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If it doesn't fit ...


Hey! How about that! I was told to "give it a rest" in the last post! Yay me! That's got to be worth some blogging points doesn't it? Do I get a certificate? I mean, how do you know if this blog thing is even on unless you're pissing someone off!

Heh.

Serves me right for going into a subject that I said I wasn't going to address again. But then I got into an ornery mood for a variety of unrelated reasons, and it just all came out. You've got to love projection. Or displacement. Or whatever the term is.

I could continue to project, and say this is my own damn blog and I write it for my own damn amusement and if you don't like it then read something else, and that I wasn't talking to you anyway. But that would be rude and counterproductive. So instead, I'll just write about the Topps Giveaway site some more.

You know one other thing that I like so gosh darn much about that ...

Just kidding.

Instead of going into something divisive (which happens to be just about everything I encounter lately -- and I'M the one who gets told to lighten up), I'll be inclusive and mention something every collector has encountered if they have been collecting cards from the last two years.

What to do with the manufactured patch card.

You know my general feelings about these cards. I don't like them. I think they're silly and not worth the price of a blaster. But instead of just repeating myself and risking back-to-back "give it a rests," I'll move on to what I want to address: how to store these things.

I've accumulated maybe around a dozen manupatcharoos, and when I think about it, I have no idea what to do with them.

To illustrate that, here is what I am doing almost unconsciously:

I am a creature of habit. During my early collecting days, I discovered binders and pages. I have stored my cards in this fashion since I was an early teenager. It's been an effective way to store cards for decades. That is until cards came along that were thicker than a slice of bread.

So, what do I do? I stuff them into a page meant to store a card 1/8th the thickness of one of those manupatches. It stretches out the page. and because I'm witless and cheap and I store two cards in one pocket, it often affects the card behind it.

Now there are a couple of ways to avoid this if I can just snap out of the cycle that I've been in for the last 30 years. I could put all the patch cards by themselves in one or two pages. They wouldn't be near all the regular cards and they really should be banished, because they aren't actually "cards." But they'd still be warping the pockets of the pages.

Or, I could buy some of those super thick top loaders that house patch cards. But I have this mental block that top loaders are only for cards I value, and I really don't value patch cards, too much, certainly not enough to go out of my way to buy special top loaders, or to store them where I store top loader cards.

Or I could give them to the dog to chew on, because he's got a thing about stitched items.

So ...

I'm not asking you to solve my problem. Obviously, I've got too many hang-ups for you to do that.

Instead, I'm asking, what do you with your patch cards? Where and how do you store them?

And don't say, "in the garbage can," because I might actually follow your advice.

Not that I don't appreciate every last manupatch card that anyone has sent me. Every last one. Every. Last. One. Every ... last ...

Yeah, I know. Give it a rest.

I swear it's going to be trade posts from here on out.

Comments

Nachos Grande said…
Manupatches aren't nearly as annoying for me since there is usually only one Red (if that) in a given manu-set. I also store all my cards in binders, so the Reds manu-patch goes in either the top or bottom center pocket. That way, I can still use the other six pockets for something (usually to catch the overflow since Topps insists on doing 10 card insert sets even though pages only hold 9 cards)...
James said…
I agree with you on the stupid manufactured patches. I also hate all the stupid inserts. What happened to just doing good cards? I guess it is no wonder that I am abandoning all new cards and going only with pre-1976 cards.

I also store my cards in sheets. Makes it easier to find what I am looking for or to just pull out and show friends.
Greg Zakwin said…
Pages in the appropriate binder.

You could always use jewel cases.
Greg Zakwin said…
By the way, nice original title.
Ryan G said…
You could store them all in my mailbox! Hahaha!

