Ultra-Pro & BCW Magnetic Card Holders ()

Originally, this was only a review of an Ultra-Pro model. I've since owned many of both brands. They are effectively identical, in terms of functionality, even though the molding and designs vary slightly.

 

The biggest rub with these is that they're less """air-tight""" than screw-down frames. It's a natural consequence of their defining feature: a magnetic closure. If they were a display case for anything else, I'd rage. They're card holders, though, and intensely easy to crack open every once in a while to clean away the minuscule amount of detritus that'll get in, or simply switch the contents out. The card I put into my first was about 20¢. I wanted it to feel special, much moreso than to be completely impervious to dust. If you want to put in two cards back-to-back, you can, but it'll only increase the seam between the halves.

Every holder I own, save one, is 35pt. That's the thickness of standard trading cards. The nice thing is that these come in a range of sizes. My outlier is 75pt. I honestly thought that metric referred to the size of cards, before receiving a noticeably thick Jubilee card. "Was the listing for multiples of this card?" Nope. Looking into the world of girthy cards was...enlightening. 360pt. cards will have compartments hollowed out of them. Why? So pieces of Tiger Woods' pants can be stuffed into them. Or, gravure models' bikinis.

I am not kidding.

You can buy a thickness gauge from BCW, but don't. Every card holder I've bought from them has come with one. I have a stack. Maybe the purchase-able one is fittingly printed on thick cardstock? As long as your printer settings are adjusted properly, you can produce an accurate one, yourself. I recommend that, prior to purchasing your first non-35pt. holder.

These also supposedly help with UV damage, if you're the kind of person to have windows that aren't completely covered in light-blocking curtains. And, to put your things next to them.

Weirdo.

3 Good Enough Solutions out of 5

They're damn classy. I prefer them to screw-downs, now.