The Best Way to Store Baseball Cards

Screw-down Cases

• The oils in your skin will do damage to a card over time, so baseball cards should be kept in some sort of clear container that will allow them to be displayed or handled without being in direct contact.

  Screw-down cases are the best way to protect a card. They are made of two sheets of hard, clear plastic that are screwed together with the baseball card in between the plastic. This provides the most protection but is also the most expensive way to protect a card. This is generally reserved for the most valuable cards.

Plastic Covers

• If you don't have a lot of money to spend to protect your cards, you can use soft sleeves, which are designed to hold one card. They are inexpensive but they can be bent easily, which will damage the card.

  Top loaders are larger and more rigid than soft sleeves. However, they are also more expensive. They can also include labels on them to describe the type of card ("Rookie Card" would be one example of a label used).

Storage

• Light of any kind, but especially sunlight, will fade cards, so it is important to keep them out of the light when they are not being looked at or on display. One way to do this is to keep them in an album. These are three-ring binders with sheets much like those of a photo album that will hold nine cards per sheet. The cover of the album will keep the cards out of the light and it will be easy to look through the cards like you would look through a photo album.

  Another way to store the cards out of the light is in a storage box. You can get boxes that are designed for cards that are in soft sleeves or in top loaders. Whether you use albums or storage boxes, you will want to store them in a cool, dry place. Heat and moisture will also damage baseball cards.