The best ways to protect your Pokémon cards

With the explosion of the Pokémon card auction market in recent months, new budding collectors are certainly keen to get started or plan for the future with their current collection. Here is everything you need to know to properly protect and store your cards in the best conditions.

While the Pokémon Trading Card Game debuted in North America in 1999, it’s only been in recent years that the collecting market has really taken off. This year alone, several cards have reached staggering sums sometimes going as far as the price of a house.

New collectors may therefore be wondering how to effectively protect these cards just out of their booster. In this article, you will find some essential steps to keep your most precious cards well so that they do not lose their value too much in a drawer or a shoebox surrounded by rubber bands.

How to handle and store your Pokémon cards

Summary

The first thing you need to know is that there are several factors that can affect the value of your cards that are totally beyond your control. Unfortunately cards can arrive with irreversible damage ranging from slightly shifted artwork to scratches on the glossy coating.

What you can control, however, is how you handle the card the second it comes out of its wrapper. You should know that a PSA rating of 10 to 9 can represent a loss of 30,000 dollars for the rarest cards even though they appear to you to be in perfect condition.

You will find below the most common methods to protect your cards and put the odds on your side when you want to have your property appraised.

Step 1: Penny Sleeves

Here is the essential basic accessory to protect your cards.

Penny Sleeves, or Soft Sleeves, are the most common and inexpensive pouches you can find. They are nevertheless essential to protect your cards at all times, as soon as they come out of the booster. Don’t shout, dance, thank the RNG gods by taking your best foil card out of your booster and think about protecting it first. You will have plenty of time to celebrate this event once the map is safe.

EStep 2: Toploaders

Toploaders provide long-lasting protection for your most valuable cards.

After protecting your cards in Penny Sleeves, we then recommend putting them in Toploaders. These hard card sleeves can be purchased at a reasonable price although they are obviously more expensive. Not only will they protect your cards better, but most scoring companies will require you to at least send your cards in.

AndStep 3: Evaluation

Having your cards evaluated is the assurance of offering them the best possible protection.

Of course, not everyone can afford to send their cards immediately for evaluation. Nevertheless, this remains the best way for your card to retain its value from the moment you have protected it in a Toploader. We recommend either PSA Where Beckett BGS. You can find all the instructions on this subject to send your cards.

Step 4: Storage

Reusing your boxes is a great way to store your cards.

If the first three steps are obviously the most important, you will quickly have to find space to properly store your cards. There are different schools here for collectors and the best thing is to offer them to you.

• The PSA/Beckett assessment: Without trying to turn them around, the best way to store your cards is to have them appraised. Not only can this greatly increase the value of your cards but they will be returned in a secure hard case. Once inside, nothing should be able to alter them and you can store them quietly wherever you want, even a shoebox.
• The boxes : It is not uncommon to open your cards from booster packs, which themselves come from metal boxes. Storing your toploaded cards inside is a cheap and efficient way to keep them there.
• The binders : If you plan to use a binder, it is better not to use those allowing you to put cards back to back. They must always be separated at the risk of creating friction which will eventually alter the card. Don’t use ring binders and opt for ones with a binding instead. You can use the classic binders for your rare cards that are not too valuable but that you still want to protect in addition to the ordinary card sleeves.

Note : When you store your cards, also be careful that they cannot move too much when you come to move or handle them.

What you must not do

While this is a much debated debate within the collecting community, most agree that it is inadvisable to use cotton gloves or anything. to cover their hands. Indeed, the slightest scratch on a card can lower its value, sometimes by several thousand dollars.

Even very recent cards can have a lot of value if they are protected effectively.

Also, try to keep your cards in a cool place. If the room is too hot or prone to humidity, it can severely damage the board. Again, this won’t be a problem if you keep the card in a sealed hard case.

Finally, the most important thing is to always have a pack of Penny Sleeves and Toploaders available before opening a booster. With these precautions alone, you should keep your cards in good condition.