By Matt Gilman of Cards Over Coffee
If you see this picture and think, ugh, this means you have the winter blues. Most of us get the winter blues. I know I do. However, I am here to tell you that there is a way to beat the winter blues and keep yourself busy in the hobby during the long months of winter. This is what I do to keep myself distracted from the white stuff and more focused on the card stuff.
Continue readingBCW offers a wide variety of boxes to store your comic books, gaming cards, sports cards, card holders, records, and other media such as video games and dvds. If you have never folded one of these boxes on your own, the first time you fold them can be somewhat confusing. Since there may be some question about the proper way to fold these boxes, we have created videos for each one of our boxes, which includes information about what the boxes store and how to fold them. If you are having trouble folding these boxes or aren’t sure which box you need, check out these videos:
Trading Card Boxes
100 Count Storage Box (1-BX-100)
Fantasy Flight introduced KeyForge before the 2018 Gen Con, and officially launched this game in November. Designed by Richard Garfield, of Magic: The Gathering fame, KeyForge has been popular with CCG gamers. It has an interesting format that makes each player’s deck unique, so no two games will ever be the same.
If you want to keep your cards and tokens in new condition, BCW offers card accessories that are great for KeyForge.
Each KeyForge deck contains 37 cards. These cards are about one millimeter taller than standard gaming cards (MTG or Pokémon), so we recommend using our Elite2 Deck Guards. BCW’s Elite2 sleeves are two millimeters taller than our standard Deck Guards, ensuring there’s a safe border around all of your KeyForge cards.
We also recommend you get one pack of Clear Deck Guards, as these sleeves are clear on both layers. A few of the KeyForge cards have important information on both sides, hence the need for the clear sleeves. BCW Clear Deck Guards are made from 4 mil thick acid-free panels, much thicker material than our standard clear sleeves (nicknamed penny sleeves).
While BCW offers several sized of deck cases, the Deck Vault 80 is a great size for KeyForge. The card tray will hold two sleeved decks plus extra sleeves. The Deck Locker has an extra tray that you can use to hold the counters and tokens. If you prefer a larger deck case to hold more cards and tokens, try a Deck Vault 100 or Deck Vault 200.
To store comic books and keep them safe, most collectors place each comic in an archival-safe bag along with a firm backing board to support the comic and protect the edges. The collection is then placed in a “short box”, holding about 150 bagged and boarded comics.
Storing comics has always had a challenge keeping the comics upright when the box is not full. If the is box is completely full, there’s no problem as the comics naturally keep themselves upright with the ends of the box supporting them. However, if the box is only partially full, the comics can topple over like a row of books without a bookend. Collectors can easily solve this problem by placing some comics sideways in the box or using another object as a bookend inside the box. Nonetheless, this issue has always been annoying to collectors.
The BCW Comic Book Bin solves this problem by keeping a partial collection upright at all times. The Bin is made from molded polypropylene panels that are snapped together (see the the second video below). This manufacturing process allows the Bin to have several features not possible with the traditional cardboard short comic box. The Bin uses special Comic Bin Partitions that fit into evenly spaced notches. The Comic Book Bin comes with one Partition. This Partition is movable, so you can use it as a bookend to keep a small collection of comics upright. As your collection grows, you can shift the Partition to the next slot, and so on, until your Comic Book Bin is full. If you want to fill all of the available slots with a Partition, packs of 3 extra Partitions can be purchased separately.
While you may find the Comic Book Bin assembled at your local comic shop, they are normally unassembled, coming in five panels and one partition. The panels snap together to make a sturdy bin. Please review the video below to see the simplest sequence to assemble the Bin.
The Comic Book Bin was designed to hold Current and Silver Age comic books in bags and boards. This includes Current and Silver BCW Archivals (Mylar bags) that are wider than normal polypropylene comic bags. The Bin is also large enough to hold Current or Silver Comic Book Toploaders. BCW Comic Book Dividers also fit under the lid.
Golden Age comics and graded comic books are too large for the Comic Book Bin. While BCW is considering making a Graded Comic Bin, our cardboard Graded Comic Boxes are our best solution for CGC/CBCS slabs at this time. We are also considering a Long Comic Book Bin, but at this time our cardboard Long Comic Boxes or corrugated plastic Long Comic Book Boxes are our best options. For magazines or Golden Age comics, our cardboard Magazine Box is BCW’s best storage solution. If you want to lobby for other products, or suggest product improvements, please comment below. We’re listening!
BCW offers numerous sizes of boxes to store collectible trading cards. The boxes are named by numbers, implying they can store that many cards. An example is the BCW 930 Count Box – its title implies it holds 930 cards, however the description claims it holds 825 cards. So why do BCW box names not match what the boxes actually hold? Is there a system to help collectors understand the box naming system vs. the actual box quantity amount?
This is a frequently asked question at BCW Supplies. To understand the answer, a brief history lesson in baseball card collecting is needed. Between 1956 and 1981, Topps was the only manufacturer of baseball cards and they used an 18 point card stock. In 1981, the MLB added 2 more licensees which were Donruss and Fleer. By 1989, The Upper Deck Company, Score, and other brands started emerging. With competition came innovation and card companies started making cards with a little heavier card stock and UV coating which made them a couple of points thicker. One manufacturer of football cards, Action Packed, even started embossing their cards. Then, the card manufacturers started making thicker “premium brands” of trading cards and adding pieces of memorabilia to some of the special cards, usually referred to as inserts.
So, the answer is that, for the period between 1956 and 1989, cards were approximately 18 points thick (18/1000th of an inch) and the boxes were originally designed for these cards. As your cards might be thinner or thicker than 18 points, the card box will hold more or less depending on your situation.
The bottom of most BCW boxes describes their size.
The 1000 Count TCG Card Storage Box is sized to hold 1000 game cards, such as Magic: The Gathering (MTG), Pokémon, and KeyForge. These gaming cards on a pressed, glossy paper that’s thinner than traditional sports cards. A MTG card is about 11 points thick (11/1000th of an inch), while a 1980’s Topps baseball card is about 18 points thick (18/1000th of an inch). BCW card boxes have been named for the cards they were designed to hold. So the 1000 Ct. TCG Box is designed to hold 1000 gaming cards, while the 800 Ct. Box will hold about 800 traditional sports cards. This explains why (in the picture below) the 1000 Ct. Box, designed for the thinner game cards, is actually smaller than the 800 and 930 Ct. Boxes, that were designed for the thicker sports cards.
See all of the BCW Trading Card Boxes. Please refer to the product description to ensure the box you need will protect all of the cards you’re storing.
The bottom of the 930 ct., 800 ct., and 1000 ct. TCG Card Boxes
