Revisiting Challenges With 102 Cards And Request For Help On Glassines For 102 Cards

Back in 2015 I posted about some concerns with 102 cards. I seriously thought it was last year; I'm shocked to realize it's been 5 years. Rather than resurrect a 5 year old thread, I'll restate my concerns and provide the link to the old discussion.

https://www.stampcommunity.org/post...&FORUM_ID=27

Like many of you, I buy stamps much faster than I can organize them. I do keep decent records of wants vs. haves in Excel, but purchased lots are in all sorts of 102-type cards, manila stock cards, black archival stock cards, glassines, auction lots, envelopes, etc and stored in various sizes of sealable plastic containers.

This past fall I decided to buy a bunch of 102 Cards (I think 2,000) and red boxes (10). This would help me get materials from each country (I collect many) together in one place, in alphabetical order. Gradually I've moved material into these cards and gotten thousands of stamps and sets much better organized. Despite the 10 red boxes each being about 80% full, this project is certainly not completed as I have a lot of material in larger-format storage awaiting further curation. I still have not decided how to marry all these materials together, however that's probably a discussion for a different thread.

So, a fair number of my stamps have been in 102 cards for between 1 day and about 5 months. One challenge I brought to the forum in the old thread was that the adhesive at the bottom of 102 cards tends to separate, exposing the stamps to adhesive and sometimes allowing them to fall through. I found a damaged three crowns definitive of Sweden in a box today, resulting from the stamps falling through the bottom of the card.

Given the short time these stamps have been in the cards, the adhesive failure is very disappointing and frustrating. I cringe every time I see stamps laying in the adhesive and always worry that eventually some will be damaged in this fashion.

Rather than start from scratch and reinvesting in hundreds of hours of organizing, I am considering putting larger groups of stamps inside a small glassine, and then back into the 102's. Yes, this will create incremental expense and work, but the stamps will be protected from adhesive and damaging movements. But I need some advice.

#1 glassines are puny and thus both limited and difficult to work with. #2 glassines are just a skosh too wide for 102 cards. #2 glassines are just over 3.5 inches wide; to fit perfectly inside a 102 the glassine should be around 3 7/16 or 3 3/8 inches. That said, I have received stamps from sellers that seem to be the perfect size to fit inside a 102 card. There are some variants, but obviously they exist.

Any insights on how or where to find small glassines larger than #1's that will still fit comfortably in a 102 card?

I don't have a suggestion for exactly what you are looking for, but I have an idea. It is unfortunate the #102 dealer card film is coming off. I've not seen this happen but my only experience with them is when I buy stamps in them, and they are only ever filled "one stamp deep", so very little pressure on the film.

I use #3 glassines, arranged in shoe boxes, which can be filled pretty full without problem. If I have a #3 glassine holding stamps from a particular year, and within that group there are sets I want to keep together, or if I want to segregate BOB, I put those in a #2 which fits inside the #3. If there are mint stamps I want to protect I put those in a #1. The #3 glassines will fit in your red boxes.

Hi shermae

I do not use stock books, etc.. I use glassines solely. If you are going to go the glassine route, use #2 glassines. I have found, over the years, that they are, generally, an ideal size. I will say on rare occasions they will get a little overstuffed.

There is another advantage, storage. I buy plastic business card files from an office supply. The #2 fits quite nicely. I have quite a few and they stack in the desk cupboard. I guess I could buy a red box but I don't have very many extras, so the plastic boxes are fine.

Jerry B

I also use 102 cards for storage. Loosening of the adhesive is not a problem as long as there are not too many stamps in the card. For me, more than a 3-4 stamp layer is about the max.

Since you have glassines only use them when you have a lot of stamps to store and the cards for only a few stamps.

Adding a few more comments … (all references to size or price are from iHobb)

I use #1 (2-7/8 x 1-3/4), #2 (3-5/8 x 2-5/16), and #3 (4-1/4 x 2-1/2) glassine envelopes for sorting stamps and storing surplus, also using stock books for the latter at times.

I initially used #2's primarily, but for just 39 cents more per package of 100 the #3's give me more capacity and flexibility. Plus (being frugal) I am using shoe boxes to store the glassines upright and these are, more or less, about the same size as the Red Box (4-1/2 x3-1/8 x 14). The #2's flopped around too much while the #3's file upright rather nicely. As I mentioned in a previous post, I then use a #1 for a fragile or mint stamp, a #2 for sets, and these fit nicely inside of a #3.
I don't know if your difficulty with the 102 cards is because some may have been overfilled (in my experience the sealed edges of the glassines are very forgiving in this regard, the film on a card will only take so much pressure) or because you received a "bad batch". My thought would be, rather than looking for additional packaging to insert into the 102 card (another step, more storage bulk, more cost) use #3 glassine envelopes for storing bulk groups of stamps as they are about the same size as the 102 cards and will fit the Red Boxes that you already own. The 102 cards you already have can be used for singles and small sets. The #3 glassines and the 102 cards will fit together nicely the Red Box.

One nice thing about a dealer card though is having space to write things (country, issue date or year, catalog number, etc.). For glassine envelopes I cut a strip of card stock (I like this for its stiffness) the height of the envelope and about 1" to 1-1/2" wide and insert that into the envelope along one edge where I can write any notes about the envelope's contents.

A few updates. Germania posted about the number of stamps in a 102 card so I looked at some random cards and sure enough, the ones showing failure at the bottom are the ones more thickly filled with stamps. I also discovered that #2 glassines DO* in fact fit inside 102 cards. The problem I was having was that I only tested a few #2's and a few 102's. The 102's I tested were incrementally short side to side, a slight manufacturing defect. I had hundreds more that easily fit a #2 glassine inside, so gradually I will go through the cards and where there are more than say 10 or 12 stamps, I'll put them in a glassine and then inside a 102.

Of course eventually none of this will matter as everything will go into Vario pages as time permits. But in the short term, lots need to be broken down into countries. Thanks very much for the helpful comments.