MTG: Card Binder storage

Question

I'm sorting and storing all of my rares and mythics into looseleaf binder pages (the UltraPro platinum 9card) and slapping them into regular office binders. Thing is, I've noticed that the sheets kind of sag if I store the binder upright, if that makes since. Like the bottom ring hole is nice and close the the spine, but the top ring hole (because of the weight of the rest of page) kinda sags away from the spine of the binder, making the whole page crooked? If that makes sense? I'm just wondering if this is ok for storing safely or if the sagging can damage the cards next to the spine.

Answer 1

From my experience, the UltraPro 9-Pocket Platinum Pages are some of the sturdier pages out there and therefore will be more resistant from the start to the kind of wear you're describing. You don't have to worry about your cards much, though, as the pages or binders will be damaged before the cards will.

They work well and last long if you use them with keeping the following things in mind:

• Use a proper binder with three rings (or, as many rings as your pages demand).
  This will give your pages the proper stiffness in order to never damage your cards, since the pages will be held as straight as possible. Those binders are not easy to come by where I live, especially since it's tempting to buy them at office supply stores instead of from UltraPro directly for cost reasons, but they're certainly worth it compared to using four-ring pages in two-ring binders, or even punching new holes in these yourself.
• Don't expose the binder to much stress - don't carry it around as a trade binder.
  The most damage you'll get will be from browsing, moving or yanking your binder, as that's when the most force is applied to the pages. That's why these don't make for excellent trade binder solutions. There's a reason for binders made especially for carrying cards around not using rings to hold their pages. However even then, your cards won't likely get damaged before the pages.
• Fill the whole page, starting from the inner side.
  The more pockets you fill, the stiffer the page will get on it's own, making it less likely to end up with accidentally folded page. For those pages you can't find enough cards for, make sure to start from the inner end of the page - it's fine to start from the top, though.
• Use little more than two cards per pocket.
  You always end up with multiple copies of even rares or mythics, and the pockets will easily let you put more cards in the pockets than the two I'm suggesting. However, the weight factor will contribute to how much the topmost hole will be stressed over time.

Most of that is rather self-explanatory or at the very least sounds obvious once you read it. There really isn't much you can do particularily wrong, since those products are made exactly for this purpose.

As mentioned in the comments, storing the folders hanging from the fold, or standing them on the opposite side (both of which likely would require a special kind of stand) will distribute the weight more evenly. Of course the most safe, yet least convenient way is to just lay them on their back, not putting strain on anything - if you only have a single or a couple of binders, this is feasible and will leave you with folders in pristine conditions. As long as they're reasonably full, you can easily place multiple binders on top of each other this way.