30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, July 17, 2021

The Straight & Narrow

If you're a player or team collector... chances are you collect minis whether you like them or not.  On Thursday, Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown showed off a 9-pocket page of Dwight Gooden cards.  If you're a fan of Doc, click the link and check it out.

One of the cards he featured was a 2020 Allen & Ginter mini.  He created a custom frame-like thing to keep the card from sliding around and wondered if this is common for collectors who store cards in binders.

Well... it's common for me.  Until I saw a guy on YouTube use these:


What you're looking at is a BCW Tobacco Card Insert... which is a protective holder similar to a penny sleeve.  Sorry.  This scan isn't doing the product any justice.  Here's a look at the sleeve with a card inside of it:


Obviously this product is meant to protect your vintage tobacco cards and minis, but they can also convert your 9-pocket pages from this:


To this:


And if you're a top-loader kind of collector, they fit into those too:


Any downsides?  Yup.  A couple..  First thing is they aren't as cheap as penny sleevesBCW sells them in packages of 25 for $1.49 + shipping.


The other thing that kind of sucks is BCW's shipping isn't cheap.  Back in December, they had these on sale for 97¢ each, so I grabbed ten packs and they charged me $9.13 for shipping... which broke down to about $1.89 a pack/shipped (which is about 7.5¢ per sleeve).

Personally it was worth every penny to this obsessive compulsive collectorWhat about you?

Does this product interest you?

By the way... 

#1:  I'm not sponsored by BCW.  This is just a personal product review.

#2:  A special thank you to Xavier (who is one of my blog supporters) for sending me the minis used in this post.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

15 comments:

SumoMenkoMan said...

Totally interested. With Japanese menko (not bromides) about the same size as the U.S. tobacco cards of old, these are right up my alley!!

Nick Vossbrink said...

These intrigue me. Though I've started doing most of my minis in 20-pocket pages instead. But if they have similar ones of these for 75 minis, 51-52 Bowman, etc. I might be very interested.

Elliptical Man said...

I don't collect minis, so no.

I can see how somebody with some special minis would be willing to spend the extra cheddar, but it seems a bit pricey for routine storage.

The Lost Collector said...

I thought Gavin's idea for containing the mini was very cool!

night owl said...

20-pocket pages for my minis works fine, it's what they were made for. I don't really see the point of these.

Jon said...

I think some fellow bloggers were talking about these on Twitter one day. I like the concept, but not the price. Oh, and BCW should be ashamed of themselves for charging that much for shipping!

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Nope. I have a few set aside along with actual tobacco card top loaders (mini) for AJ (TLC).

CrazieJoe said...

I prefer the pocket pages, though can understand those may not be readily available for some based on price and quantity - but these are a nice alternative.

John Sharp said...

I need to look for these locally. Looks good for sure. 👍

defgav said...

Pretty cool. I wouldn't mind picking up some of these someday.

Anonymous said...

People collect things they don't like? Probably how hoarding starts.

Jongudmund said...

These would be useful for me. Although there are lots of other "minis" that won't fit in them.

Jeff B - Wax Pack Wonders said...

Hmm interesting. Wish they more easily accessible for purchase.

Fuji said...

sumomenkoman - next time you come up, remind me and i'll give you a pack to try them out

nick vossbrink - if i was showing off an entire set, i definitely would use the 20-pocket pages for sure. i hope they make them eventually for the 75t minis and 51b cards too

elliptical man - yeah... they are a bit pricey. i'll have to see how much my lcs sells them for. without shipping, they might be more reasonable

the lost collector - gavin is definitely creative. he comes up with all kinds of great ideas

night owl - i like 20 pocket pages if i'm building a mini set. but for my player pc's, i typically organize them by year, so there usually isn't 20 tobacco sized cards of gwynn. well... until recently

jon - yeah, the shipping price is not cool. maybe my lcs has these at a reasonable price

johnnys trading spot - i use the tobacco card top loaders and penny sleeves for my vintage t206 cards

crazie joe - looks like most collectors prefer the 20 pocket pages as well.

john sharp - i'm planning on looking to see if my lcs carries them the next time i go there. can't remember ever coming across them at a card show.

defgav - if i ever make my way back to portland and we meet up, i'll bring you a pack

anonymous - some people don't like odd sized cards, but want to collect any card of their favorite player they can get their hands on.

jongudmund - yeah, it'd be cool if they created them for 75t minis and vintage bowmans too

jeff b - if your lcs carries bcw products, you might be able to ask them to order some.

GCA said...

I've got a whole box of 15-pocket pages. Where you guys get 20?