Agreed. Graded card sleeves are amazing for packaging cards!
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Thanks a lot. Now I’m not going to sleep for a week 
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Tapey nightmares!! 
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Tape on a toploader has two negative effects:
- Potential to ruin a card
- Ruins the look of a nice toploader which could be reused.
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dont forget to grab big thick carboard… put it inside the grade card sleeve and then the toploader on the cardboard muhahahaha… and den into a box hehehehehehehehe. ULTRA PROTECTION! If you cant use a box, it wil;l still be good with the crdboard… but if you send that shit without the cardboard on the back in an envelope or bubble mailer or whate have you… could be in for some serial trouble.
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I bought a master set of Fates Collide. Here’s a tale of how it was packaged.
The collection was sent in 9 pocket pages and the cards were completely naked - no deck protectors, no penny sleeves, nothing. It’s not even like the pages were from the leather ultra pro binders - they were the flimsy plastic ones where the cards move around like crazy.
To make things worse, the pages were LOOSE, and for some reason placed *inside* an empty ultra pro binder (plastic). Not sure why they didn’t just sleeve the cards and put them in the ultra pro binder but hey.
And the biggest sin was that the loose pages were “secured” with tape that started on the outer empty binder and went allll the way around - getting stuck to the pages that actually had the cards in.
So now I’m left with cards that have pretty large amounts of edge wear AND a wasted binder that has sticky tape residue all over it, which cannot be reused.
The worst thing is that tape isn’t even the most superior material anyway, even if it didn’t mess things up - so why even use it? “Cling film” (as we call it in the U.K., saran wrap for you guys) actually holds things together better anyways.
Tape is not preferred with all due respect!
Tape is Gary’s Vietnam!
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I once ordered some bulk toploaders from a seller on eBay and to save money he taped them all together into flat shape so he could send via multiple large letters.
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I’m now aware that I haven’t been using the most optimal method… but how bad is it if I have taken a piece of paper to wrap around the top loader and used a bit of tape to make sure that the paper wouldn’t move? Keep in mind that there’s no chance that the tape would touch the card.
I just googled what Team Bags actually are, and they’re 100 for just $3? Then there’s no excuse not to use them. I still wonder how it prevents the card from moving around though, as far as I can see with a sleeve + toploader + team bag there’s always an odd chance that the card will move a little bit during shipping?
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The point of the team bag is to prevent the card slipping out of the toploader
team bags or tape can’t prevent a card moving around inside the toploader so you just have to deal with it
that being said, as long as the card is in a sleeve, no damage can occur
Ah, right, just watched a video though, I had confused them with plastic zip lock bags, hence my confusion.
Is double sleeving a better idea than single sleeving cards, or does it not matter much in the end?
double sleeving is over kill in my opinion, i’ve never done it, and i’ve never received a card which was double sleeved
so i guess you could say it is not common practice
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I know it’s over but I’ll chime in with how I send cards. Firstly i sleeve and top loader for everything then the top loaders into a graded card sleeve. Cling film them together if multiple cards and then bubble mailer. I don’t sell low cost (<£15) stuff a lot but If I ever do I just swap the mailer for a standard envelope and add thin card to each side of the cards before wrapping them. Tape on the outside to secure the flap and then folded over the sides just to add some structure and semi waterproofing of the sides. Overall it costs me a bit more with everything added but I would rather that than someone get damazed cards being as I just recover cost from extras rather than sell cards for any kind of profit.
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This reminds me of a Tape Travesty I’ve suffered through a couple times…have you? I’ve gotten full sets, most recently a 132 card set, in 9 pocket sheets where EVERY SINGLE POCKET WAS TAPED CLOSED. 132 pieces of tape which I had to peel and razor blade slice open.
Can anybody imagine what my face looked like during this process?
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Something like this.
SPOILER: Click to show
(I had to since you asked 
)
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Dilbert and Thecardguyz…
Just want you both to know that this thread is typical of the interest and passion we all have in our great hobby and display on efour. Don’t take things personally cause we all need each other at their best:)
We all love our new members and will do all we can to aide and inform because somewhere down the road we and other new members are going to need you and your expertise.
Like they say in AA…“Keep Coming Back”.
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Sleeve, top loader, team bag. Does not get any simpler than that.
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I never take any offense. It’s all in the details. I do a lot of shipping of cards that are used for play and not mint condition collectibles. I know how and when to ship with tape so as not to cause problems. If I’m shipping mint condition cards or anything I feel needs to be preserved as a collectible I use a post it note to cover the top or a team bag as well as a bubble mailer. There is nothing wrong with tape if you do it correctly. A lot of people new to shipping don’t understand how tape affects a card. I can’t imagine some shipping a 1st ed Charizard in a top loader taped shut… That’s just nuts. I never put tape in the way of a card EVER.
Hope this clears it up. And yes I know its simpler just to say “DONT USE TAPE EVER” - but for some people - that’s what they have and if you use it correctly there will never be any issues.
No tape.
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when team bags are so cheap and readily available, tape should not be an option!
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