SUPPLIES YOU MUST NEVER, NEVER, EVER USE IN THE GRADING PROCESS

Many people write articles and create videos about how to clean cards and prepare them for grading. Some of these are useful, but some offer terrible advice. Even worse, some grading companies and their resellers have given little thought to the instructions they give to their users, and as a result they give packaging advice that will damage your cards on the way to grading. It’s important that you know what to do with your cards, and what not to do. This post is about the latter.

Raw cards are fragile. Even modern paper cards incur damage easily, and modern chrome cards can get scratched up like your old CDs. So, when you’re handling your cards in preparation for the grading process – cleaning them, getting them ready to ship, etc. – you have to be careful not to add new damage to your cards. Even tiny, barely-visible issues can be detected in grading. To that end, here are things that will cause damage that you should never use:

· Top loaders – These open-top holders, often deceptively referred to as “hard plastic holders,” don’t provide much protection in shipping. Cards can slide around and incur damage, so most grading companies will reject cards submitted in top loaders.

· Acrylic screw-down holders – These press-down holders were all the rage back in the 1980s, but apart from being heavy and expensive to ship, over time they can cause cards to press out thinner and larger than the original card size. Because grading companies disqualify cards with abnormal sizes, submitting cards in the offending holder type is almost 100% certain to get your cards rejected.

· Any other holder besides a Card Saver – Snap-together holders, one-touch magnetic holders, and so many others are probably just fine if they’re sitting in your collection. However, once you submit your cards for grading, you need to (1) protect the card, and (2) comply with the grading company’s rules. Almost all companies require Card Savers, and even the ones that don’t require them accept them. Don’t use anything else.

· Rubber bands – Put simply, these will damage your cards. I don’t care if you use them on outer cardboard slabs or whatever – rubber bands exert uneven pressure, they shift during transport, and they can often result in Card Savers being bent or pressed awkwardly. Why take this risk, for no benefit? Use shipping tape to secure your interior card packages, following the procedure outlined below.

· Packing peanuts – Don’t be an asshole. Anyone who opens your box containing packing peanuts is predisposed to hating you. Why start that way with someone who’s about to grade your cards? Packing peanuts are messy, static-charged, and difficult to clean up. Plus they’re not nearly as reusable as good bubble wrap. Use bubble wrap not just to package your cards, but to fill empty space in your shipping boxes.

· Scotch “magic” tape – Let’s be clear – Scotch brand makes many different tape products. The one that you’d see in your office or in your kid’s classroom is NOT what you use to package cards or seal shipping boxes. This so-called “magic” tape is both not very sticky and somehow difficult to remove. Instead, always use Scotch-brand “Heavy Duty Shipping” tape – the wide, strong stuff that comes in big rolls.

· Paper towels, newspaper, plastic shopping bags – Seriously, WTF is wrong with people? To save a dollar’s worth of bubble wrap, many people wrap their Card Savers in micro-thin paper or plastic products before shipping. STOP! These products provide no cushioning, and they’re full of dust and particles that will stick to the card package (and maybe find a way onto your cards via the hands of a receiving clerk or a grader). Use ONLY bubble wrap to secure card packages, and to fill empty spaces in shipping boxes.

An important final point: I do not advocate the use of cleaning products on cards. There is some debate on this within the hobby, as there are quite a few people out there who run businesses offering to clean or fix defects from your cards, frequently (in the case of chrome cards) using solvents from the automotive industry and/or other tactics that would be considered alteration by any grading company. Can they fool graders sometimes? I assume so, or they wouldn’t have viable businesses. They will tell you that their methods are perfectly safe and ethical; I will not do the same. In my view, if you can’t remove something from a card by wiping it down with a microfiber cloth (the way you’d remove fingerprints – more on this topic in another post), then whatever it is now counts as part of the card.