I don't value manupatches any higher than any other insert card, so they usually just end up in a sleeve in a box with the rest of my cards. If I'm putting together a set (I'm foolish enough to be trying that with a couple manupatch sets) it ends up in a binder, but I hate that for all the same reasons you mentioned.
Matt Pederson said…
I go with top-loaders for mine. I actually like them. What I hate as much as you hate those cards, is the black-bordered/vintage-back cards that you get two packs of in said blasters. THOSE I have no use for. I'd much rather have those two packs be of something I can use.
Matt Runyon said…
I like the chew toys idea
Paul Hadsall said…
They go in top loaders, but if I don't actually like them I try to move them out as quickly as I can.
AdamE said…
I throw them in a penny sleeve and store them in my monster box of "Red Sox team sets that are to incomplete to deem worthy of a binder yet". If at some point I get two thirds of a set of maunpatches then I will binder them but until then they are banished with things like 92 Stadium Club 1st Day Issue and 98 Pacific Aurora.
Hackenbush said…
I just have mine in penny sleeves in a box.
dayf said…
GIVE IT A REST YOU FULFILLMENT INDUSTRY SYCOPHANT NON-GIMMICK CARD LOVING RABBLEROUSING TROUBLEMAKING NATTERING NABOB OF NEGATIVITY WHOM REFERS TO HIMSELVES IN THE THIRD BIRD

Just do what I do, put all the manupatch goodie cards in different random boxes so you have no idea where they are at any given time. Out of sight, out of mind. That system seems to work for me.
night owl said…
(*Third bird currently searching for a box in which to throw said penny-sleeved manupatches*)
Community Gum said…
I don't know if they still make the pages with 4 quadrants or the ones with 6 slots, but I have a couple left over from my first stint in collecting and I put oversized cards and thicker non-numbered stuff like that in those. I save toploaders for relics, autos and numbered /99 or less.

Personally, I hope you don't give it a rest. I love the passion and fire. I also love debating and arguing sometimes, if that tells you anything.
--Jon
SpastikMooss said…
lolz @ Dayf.

Card Thickness KILLS me. I have my Seneca Wallace binder all set up, but then a lot of the cards are so thick with jerseys or manu patches (he only has two so far so those aren't much of the culprit) that every page is stretched in all sorts of crazy ways. Some I just end up top loader-ing like people here have mentioned, but then it doesn't look nice and complete in the binder where it belongs! Ahhhhh!
Anonymous said…
You're just a toadie for the industry. Except when you're not. But I do think there are excellent cards out there; we need more of them in the base set. I mean, if Chris Bando had a zillion cards why not the backup catchers of today?
BASEBALL DAD said…
Wow,Nightbird! I've been mostly out of the loop for the last couple weeks with our son's wedding(went off yesterday without a hitch,dog and all. Yes, the bride's dog was the ring bearer !!)You have really been stirring things up.That is good ! I like it and I pretty much agree with you.I'm sending you a stack of cards to calm you down. No manupatches no thick cards !
jacobmrley said…
what dayf said ;)
You could always use 8-pocket pages for them. Don't have any? Let me know and I can fix that in a big hurry (and a trip to the PO)
madding said…
I guess I missed out on Ripoffgate - though it's kind of funny that something that's basically considered a bonus. Me and my 1975 Steve Renko will have to ponder this.

I have so few patch cards that I haven't really had a storage dilemma. I use the extra thick top loaders and have always had something that fit thanks to someone using one as packing material or whatever.
Anthony Hughes said…
hey Night Owl - here's an old 'story' my dad used to tell. I mean, he told it like a joke, though it isn't really a joke, but here goes... I think it sounds like what you're feeling here...


A guy goes to a shrink.
Shrink shows him a series of Rorschach inkblots.
For each one, the reply to "what do you see?" is the same, something to do with 2 people having intercourse.
At the end of the test, the psychologist tells the patient, "I know what your problem is - you are thinking about sex too much."
The patient becomes irate and replies, "Me? You're the one with all the dirty pictures!"
Eric L said…
I recommend everyone send their unloved and uncared for manupatch cards to the manupatch retirement center located at http://manupatchesandchromescratches.blogspot.com/
Once they've arrived at our state-of-the-art facility, each one is given the care and attention they crave.
Two Packs A Day said…
I wish I had the capital to develop and sell 9-pocket sheets for thicker relics (from the 50point or so all the way to sweet spot thick). I know I'd be using them if those existed and could get 9 of my relics to a forward facing page.

What I do now is put them in a penny sleeve and toploader (one of three sizes for thicker cards) and put them in a plastic shoebox in two rows that go the length of the shoebox. I have about 5 shoeboxes full of cards but I would rather put them in proper fitting toploader sheets and look at them by flipping through a binder.