Card Collector Universe

Ever wonder how card thickness was measured?  Okay, maybe not, but if you’re a card collector it’s a good thing to know.  There are basically two ways that baseball card (or any sports card actually) thickness is measured:  Points and Millimeters. 

Most common baseball cardsissued by Topps and Upper Deck are 20 points (pts.).  Since each point is the equivalent of .0254 millimeters (mm), a 20 point card would be .508 millimeters.   You probably don’t need to know this detail though.  But you probably do need to know how to determine how thick your cards are in points, in order to buy the proper storage for them.

With the advent of game used memorabilia cards, you’ll find varying thickness for baseball cards today.  If you pick up, say, a nice Albert Pujols game used jersey card, you’re probably going to want to store it safely somewhere, right?  Well, what better place to store it than in a plastic case.  But wait a second, how do you know what size plastic case to buy, so your card will fit?  Here’s the trick.

Take your game used card and place it face up on a flat surface.  Then put one regular common card next to the game used card.  You’ll see that the game used card is probably much thicker.  Then, place another common card on top of the one you already put down.  You continue to do this until the common cards are at the same height (thickness) that the game used card is.  You can tell how many points thick your game used card is buy counting up each of the common cards you laid down, and multiplying by 20.  This is how thick your game used card is in points.  And now you know what size plastic holder to purchase, so your game used card will fit snugly and securely.

For more on card thickness, plus some nice cases for your thicker cards, check out this site. 

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