Sunday, June 4, 2017

Do. Not. Tape. Your. Toploaders.



I feel like there is a movement or a spike in toploader taping at some point every year. On Thursday, I was smack dab in the middle of one.

Let me paint a picture for you. It was about 10:30pm on Wednesday night. I had just gotten home from my day of work, followed by a 7pm softball game in Central Park. We got mercy-ruled. Yes, that is still a thing. How pathetic is that? The other squad did have two players who had previously played Triple-A baseball, but still. It was a weak effort. But I won’t lie, playing in a Central Park softball league is pretty cool.

Anyhow, I arrived back to my NJ home to find a few envelopes waiting for me. Nice way to end the day! One was a TTM success from Nick Green. The other two envelopes had Gary Sanchez cards I won on eBay, each for less than $1 shipped.

I opened the first one and saw this:
Tape. Scotch effing tape. While I appreciate the card arriving in a toploader and penny sleeve, the card had slid up to the top of the top loader, and stuck nicely to the tape. Lucky I removed the card and all was ok thanks to some 2017-level gloss, but suppose it wasn’t? Suppose it was actual 1987 card stock. Suppose I wanted to get this card graded. Under a microscope, there could be surface damage. 
On to the last envelope. This is how the card arrived:
With about a pound of scotch tape and a note to leave the seller positive feedback. Pffffft.
What, my friends, can we do to end this? The problem is that it leaves us all with sticky, crappy, unusable top loaders…many of which I use to send cards to you because I don’t want them in my house. I know…that’s not helping the problem. It’s just passing it on to someone else. I'm petty like that.

And as well all know, blue painter’s tape is cool. It does the job of scotch tape, and peels off with no sticky residue. It’s a damn miracle.

This has to stop. It’s ruining good supplies, and worse, ruining good cards.

Spread the word. Do. Not. Put. Scotch. Tape. On. Toploaders.

9 comments:

  1. Sadly way too many Ebay (and Sportlots) sellers, along with some collectors in trades, go hog wild on the tape. They think it is helping to secure the cards. There also seem to be more people trying to sell cards just for the money than there are actual collectors like us who actually want the cards. Between the overusers of cellophane tape and sellers who think a 10 cent card is worth $100 its a miracle there are even collectors like us who are trying to save the cards still around.

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  2. I'm like you. Any top loaders with scotch tape gets passed along to fellow bloggers. Although... these days... the really bad ones get tossed.

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  3. I hate getting cards with scotch tape or packing tape on the top loaders. The only thing worse is one of those flimsy Card Savers with tape over the opening. Ugh!

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  4. I have a couple of purchases in the past where so much packing tape has been used I've feared for the safety of the cards as I try release them from the package. Painter's tape FTW.

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  5. "frag tape" is the scourge of my existence. It's OK if you make a pull tab and it comes off. But the kind that comes off in little bitty chips and won't come off your fingers is the worst.

    This is my next propaganda picture project.

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  6. Universal removal wipes (a medical product) removes adhesive residue

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    Replies
    1. Hey, nice! I may need to invest in some and do a medical procedure to clean up my toploaders!

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