How to guarantee The card Page is fine?
Card page is a cost-effective storage product that features large-capacity collection, flip-through browsing, good display effect, and strong protection. Currently, they are used to store trading cards, celebrity cards, sport cards and so on in the market.
How can we ensure the quality of card pages through various specifications?
Card page owns many specifications and attributes, some of which directly affect the quality and use experience. Normally, it could contain the following important attributes:
A. Card Page Material & Color
In order to have sufficient transparency to ensure the display effect, the card page is generally made of the original color of PP material, which is transparent color, without any color processing. This kind of inner page is called transparent card page.
The structure of card pages is divided into 2-layer and 3-layer structure according to single-sided and double-sided feature. In the 3-layer double-sided card page, the middle layer is a cushioning layer with textures, which can be made by two alternative materials, conventionally PP plastic, and non-woven fabric. The middle layer of non-woven fabric is an unconventional method, which is commonly used for customers who have other color requirements other than transparent and black.
The transparent card pages with solid colors generally refer to the middle layer of the 3-layer double-sided card page made of other colors. So in theory, card pages with color cushion layer are usually 3-layer double-sided. And 2-layer single-sided card pages do not have the so-called actual “cushion layer”, and both sides can be displayed. Of course, if the customer needs it, it can also be customized.
For clearing, the rest so-called “color/colored card pages” are all point to the middle layer of the 3-layer double-sided card page are colored, not every layer of the page.
Theoretically, the middle layer of the card page can be made in any required color. But due to many reasons such as black is a classic color, dust-proof and dirt-proof, and the customer demand is large; black is often made in production, and the moq is low; the demand for other colored card pages is small and requires additional coloring fees; the moq of other colored card pages other than black is very large, etc., the most common color card page is black.
If there’s requests for color card page, but the demand is not enough for the MOQ, it can be recommended made with non-woven fabric as the middle layer. It support to be made of several of colors with lower MOQ. However, it will lose its waterproof and dust-proof characteristics. If water is accidentally intruded, water droplets will penetrate the non-woven fabric layer and directly affect the card. And the hand feeling is not as good as card pages with PP middle layer. It’s even more brittle and easy to tear.
Customers who pursue high-quality inner pages will choose black inner pages, while customers who pursue high cost-efficiency will choose transparent inner pages.
In terms of the cost of inner pages, PP color inner pages ＞ non-woven color inner pages ＞ transparent inner pages.
In addition to being used to place cards and photos, PP card pages are also suitable for other lighter collectibles such as stamps and banknotes. However, due to material and structural limitations, PP card pages cannot carry heavier collectibles, such as coins, rings, etc. Otherwise, they are very easy to tear and damage.
Therefore, when there is a need to customize card pages to hold some heavier collectibles, PVC materials can be used to make them. PVC has a high density, and the product can be made thicker than PP, with better load-bearing capacity and is not easy to deform.
However, it should be noted that PVC card pages are not suitable for loading collectible coins. The material itself is corrosive to metals, though it is very slow. Green moss and other corrosive substances can be seen on the coins after 5-10 years. If a customer needs to use PVC card pages to collect coins for a long time, it needs to be explained in advance that this is the characteristic of the material itself, not a quality problem. For details, please refer to the following information:
PVC and Why is it Dangerous for your Coins
PP card pages and PVC card pages have the following differences:
#Minimum order quantity. The regular moq of PP card pages requires 10k sheets normally; the PVC card pages require lower, starting from 1,000 sheets, but the price is obviously more expensive than PP;
#Thickness. The single-layer thickness of PP card pages can range from 0.03 to 0.14MM; while PVC card pages have no special restrictions and are often made of around 0.18MM.
#PVC card pages can have a “cap” structure on each single pocket on the card page, while PP card pages cannot achieve.
#The edge will have extra margins. PP card pages are ultrasonically welded during production, leaving a margin of about 1MM on the edges that need to be welded; while PVC card pages are processed by high frequency electricity process, with straight edges and no margins.
B. Pocket size
The single pocket size of card page directly determines whether the customer’s cards can be fitted. Since most of them are for loading TCG cards, celebrity cards and sport cards, the pocket size is basically designed around them. The official card size for the TCG tournament and sport cards is both 63.5 * 88.9mm, and the K-pop celebrity cards are usually around 55 * 85mm.
