Collection – My Aesthetic Insanity

My SNSD photocards, postcards, A4 and photosets.

I’ve been planning to write a blog about this even before but never really had a time to do it. It all started when one mutual in twitter asked how to store posters that you will not paste on the wall then followed by a trigering thread in which photocards were pasted on the WALL (WHY!). The desire heighten when one of my friend tweeted that she is giving away her old card holders and someone commenting that she does not know such sleeves and holders exist.

With the Hallyu Wave still a trend, I noticed that a lot of fans have little to no idea on how to store and protect the inclusions of the album they buy. I also noticed that a lot of fans could still not gasp the world of collecting merchandise of their biases.

For others it maybe just a piece of papers inside the album but for us collectors, we value it so much. Others would probably question, why is the card more expensive than the album when sold pre-loved? That is because it is the card you collect and not the album. Cards or inclusions come in random that it forces you to buy multiple copies just to secure your bias card. There are other ways like trading it but if your bias is the most popular one then it will be hard to trade. Also, the challenge of finding how many are you going to collect in that certain group. You can just also buy it but that would cost so much money sometimes especially if your bias is the face of the group.

Since photocards or album inclusions cost more money than the actual album, we collectors also spend money just to protect them. There are cards that the value increases as time goes by and there are just some that stays the same. Rarity and exclusiveness is something you might consider when you find photocards and all.

So here are some tips on how you can protect or keep your cards/album inclusions. We will be talking about the different types of protective sleeves and the likes.

But before that you have to be familiar with these terms, they will be your basis when you buy stuff for your collections:

Small Size Cards – these are the usual size of the photocards we see inside the album. They are also called album photocards but there are some cards that are bigger than the usual. They are the same size as Yugi Oh cards.

Chungha’s Hands on Me photocards are example of small size photocards.

Standard Size Cards – these are the cards bigger than the album photocards. Example would be the Starcards or profile cards from PRISTIN‘s Hi Pristin album and Weki Meki‘s WEME album. They are the same size as Magic Cards.

PRISTIN HI Pristin Profile Cards are example of Standard Size Photocards.

Now, let me tell you the things you need to protect those precious inserts.

1. THE SHELL

As a collector, having one is a must as this is where you keep all you cards. This is basically the house of your cards. You probably want to ask why you shouldn’t leave it inside the album where it’s usually hidden. Thing there is photocards are sometimes more glossy than the albums, overtime the prints on the cards will stick on the album page. Also, if not properly placed there is a high chance that the card will be damage or dented and again, photocards is what makes the album expensive. It is the driving force for the customers to buy more albums.

There are different kinds of binder but we will be talking about the ones that are commonly used.

4 Pockets Trading Album
It’s the very first binder I owned back in 2012. The growing number of albums forced me to buy a more suitable home for my cards since I really don’t like my cards scattering around. This card holder can fit small to standard size type of photocards. It’s called 4 Pockets cause it fits 4 cards in one page. It’s very handy but the downside of this is you can’t more pages to fill if in any case you used all pages.
Where to buy: Comic Alley, Hobbies and Landies and Cards/gaming Shop (Ludo, Courtside, Neutral Grounds)
9 Pockets Trading Album
It is basically the bigger version of the 4 Pocket Trading Album, it fits 9 cards on one page perfect for groups like SNSD (before the Jessica incident), Twice, Gugudan, DIA (before Eunjin incident), and groups with 9 members. This however frustrates those with 10 members like PRISTIN, it just kills your OCD but you can just go ahead and give your bias her own page like what I do.

Where to buy: Comic Alley, Hobbies and Landies, Cards/gaming Shop (Ludo, Courtside, Neutral Grounds)
3 Ring Binder
This is a must-have if your photocard collection is growing and you are a multi-fandom like me. They are basically the binder you could buy from stationery shops or bookstores. There are a lot of versions but what collectors usually use is the 3-ring ones because the fillers that will be used for these have 3 holes most of the time.Where to buy: National Bookstore, Fully Booked, Office Warehouse or any stationary shop or bookstores.There are also photocard binders released by different artists. One of which is for SM artists which fit 2 cards per page,
Lovelyz and TWICE released 9 pocket binders as well.

Now let’s talk about the things you would need together with your 3-ring binder. This really depends on the collector themselves, so this will be based on how I do it.

2. THE CORE

Pocket Sleeves
There are different kinds of pocket sleeves. These are the fillers you use to actually store your cards. I only use 2 brands: Ultra Pro and BCW. I use the platinum series for Ultra Pro that is acid-free and has no PVC, same with BCW.
9 Pocket Photo Page Sleeves/Filler
The most common type of sleeves that you will be able to find in the market. This would fit small and standard size-types of photocards.

Where to buy: Shopee

4 Pockets Photo page Sleeves/Filler
This fits bigger size cards like Gugudan’s Time Table cards from Act 1: Little Mermaid album and DIA’s Tarot Cards from Spell album. This is also the one I use for my PRISTIN’s SCHXXL OUT Postcards. This could also be used for AKB48‘s Photosets.
Where to buy: Shopee
3 Pockets Photo Page Sleeves/Filler
This holds much bigger cards like postcards of the common size.
Where to buy: Shopee
3 Pockets Currency Page Sleeve/Filler
These are the perfect sleeves for your bookmarks such as I.O.I’s Chrysalis bookmarks and GFRIEND‘s Season Greetings Bookmarks.
2 Pockets Photo Page Sleeves/Filler
This sleeve is commonly used for inclusions such as postcards.
Where to buy: Shopee
1 Pocket pages
For much bigger size types of cards, I use clear book fillers. I use the Seagull brand as they are thicker and of course, acid-free but Ultra Pro has this kind of sleeves too. This is perfect for your A4-sized paper collections.

3. THE PROTECTORS

Deck Protector Cover/Sleeves
The last from the 3 that you would actually need. Like mentioned, the card is what makes the collector buy more albums. Also, there are just cards so expensive that you might want to protect. Great example would be those rare cards that SNSD released before. Imagine a “piece card” that cost almost a thousand USD. These are the deck protector sleeves that I use, I do three-sleeving:

Pro-fit inner sleeves – small outer sleeves – standard outer sleeves
Pro-fit inner small deck protector sleeve
This is the first layer sleeve that I put in my cards. They are usually thinner and fit the cards perfectly. Size is 60 mm x 87 mm.
Outer small deck protector sleeve
Similar to the pro-fit ones but this is used after the inner sleeves. A bit bigger than the pro-fit with the size of 62 mm x 89 mm.

Where to buy: Shopee
Pro-fit inner standard deck protector sleeve
I use this as the third layer for my cards. The usual size is 64mm x 89mm, perfect for I.O.I‘s Miss Me and Whatta Man cards. This is also the sleeve I use for my profile cards like Pristin’s Hi! Pristin and Weki Meki’s WEME album.
Outer standard deck protector sleeve
Size is bigger than the profit ones and is commonly used as an outer layer. Size is 66mm x 91 mm. I use this as the second layer for the profile cards. For cards bigger than this I usually make the protector myself by buying a bigger protector sleeve or using resealable sleeves. Now there are cards or maybe signed cards that you want to protect with all your might. There are several holders you can use for this like the Mini-snap card holder that I use for my I.O.I Nayoung Taxi card that is extremely rare and exclusive.