A question for people who still have their original binders;
This is a question i’m wrestling with myself. I am fortunate enough that I have all my original cards, all my original binders with cheap stickers covering them on some of the pages. Anytime I open one of the binders, I feel a big rush of nostalgia, and I have memories of where I got X card from, or why I decided to organize a page as such.
I’m just wondering y’alls processes; did you rebuild and re-organize your childhood binders. Or did you just leave them, sort of like a time capsule for nostalgia purposes?
Definitely more of a time capsule for me. I haven’t wanted to lose track of which cards were originally mine from when I was little so I try to keep them where they’re at.
Personally I sorted all of my cards by set, kept the best condition copies of my favorite sets, along with random artworks I liked and put them all into a binder. Additionally I graded the only two cards in decent enough condition. The whole lot lives a nice retirement in a safe now.
I kept the original binders, but transferred my cards to new binders and organized them into sets several years ago. I have since upgraded to Ultra Pro’s “Deck Builder’s Premium Pro-Binders.” Certain cards from my childhood (like my original Shadowless Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur) weren’t included in the binder sets.
I would include pictures of all the old stickers on those things if they weren’t kept at my parents’ home in another state! Maybe I’ll have to edit this post in half a year…
I’ve since moved all of them into new binders and integrated them into my current collection. However, at the very front of my WOTC binder are 9 cards from my childhood with my fondest memories from when I was 3 or 4. Each one holds a long vivid memory, some happy some traumatizing.
I sold my binder a LONG time ago at a yard sale while keeping my favorites. However, I still remember the classic Pokemon 4 page binder I had that had Ash and Pikachu. It was covered in cheap Pokemon stickers and the back pages were falling out because of how often I would change cards. My favorite cards were in the front (Alakazam, Scyther, Mewtwo, and Gyarados) whereas my least favorites were towards the back.
That’s awesome that you kept your binder though. I regret my decision all those years ago but am glad I kept part of it which translated to my Gyarados and my side collection.
If you find out where my old binder went can you let me know haha. Laughing off complete base set to fossil first edition complete sets. O well at least adult me is busy replacing everything I lost and going all out to get the best of every set from base to over printed current sets
Same for me!! I have my old jungle set in a crappy standard loop type blue binder with some stickers on. At one point I was thinking about upgrading some cards in the set as I had some new better condition ones. But I realized that it would not be that same childhood collection anymore so I kept it the same.
The only thing I did do was get a pre-release 1st edition aerodactyl graded that my brother gave me as a kid as I loved and looked after that one pretty well. And I got Arita to sign the kangaskhan and cubone from the jungle set but the cards went straight back in the binder. This binder will never be sold! Unless I literally can’t afford food!
If the title of this thread didnt have a characters limit, would the next part of your statement have been “can you please find them and give them to me”
I still have my only childhood binder somewhere but it’s been pretty much empty for years. None of the kids back then used soft sleeves so even the good cards had less or more wear when I decided to relocate them.
Hahaha noooo! I’ve never been a binder, or set guy in my adult years, always sealed or PSA. I just have these binders sitting and have been unsure of what to do with them. Just trying to gather some ideas on how others handled their old binders.
I removed all the cards of value to me and am in the process of getting them graded-no matter what the grade. That way, I can preserve their current condition. I ultimately plan on putting them in some sort of special display as my childhood collection. The rest of the cards I plan on transferring to a better binder than the O-ring binders I had (if only I had known better).
I still have my two childhood binders left, they are however empty at this point. Back in 2011 when I first got a renewed interest in my old cards I organized all the bulk and took out the more valuable cards from the binders and put them in toploaders.
Last year during a weekend I sat down and went through all the cards once more. This time organizing the bulk by set number and putting everything but the holos in a TCG cardboard box. My completed sets are stored in Ultra Pro leather binders.
Both of mine, along with my massive amount of other pokemon things were either lost or given away at some point in my teenage years when my parents divorced… I would buy one pack a week and open it and put any holos straight in my binders. I know I had several first edition wotc holos and a ton of holos from aquapolis.
The only card I have left from my childhood is a reverse holo azumarill from aquapolis that somehow got put in another box that I found a couple years ago I now have a decent collection that I’m very happy with but it’s not the same as having cards that you literally grew up with.
If I had my old binder from way back when, Id just preserve it as it. Most of my cards were well kept, but the memories, love, and good emotions all tied within it would prompt me to want to just have it as is so that I could do that time traveling nostalgia thing that we all love to do with our precious cards. To me, preserving memories is more valuable than the contents of said binder, but many people differ. I just know that when i did have my old cards (lost due to mental health illness and a past addiction during teens/early adulthood) I used to take them out as is and everything would shoot back to me as soon as I saw the position of the cards and how I laid them all out. Its like going to a familiar old area of a town you once hung out in and just knowing what each and every landmark in your mind held significance to you, and that feeling is one that just cant be bought or sold so being able to continue to hold that and preserve it through a childhood binder is a truly beautiful thing.
Penny sleeved and top loaded into a Pro-Index card case, inside of a Footlocker I won from Nabisco for coloring the back of a cookie box. Flattest holos you’ve ever seen
I now have a decent collection that I’m very happy with but it’s not the same as having cards that you literally grew up with.