Normally, the size of a single pocket only needs to be 2mm larger than the size of the card to be loaded to achieve “Perfect Fit” effect. But since the loading of a single pocket in the inner page will have a certain impact on the space of other empty pocket, the size of each pocket needs to retain a certain amount of space instead of blindly achieving “Perfect Fit”. Unless it is a special customization after detailed calculation, combined with the diversity of card sizes between different games, the pocket size will be designed to be larger to ensure that most cards on the market can be adapted and loaded.
To require uncommon size for the pocket of card pages require a corresponding mold to support production. Or it could cause mold-opening fee and the moq will also be stepped.
C. Side-loading/Top-loading
There are two different directions when loading cards into the pocket of card page: side-loading and top-loading. However, the loading direction of one single piece of card page is fixed. It won’t have both side-loading and top-loading methods, unless it is particularly customized.
Most of card pages are configured with side-loading method and only very few are configured with top-loading. Most conventional black inner pages are side-loading by default, and conventional transparent card pages are generally top-loading.
In terms of convenience, top-loading pocket is more convenient to insert the card into the pocket than side-loading one. But consider to protection, the top-loading card pages could have the risk of cards leaking out and falling when the card book is turned over, while the side-loading card pages will not, and have stronger protection. In terms of production, the choice of the two does not affect the cost.
D. Thickness
The thickness here refers to the front and rear layer of the card page, which is a key factor in determining the quality but also isn’t familiar to the public. That leads a certain group of customers have no concept of the single-layer thickness of the card page. Only few of them who have been in the industry for a long time are familiar with it.
The standard thickness of a single layer in the card page is 0.08mm, which can meet most of the usage scenarios, and the quality can be guaranteed. Based on the usage scenarios and functions of the card pages, the minimum to maximum thickness of a single layer could be 0.03 – 0.14mm.
Although 0.03mm is the lowest thickness that a single layer of card page can achieve, it is very brittle and easy to wrinkle. It is only theoretically up to standard specifications for use, but the actual use experience is extremely bad. To meet the actual usage scenarios, the thickness of the single-layer inner page must reach at least 0.05mm. Most of the inner pages configured in the ring clamp card book are made of 0.05mm, in order to enable it to load more card pages and reduce certain cost at the same time.
With the increase of the single-layer thickness, the price of the card page itself could rise significantly. In addition, a card book needs to be configured with 20 or more card pages, the unit price will be greatly affected. It is not recommended under the budget is limited. Factories usually have 0.08mm PP materials in stock, but materials with higher thickness need to be produced, which leads to high moq request.
Generally speaking, the following situations are suitable for increasing thickness for the card page:
- Customer often change the cards placed in the card pages;
- The stored cards are thicker and the corners are relatively sharp;
- Special requirements for the hand feeling of the card pages;
- Pursuing top quality, etc.
There are two higher thickness options, 0.1mm and 0.12mm. It even can be 0.14mm thick, but this thickness is very particular about the factory’s production process, and very difficult to produce steadily. As the thickness increases, the transparency of the card page will be significantly reduced, which is not conducive to collection and display. On the other hand, there are very few customers who have such high thickness requirements.
In fact, the improvement of 0.1mm compared to 0.08mm is very limited, and there is no obvious difference from the actual samples. But in essence, the quality of the card page is still improved. The thickness of 0.12mm is very obvious and perceptible compared to 0.08mm and 0.1mm in terms of both hand feeling and quality.
The thickness of the front and rear layers is increased together. And for double-sided 3-layer card pages, its middle layer is commonly not increased synchronously, only 0.08mm thickness is retained. To increase the thickness of the it is meaningless and cannot bring substantial value to the improvement of the quality of the product itself.
Inner pages of different thicknesses cannot be detected without two samples in hand for real-time comparison. High product thickness means a longer service life and a lower after-sales rate.
E. Number of Holes
The card page will be trepanned on the left side to match the ring clamp card book. In order to fit as many ring clamp as possible, most card pages will be designed with 11 holes, which is a internationally applicable and fixed universal hole type, without any size difference.
In addition, there are also cases where they are specially customized to configure certain specific ring clamp card books when customizing card pages, and they need to be specially customized to other numbers of holes, which are commonly 2 holes, 3 holes, 4 holes and 6 holes.
