It is important to take good care of your collection and handling and storage of your cards are key elements of proper care. When showing or looking at your decks be careful as you handle them, especially as you remove or replace them in their boxes and wrappers. In fact, many collectors store old wrappers in albums rather than risk damaging them as they look at their decks. If you have sealed decks - keep them that way. You can usually find pictures on the internet if you want to actually examine the cards.
There are a number of stationery and archival stores where the packaging you need can be obtained. We can’t emphasize too much the importance of using good archival materials (albums, wrappers, boxes, etc.) in storing your decks, especially your old and rare ones. After all, playing cards and their packaging are paper products and paper deteriorates with age. We owe it to ourselves, and those coming behind us, to do our absolute best to make sure our decks stay in the condition that we found them in for as long as possible.
There are a number of ways to store decks, including archival boxes, cases and spool cabinets or other chests with flat drawers. Decks that have no boxes should be packaged in some kind of protective cover, whether a plastic box, a paper wrapper, homemade box, etc. Elastics, unless of the new archival type, should never be used on a deck as they deteriorate with time and can cause considerable damage. Again, proper storage helps decks stay in their present condition longer and helps preserve them for the enjoyment of our future collectors.
Pictured is a nice old card rack from a private club.
