While flipping through my 2010 Topps binder for yesterday's post I realized again that I have got to replace many of the pages in it.
I don't know what happened to the pages in that thing. Somehow they are super brittle and they've come apart so easily it's as if they have a disease.
None of my other pages are like this. And these are Ultra Pro pages, which I've always known as the sturdiest and the best quality. I'd expect it from cheaper pages that I often have to buy, or are gifted to me, but not these guys.
The first few pages are in decent shape until we get to the page with numbers 127-135. You can see what I've called "stripping" or "shredding" above the Reid Gorecki card.
That type of thing continues for a few pages as if the disease has spread from the pages closest to each other. The next page:
After a few pages like that, the symptoms clear up for several clean pages. But it's not over yet. There is another grouping of crumbling pages ahead, and in even worse shape.
The top of the pages is where the shredding is most prominent. The pages seem really sensitive to handling. Here is another example on the left side (remember, I double-bag most of my pages).
Later in the set is when the individual pockets come apart. I've had lots of experience with this and double-bagging probably helps encourage it, but the vast majority of the pages in my collection hold up to double-bagging very well.
A couple of examples of cards trying to escape:
The back section of the binder, where the inserts and the Traded cards reside are probably the worst of all with cards shifting around with almost nothing to hold them.
I know I'm not being a responsible collector in not tending to this. I often forget about the 2010 Topps set even though I completed it (the last Topps set I completed for a five-year period). It's never been one of my favorites. So when new pages come in, they go to more pressing needs, the Dodgers binder or sets I like more.
But maybe this post will fire me up to eradicate the page disease forever. We can't have it spreading to other binders!
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