Guides

How to store, size and prepare collectible cards — written from manufacturer specifications and conservation guidance, with the sources listed on every page.

All guides

6 min readHow to store trading cards long termStore cards in the coolest, driest part of your home that stays that way year-round — roughly 65–70 °F and 35–50% relative humidity — in polypropylene sleeves rather than PVC holders, and out of direct light. Most card damage comes from four things: movement, moisture, acidic plastics and cumulative light exposure.5 min readHow to preserve sealed Pokémon packsWith sealed packs the wrapper is the product, so protect it from pressure, moisture and light. Keep packs in a cool, dry, stable place at roughly 65–70 °F and 35–50% relative humidity, supported flat or snugly upright in a non-PVC holder, and never squeeze, weigh or resize them to guess the contents.5 min readCard sleeve sizes explainedThere are two sleeve sizes that matter. Standard sleeves are 66 × 91 mm and fit the 63.5 × 88.9 mm cards used by Magic, Pokémon, Lorcana, One Piece and sports cards. Japanese sleeves are 62 × 89 mm and fit the smaller 59 × 86 mm cards used by Yu-Gi-Oh! and Cardfight!! Vanguard.4 min readWhat supplies you need to submit cards to PSAEach card goes into a clear penny sleeve, then into a semi-rigid holder such as a Card Saver, with both sides visible. Toploaders are not used for submission, opaque sleeves cause delays, and semi-rigid holders fit cards up to 2½ × 3½ inches and 35 points thick.7 min readHow to ship trading cards safelyShip a card in a penny sleeve, inside a toploader, sealed in a team bag, sandwiched between rigid card and packed so it cannot slide. The single most damaging assumption in card shipping is that a plain envelope is safe: a toploader makes a letter-size piece nonmachinable under USPS rules, and mail that is nonmachinable but not paid as such gets handled by equipment that was never meant to bend around it.5 min readCard thickness chart: points to holder sizeCard thickness is measured in points, and one point equals 0.001 inches (0.0254 mm) — so a 35 pt card is 0.035 inches thick. Holders are sold by the maximum point thickness they accept: a standard modern base card is around 20 pt, a standard toploader takes up to 35 pt, and relic, patch and booklet cards climb from roughly 55 pt to 360 pt.6 min readHow to organise a trading card collectionSort a collection in two passes: first split it by value and destination — bulk, keepers, and cards headed for grading — then sort each group by whatever you actually search by, usually set and number. The system that survives is the one whose sort order matches the question you ask most often, not the one that looks tidiest.6 min readCard collecting supplies: what you actually needThe supplies worth buying first are penny sleeves, a storage box and a binder with polypropylene pages; add toploaders for cards that travel and semi-rigid holders only if you are submitting for grading. Every item on the list exists to prevent one specific kind of damage, and buying by damage type is cheaper than buying by product category.