Hey all,
to preface this: I already own a VaultX binder and a Dragon Shield Codex Portfolio.
I love the codex and all the pages sit flat and just look nice in general. But the place where the band is connected to the cover bulges out a bit, and seems to have caused some warping on the cards on the front page, which obviously isn’t ideal.
On the other hand, the VaultX feels quite a bit worse than the codex does, but it doesn’t have the drawback of the band. Unfortunately the pages don’t sit flat and it’s pretty ugly to look at. I understand this may just be a drawback of this style of binder, but has anyone had better luck with a different binder?
So far, I am considering trying out the Ultimate Guard Xenoskin 9 pocket zipfolio in hopes that the pages are made a bit better, but if anyone has a different binder they can recommend I am open to anything.
I have seen the dragon shield codex with the zipper, but it has rings and I’m a bit concerned about those as I’ve heard of damage due to them in the past.
just shell out the money for a zipper binder for your collection.
Both vaultx and Ultimate Guard Binders I think use the best material.
Dex Protection is also a good brand, I think their material is potentially the best. But they lack variety.
Anything that uses fake leather is a hard pass. The material falls apart over time, flakes off, gets messy, and thats %80 of the couches and chairs you see for free on the side of the road. But they will still keep things safe.
Thank you for the reply! I really wanted to like VaultX - but it just feels so much worse quality than the dragon shield portfolio does. If it wasn’t for the strap I’d go dragon shield all the way, Besides slightly worse clarity and some of the pockets having indents/scratches when I received it, here is my main gripe:
I put a few cards in here just to show the problem, so it isn’t even full. This is just a couple pages with cards, and the pages already don’t lay flat. I can only imagine it gets worse as the binder gets more full (this seems to be a well documented issue that has persisted). This is fine for my trade binder or less important stuff, but for my favourites/pages I care about the aesthetics of this is obviously not good.
Example of my codex, another binder that uses the built in page style that doesn’t do this:
Hello and warmest welcome to the forum. My experience is limited because I have not tested many different binders, but I think the binder bulge is not something you can escape specially when it is filled to the max capacity. I cannot see clearly but do you double sleeve your cards?
I use Vault X exclusively since I like their wuality and finish overall. I also double sleeve my cards before I put them in my binders. I feel that somehow the weight of the cards + the double sleeves just aggrevates the issue. I also have a different Vault X binder which has Pocket Monster Carddass cards and are only penny sleeved and also filled to the max. This binder does not have the same bulge issue or is not very significant compared to my other binder. I think the weight of the cards being much lighter plus only single sleeves is the reason. Both these are the 450 page zipped binders.
I have also used other binders in the past and the same problem persists. The bulge does not bother me personally but I can imagine it does to other people. I am not sure if I know zipped binders which can prevent this from happening completely. All I know is if you want to have no binder bulge then ringed binders with individual binder pages is your best bet.
I will also link another similar thread to help you provide more information and suggestions. Hopefully you can find what you are looking for.
Thanks for the welcome, and the response! I’ll check that thread out.
My cards are single sleeved; it seems like it might just be an oversight in the design of these binders.
Think it just an oversight in the design as you said, I’ve used ultra pro and vault x and vault is definitely the best. I do agree that the bulging of the binder when partly/full doesn’t look great but the 12 page vault x don’t suffer as much so maybe worth looking into!
Oh I actually hadn’t thought about this, but it kinda makes sense. I’ll look into testing out some 12 pockets and see if any work out, appreciate the tip. Prefer the 9 pockets since they fit evolution lines perfectly but might have to settle on something else
Double sleeving is a thing as Mr.Bubbles Mentioned. I decided that non-rare non-holos get no double sleeves. Since my binders are all for set binders, many sets don’t fill up all the way, so that helps too.
I also appreciate your showing the dragon shield binders. I see they give a lot of extra space in the seam to allow pages to fill up and still sit flat. I do like that, but I never even considered testing their binders due to not having a zippered version to avoid the very issue you started with, as well as not being nearly as dust and water resistant.
I will pull out the dex protector binder I have. I only have one for my korean 151 set, but I’ll compare it to your compalints about vaultx, and I’ll compare with my Ultimate guard binder too(which I use as a arts and crafts test binder). I’ll see if they have a better margin in the seam, clarity and scuffing. Though over time, all binder sleeves should scuff unless some use different materials. But you are a bit held back on materials to use since you don’t want anything volitile that will damage the cards inside. I can tell you that some of the binders I have that I’ve flipped through the most are already pretty scuffed from just a few years. When I go in and add new cards. I stuck with vaultx mainly for consistently high color varieties, and their color themed binders for pokemon sets.
I did my research heavily on card binders and card sleeves at one point. So let me know if you have any other questions on sleeves too, though I’ll mainly tell you it doesn’t matter, just buy the colors you want(from a collectors standpoint, playing with sleeves is where it makes a difference).
