and from this angle you are correct, but a savvy card collector, potentially your buyer or trade partner, may think differently upon receiving this card and putting it through a closer inspection. See Below for some macro images of the damage this card has taken being deposited into a box bare naked!
With a little light shown in the correct spots, we pick up all sorts of dings and surface damage. This will drive an experienced collector nuts and at the very least be a call for bad feedback or more likely a return. The Penny Sleeve by itself could keep these types of blemishes from vandalizing what was once a pristine card upon being pulled from its pack.
Just slide it on…
I like to keep a pack of Penny Sleeves (and Top Loaders, which we will talk about in the next post) handy when opening a box of cards. Now, we don’t need to sleeve worthless commons, but anything of personal or potential financial value gets a sleeve. Here is a video of a card being inserted into the sleeve, notice the technique…
*Note – If you just casually ruffle the corner of the sleeve as shown one can easily slide the lead corner of the card into the Penny Sleeve unharmed and from there the rest of the card fits in as designed.
Penny Sleeve Tips
- Feel free to practice on cards with lesser value. It is possible to chip or ding a corner when putting the sleeve on.
- One can also slit the top corner down the side creating what is more of a flap like below:
I roughed it up a bit , but you get the idea! This creates a much easier path for the card to slide into the penny sleeve.
- Penny Sleeve anything that goes into a top loader or semi-rigid! We will talk more about this in the next post!
- You can find Penny Sleeves all over eBay, Amazon, or any site like BCW or Ultra Pro. I like buying them by the 10,000 count box! It’s cheapest and feels like an endless supply! They will typically cost less than a penny each if you buy at this quantity! They also come in single packs of 100 and sometimes are sold as a multi-pack.
Note: My content may contain affiliate links. If you click any of the links on this page and make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Conclusion
The Penny sleeve is the initial stage of protection and the bare minimum for cards that you want to keep in mint condition. I keep a pack on my desk at all times. As we will learn in the future tutorials, these sleeves slide nicely into a bevy of different exterior hard shell holders. If you are looking for a specific brand, like a lot of card collecting utilities there are many, but Ultra-Pro and BCW are probably the two most popular.
Continue on to Part 2 here, where we talk about Top-Loaders, Semi-Rigids and One-Touch holders! Until next time, remember, put a sleeve on it!