General Forum

Something I was wondering about today after seeing some supplies for sale at Target.  What ever happened to the old style card portfolios that had 4 or 9 pocket pages with the vinyl/carboard type cover?  Those would lay flat and have a decent cover for protecting the cards inside. The only ones I usually see now are the ones with the floppy covers and the elastic band.  Most of them are also side loading types for gaming cards.

BCW doesn't seem to sell any of those old types of portoflios.  Oddly enough they do still have 1 for sale like that with pages for currency inside.

I know Ultra Pro still makes those types, but I find it unfortunate that you can't buy them directly from them on their website.  It just links you to Amazon.  They also just say "Collectors Album" on them instead of the ones they used to make that had baseball, basketball etc on the cover.

Any idea why these are no longer readily available or if there are any alternatives I might like that are similar?  

I have all my cards in boxes anyways but it would be nice to have some of those portfolios for showcasing cards.  

You mean 3-ring binders?  Or something different?

I'm guessing something more like these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-1989-CMC-20-Card-Set-with-Record-MLB-Baseball-New-York-Yankees/362571316738 where the 4 page sheets are bound as part of the portfolio.

No idea why they aren't readily available these days, but the quality of sheets in them seemed lacking.

Yup those are exactly the type.

Gotcha. I forgot about those. Hoops made them with teams logos one year.  I had a Detroit Pistons one. I hate the Detroit Pistons.

I have like four that hold 9-pocket pages and a smaller one. I just use them to transport cards on my trips, but don't store cards in them long term. They came in a lot I purchased a while back and that was the first I'd ever seen them.

My local Target had some for sale last time I was there, in January. 

I still have mine somewhere. Seems like it was the Union 76 gas station that gave those out.

I have a bunch, I use them for small collections.

Shannon, I knew exactly what you were talking about. But those just didn't stand the test of time when I could easily acquire them. I have ONE left. It a four-card page portfolio from Line Drive for team sets. I've had me Willie Stargell Donruss Puzzle (and all dups) in it for a couple of decades now. But the outside of the binding area has a few layers of masking tape on it now just to hold it together. None of that type of "albums" lasted very long for me, so I stopped bothering with them long ago. But you are right, I can't remember the last time I saw one of those in a store.