Well, if you keep your slabs in a closed box with hot air inside (that can hold a lot of water), humidity can condense in the winter due to a drop of temperature. Cards then can be affected by mold or become badly warped, but this would also happen to a raw card or a binder kept in the same condition,
It’s just to say that slabs aren’t water proof or airtight, so you must control the storage environment like you normally do,
For the uv damage, I personally avoid to keep cards always on display since Uv damage can still happen when you are in your home, although really slowly.
Have you ever seen an old pc/console/plastic becoming yellowish with time? That’s uv damage building up years after years
Noo please, don’t worry. I really didn’t want to spread terror lol
Just use a cardboard box, or let them breathe from time to time → Put a nice quantity of silica gel inside and you’re ready to go.
I don’t necessarily see it as a battle between the two, as such. To me they have different perks and facilitate a collection in different ways.
A binder provides a more personal and catalogued access to a collection, whereas slabs (obviously) offer protection, increased display-ability and proof of “certified” condition.
It all really falls to personal preference and how you want to treat the individual items in your collection, as well as what you value about your cards. Just owning the item itself is enough for some, for others they want to know their items meet certain condition standards, some don’t care about ever seeing their cards (just knowing that they’re owned is enough) whereas other collectors want to see every item in their collection all the time.
No, cards do not rub against the surface of the slab. They are situated nicely between four plastic ridges that prevent it from touching the front or back surfaces. The only concern would be the card moving up, down, left, or right, but unless you are shaking the card at thousands of RPM, you’ll be OK.