Are any of my readers/followers wondering what today's title corresponds to?? As an autograph collector I do a lot of through the mail auto requests and 96% of the time I buy these cards from Sport Lots. I pay about 18 cents a card which is not too bad because sending an auto request through the mail is a risk one takes because you may never see the cards again. I have had lots of late surprises and I am talking 3 years where the player finally signs the card and then drops it into the mail stream. I keep asking myself where these players keep 3 years of mail I can't imagine. I know of a few collectors that told me they have had a player take 15 years. Yes, I said 15 YEARS!!! That is a lot of mail and in 15 years one could have moved to a different home.
Ok so I strayed a bit from the title so let me get into that. When buying from sellers I hate getting cards that are taped to the piece of paper, the seller thinks it helps to protect the card by keeping it safe and it does not. It is more possible to do damage to the card trying to get it unstuck from the paper. Same thing with the top loaders they tape the top of it, and I have to take a knife and run it through the top of the top loader to cut the tape and again could damage the card which you can see in the photo. Has anyone else ever had this problem?? So, let's say STOP USING TAPE.
When I send a card to a collector via trade I will take and put the card in a top loader and take one sheet of paper and wrap the card in the paper by folding and this way there is no tape involved.
I am going to try and have a few good additions to my other pages on this blog, My Monthly autograph additions page and Will these cards ever get autographed page. So, either on Thursday or Friday I will have them done. As always thanks for checking out my blog. Happy Collecting and Stay Safe!!!
I've had this happen way too many time, whether SportLots, eBay or wherever. It isn't so bad with the painters tape, but I've had a many using scotch tape or worse, packing tape. I've had a few cards ruined because of this. Normally everything is fine, but it still ruins a perfectly good top loader.
ReplyDeleteI have been annoyed but the use of tape ever since I started buying cards via the internet. Fortunately I have not had any big value cards ruined by tape but some have come pretty close. Whenever I send cards out I use painters tape. Sometimes if I am using extra bubble wrap I will tape ONLY the bubble wrap with regular scotch tape. And the outside mailing envelope or mailer I'll use the clear shipping tape on the package only. I Never tape the top loaders or penny sleeves. I try to avoid using the card "savers" sometimes called semi rigid "sending to the grading company" loaders. Those things stink for shipping and way too many collectors and sellers use those for single cards or sometimes up to 4 or 5 cards. I hate that. Then they use regular clear or clear shipping tape to tape the "saver" shut. UGH. Then you have the people who over tape EVERYTING Even the mailing package. You have to play heart surgeon while opening the dang package. Granted it doesn't take "hours" but it does take several long minutes to free your cards. It is easier to break open graded card slabs or the vaults at Fort Knox than it is to open some of those packages.
ReplyDeletePainters tape is the way to go! The only time I'll use scotch is to secure the paper I wrap the cards around or to the envelope flap for extra security, but never near the cards themselves!
ReplyDeletePainters tape is pretty much the standard these days. And aside from those with severe arthritis, I can't say that I've ever heard of anyone having trouble peeling it off of a toploader.
ReplyDelete