A lot of people know of the importance of protecting cards. While they are not the most protective options available, penny sleeves and card binders are definitely two of the most affordable options.
Placing your trading cards in a paged binder is certainly not enough protection on its own. This leaves the question, do penny sleeves fit in binders?
Generally speaking, penny sleeves will fit into binders It may be a bit of a squeeze with some brands, but it certainly can work.
What Are Penny Sleeves?
If you do not know what penny sleeves are, then they are the cheapest sleeves that money can buy. In fact, the reason they are called ‘penny sleeves’ is because they often cost less than a penny each to buy.
They do not offer a huge amount of protection to the cards that are contained within, but they help to keep dust off of the front of the card. They are often used when your cards need a small amount of protection but you don’t really want to go ‘all-out’ on purchasing decent sleeves simply because the card isn’t worth it.
Do Penny Sleeves Fit in Binders?
They should do. However, it is going to be somewhat of a tight squeeze. This is because binders have been designed to hold trading cards as snugly as possible, so even the smallest amount of additional material will make the fit a little bit too tight.
In our experience, Ultra-Pro penny sleeves and Ultra-Pro binder pages tend to be the best combination. They always seem to fit, assuming that you are using standard-sized trading cards. This is because Ultra-Pro knows just how important it is to double sleeve things in order to keep them in a brilliant condition! Once you start to mix and match brands, it becomes tougher to predict what will and what won’t work.
Should You Use Penny Sleeves in Binders?
If you use them properly. If you use the wrong penny sleeves, or you try to force them into the binder pages, then don’t use penny sleeves. You will end up bending the trading card, or at the very least fraying the edges.
We recommend using these high quality penny sleeves by Ultra PRO. Ultra PRO is the biggest name when it comes to collectible card accessories, and for good reason. They have a great track record and they are a brand you can trust when it comes to keeping your most valuable cards protected.
If you can put the penny sleeve into the binder properly, then you will get double the amount of protection from the card. It also means that the card will not be damaged by constantly rubbing against the front of the binder page, which can be quite a problem.
We wouldn’t really recommend using penny sleeves in binders if the cards are cheap. They are not going to provide that much additional protection. It may prevent a small amount of wear to the front of the card, but that is it. If the card is cheap as it is, then just put them in the binder or just put them in the penny sleeves. You do not need that additional protection!
How Do You Put Penny Sleeves Into a Binder Safely?
Start by sliding the cards gently into the penny sleeves. Now, we know that there are some people that will double up the number of cards that they put in the penny sleeves.
This works well with the cheaper cards, and we have even recommended that you do that on this site. However, when you are putting the cards into binders, do not do this. There won’t be enough space and you are making a tighter fit even tighter.
Once the card is securely inside the penny sleeve, you can slide it gently into the binder. Since it is going to be a bit of a tight squeeze, you will encounter a small amount of resistance.
It is important that you do not push too hard here. If you do, then you either run the risk of damaging the card or breaking the card sleeve, neither of which is going to be all that good!
If the card doesn’t seem to be sliding in at all, then you may have to adjust the angle of it. Once again, you have to remember that it is going to be a tight squeeze. This means that if the card is moved even a small amount, it is probably not going to go in!
If the card doesn’t look like it is going in at all, then give up. It isn’t worth risking damage to the card. Double sleeving in a binder doesn’t carry that much in the way of additional benefits.
How Do You Remove Penny Sleeves From the Binder Safely?
This is where you may run into a few extra issues. Removing penny sleeves from a binder is hard. At least if you have a decent binder. This means that you probably won’t want to be doing it all that often.
The best method that we have found is to put our fingertips ever so slightly into the card pocket and gently slide the card out. Do not wiggle it out.
It is probably going to take a bit of time to do this but, as before, if you go too quickly then you will damage the card.
Final Thoughts
Penny sleeves are considered to be the cheapest way to protect a card. Doubling up by putting a sleeved card inside of a binder can make for some awesome protection if you are on a budget.
However, we do not recommend using penny sleeves as your primary source of card protection. There are much better options out there such as top loaders and more high quality card sleeves.
Although these other options may cost more money, they will indeed protect your cards much more efficiently than penny sleeves alone.