BCW Folio Solutions for Card Playsets

Posted on April 24, 2015 by blogbcwsupplies

In Magic: the Gathering, Pokémon, and other card games, collecting playsets of four cards is ideal for some strategies. In Magic for example, you have a deck of sixty cards (in general) and you draw seven cards in your opening hand and one more each turn thereafter. Magic rules limit your card selection to no more than four of the same card in your deck. Thus, if you have four of a certain card in your deck, a “playset”, you can maximize the likelihood the desired card will be in your hand when needed.

Organizing playsets in a binder is perfect for displaying what sets you have or showing what cards you’re needing to complete a set. Furthermore, when forming a deck with a desired tactic, folios make it easy to see your options and selecting your deck. BCW offers three solutions for collecting cards in playsets.

BCW 4-Pocket Page Pro-Folios with Magic cards

BCW 4-Pocket Pro-Folios

BCW 4-Pocket Pro-Folios provide a simple 4-up page. Twenty double-sided pages are welded into the album for holding 160 cards. The pages are acid-fee with side-loading pockets. An elastic closure is used to keep the folio closed. 4-Pocket Pro-Folios are available in five colors.

BCW 8-Pocket Page Pro-Folio LX Black with Magic cards

BCW 8-Pocket Pro-Folio LX Black

The BCW 8-Pocket Page Pro-Folio LX is available with a black leatherette cover and an elastic closure. It’s the same exterior size as our 9-Pocket Page Pro-Folio LX, however the cards are oriented the other direction with 8 pockets per page which is conducive to collecting sets of four. The folio contains twenty double-sided pages to for holding 320 cards.

BCW 12-Pocket Page Z-Folio LX with cards

BCW 12-Pocket Z-Folio LX

The BCW 12-Pocket Page Z-Folio LX has twenty double-sided pages for holding 480 cards. The pages are acid-free with side-loading pockets. The leatherette covers are available in five colors. A durable zipper ensures cards will be kept safe.

Do Sleeved Cards Fit in 9-Pocket Pages?

Posted on March 30, 2015 by blogbcwsupplies

On Twitter, RipkenFan asked, “Does any 1 put their cards in penny sleeves & then in pocket pages? What combo of brands? I cannot get a good fit.”

Walter Payton cards in BCW card sleeves and 9-Pocket Top-Loading Pages

Standard BCW sleeves (1-SSLV), nicknamed penny sleeves, fit in the pockets of BCW’s 9-Pocket Top-Loading Pages (1-PRO9T-20, 1-PRO9T-100), our most common page. However, the sleeved cards fit tight in the center column which may cause the sleeve to fold or bunch-up slightly.

Jerry Rice cards in BCW card sleeves and 9-Pocket Side-Loading pages

If you want to sleeve your cards and place them in a page, BCW 9-Pocket Side-Loading Pages are recommended (1-PRO9S-20). The side-loading pages offer a little more room for the sleeved cards compared to the top-loading page.

As both of these protective pages are made from acid-free polypropylene, the pages are archival quality. Placing the cards in sleeves before inserting into the pages is a matter of preference, buy it’s a smart idea to keep fingerprints off the cards while handling and to make sure you don’t scratch the card when inserting or removing cards from pages.

What’s Your Favorite Gatefold Album?

Posted on January 9, 2015 by blogbcwsupplies

Record covers for 33 RPMs provide a tangible, artistic element to the album that digital music cannot emulate. Gatefold albums, which unfold into two panels, provide an even larger canvas for the band to present its style. Gatefolds were popular starting in the late 1950s and common until the CD revolution in the 1980s.

Gatefold covers were used for double LPs as each cover can hold a record. Therefore concert albums regularly used a gatefold design to allow for the needed double LPs of long recordings. Yet gatefolds were often single albums and the extra cover panel was simply used to print lyrics, band photos and artwork.

Elton John A Single Man, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon

Some notable gatefold albums include The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s, Bob Dylan Blonde On Blonde, Led Zeppelin IV, Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon, Miles Davis Bitches Brew, U2 The Joshua Tree, and Rush 2112.

Soundtracks Gatefold Double LPs: Superman The Movie, Star Wars, Fame, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Soundtrack Gatefold Double LPs: Superman The Movie, Star Wars, Fame, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Gatefold albums for plays and movie soundtracks were common to accommodate the needed double LPs. These provided lots of space for movie stills and helped create the mood of the movie while listening.

Santana Lotus recorded live in Osaka in 1973 and Walt Disney’s Fantasia from 1957 (1940 movie)

Other albums went beyond simply opening up into two panels. The above Fantasia album had a book format with a page spread for each song of the classic soundtrack. The above Santana Lotus concert recording expanded from a gatefold to reveal multiple artistic panels.

BCW Supplies offers numerous solutions to protect, store and display records. As some collectors prefer to present gatefold albums in an open position, we have added Album Sleeves for Open Gatefolds and Toploading Holders for Open Gatefolds. If collectors prefer to store gatefolds in the traditional closed format, BCW has 7mm Wide Toploading Record Holders that accommodate this size. See all of BCW’s music supplies for 33s, 45s and CDs.

What gatefold albums are iconic to you? Share your favorites in the comments below.

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