I’ve been using the Ultra Pro 9 pocket Suede binder exclusively. Overall the look and feel of the binder is great however I’m noticing an issue with the plastic surface very soon after purchase, within a few days/weeks.
The surface of the plastic has a series of nicks and imperfections indicative of abrasion and excessive rubbing, predominantly down the center of the binder sleeve. All binders were purchased in 2022/2023 and are stored in my house.
Additionally, there appears to be a large difference between the outer (1) and inner sleeve pockets (3). The outer pocket has the most damage, the middle has some damage and the inner pocket has minimal damage.
In some lighting, directly facing the binder it can sometimes be unnoticeable. However if there is any lighting from an angle, the damage is extremely noticeable and distracting.
Does anyone else have this issue, in such a short timeframe? If so how did you address it? I would like to avoid buying an entire set of new binders, if possible. Do I have any recourse with Ultra PRO?
I also have this issue with the same binders, which I store flatwise. I’d imagine this is simply plastic rubbing on plastic due to self weight of the cards. My plan is to find a way to store the binders vertically once I replace them.
Do you think storing vertically can eliminate the vast majority of damage? The marks start showing up in such a short time period after purchase that it makes it seem inevitable.
To chime in here, I store vertically too and yes this issue is ever present…
I think its just a matter of design and how binders are and can get sadly. The more you view your cards and the more the binders move, the more pages will end up having marks on them. Its upsetting for sure and I havent really found a remedy to fix any of it, but also in the end I kind of see it as cosmetic and I just kind of ignore it. Storage options in general for cards are always one big frustrating journey, so learning to live with the issues instead of figfhting them has always been my go to solution lol
You’re totally right and in general I can live with some damage on my cards which are generally LP-NM for my binders. That said, when I flip through and I can’t even see the card underneath the opacity of abrasion damage, it defeats the purpose of putting them in a binder in the first place…
There is no real way to prevent this scuffing unless you added something like felt separators between each page. As frustrating as it sounds, my recommendation is to purchase a new binder every few years if it bugs you enough (dependent on your actual use and accumulated wear/tear).
I try to ignore it as much as possible. I’ll take individual cards out of their pockets to view them if the pages are too distracting. But some binders of mine are meant to be viewed as cohesive units (e.g., master sets), and the only solution there is to view them in lower light where I am not catching the scuffing.
Well also do note that the rubbing I wouldnt believe would add damage to the cards so long as theyre sleeved, its just kinda a cosmetic thing overall (at least to my knowledge). Ive got mint cards in all of my binders including the ones with wear and have taken many out over time and theyre all still mint as the day i got them, so at least thats something I can note too.
But yeah, I get that frustration too with not being able to see too clearly. Best thing I can suggest is probably 2 things here: the first, make sure the sleeves going in are nice and clear ones (kind of a given lol) and then 2 would be maybe to ask around and see if there are other binders which might have better page clarity to them. Not sure if that will help or not but its a decent suggestion id say lol
I personally now only use Dragon Shield card codex binders with DS clear standard sleeves and its a combo I swear by mostly for the added page slack so all cards can lay flat even with thick sleeves and I can say the clarity of my pages seems pretty good overall. My main Dedenne binder has been reorganized and reordered a ton of times now and I still can see my cards nice and clear even tho there are some page scratches
Thicker binder pages
Double sided and especially with double sleeved cards press the outer surface plastic against each other, so friction is assured during page movement
Frequency of moving pages
Whenever you open and close a binder to any page, every page slides slightly across according to the spine. Whenever you flip over a page, the spine repositions
Thickness of pocket plastic
From personal experience, thinner plastics wear much faster with friction (e.g. Ultimate Guard). Thicker plastic is a bit more durable at the cost of visual clarity (e.g. Palms Off Gaming)
I used to be concerned about this when I was on my first binder, but I shift around so many cards between binders from time to time that the additional rubbing between card sleeve and pocket plastic makes worrying all the more pointless. Cards are protected and that’s good enough