It should be noted that for ring clamp of different lengths and numbers of holes, there are many different hole spacing specifications. It is necessary to confirm the required distance between the holes during customization. And it should be particularly noted that the distance here refers to the distance from the center of the hole to the center of another hole, not from edge to edge. Otherwise it will affect whether the final card page can be perfectly assembled. Additionally, it is necessary to confirm with the supplier whether there is a trepanning mold with the corresponding hole spacing. If not, it is generally recommended to use another hole type, or there will be additional mold opening fees, which can be very high.
The common hole spacing of 2 holes, 3 holes, 4 holes and 6 holes is as follows:
2 holes: 80MM (basically fixed);
3 holes: 70 – 70MM, 80 – 80MM(common), 108 – 108MM;
4 holes: 21 – 70 – 21MM, 45 – 65 – 45MM(common), 80 – 80 – 80MM;
6 holes: 19 – 19 – 19 – 19 – 19MM, 19 – 19 – 50.8 – 19 – 19MM, 19 – 19 – 51 – 19 – 19MM, 19 – 19 – 70 – 19 – 19MM(common)
As for the uncommon 20 holes, 26 holes and 30 holes, they basically only appear in certain specific sizes. 20 holes correspond to A5 size, 26 holes correspond to B5 size, and 30 holes correspond to A4 size.
F. The overall size of card page
We need to focus on confirming the overall size of the card page and the pocket size when customizing card pages and involving new specifications.
In general, ordinary people are not familiar with the production of card pages. If a self-drawn design drawing or desired data is given, in addition to the required pocket size, the overall size of the card page cannot be completely based on the design drawing, but on the data from the supplier’s final design draft. Because the self-drawn design drawing often ignores the impact of the width of the welding spots on the card page and the actual size of the left trepanning part.
The width of the welding spot is 1mm mostly. It’s also support to made of 1.5mm width.
In terms of the specifications of the left trepanning part, the width between the welding spots is usually 12mm(without counting the width of both sides of welding spots), including the width of the welding spots and the left-side remain edge is 15mm in total, which is the specification of the trepanning part commonly used in most card pages. There are also molds support to realize with 9mm between the welding spots and 12mm in total including the welding spots and the left-side remain edge, but they are relatively rare.
When the card page pocket is top-loading, except for the first row, each row below needs a 1mm gap between the welding spots and the opening to ensure the opening can be cut in production. This gap can also be called a “Space”. The top of the first row usually does not need to have a space, but if there is requirement for more convenience when inserting the card, the space can also be added. The conventional draw space width is 1-3mm.
When the top of the card page does not need an opening, which is not top-loading, there is no need to make a space over there, and the space from the second row down is generally 1mm; when the top needs an opening, a 2mm or 3mm space is often made on the top, and the conventional 1mm is made from the second row down.
G. Right Corner/R-Corner
Because the specifications of the right clamps are divided into two types: with switch and without switch. The one with switches will take up a little more space at the head and bottom. Under this case, the page can be damaged if we use a regular right-angle card page. Therefore, it is necessary to use a card page with “R-corner” over the head and bottom on the left side. The shape and specification of the R-corner is normally fixed, and there is no need to confirm the information of it.
In actual use, the compatibility of card page with R-corner will be better than the the right-angle one since it can be used both on the ring clamp with or without the switches. In terms of cost, the card page with R-corner will be slightly more expensive than the right-angle one.
H. Printing
Card pages are not suitable for overall printing because they must retain the characteristic of “clear display”. In terms of structure, most of them are storage areas, and the only place for logo is between left trepanning part. Card pages can be printed by silk screen printing, hot stamping, embossing, etc.
Among them, the most common and suitable method is hot stamping, which is usually hot stamping in gold, silver and black.
I. Packaging
The conventional packaging of the card album is individually OPP bag packaging. And the most economical way is to have printed advertising paper into the OPP bag if customized packaging is required.
We can also adopt printed OPP bags for packaging. While it requires a very large moq for at least 10k pcs of bags. And the specific cost is affected by the number of colors in the design, involving plate-making fee. However, after the plate is made, the fee will not be charged again when the subsequent orders are produced. Only the cost of the bag itself will be involved, unless the cooperative supplier is changed. The cost of the bag itself is also affected by the overall size, depending on the size of the product loaded.
Without a sufficient budget, it is extremely recommended not to use this packaging method. It is recommended to directly purchase 10,000 bags and use the corresponding bags if the required qty does not meet 10,000pcs temporary. And the remaining bags could be kept in stock for the future subsequent orders.
Card pages can also be packaged in printed boxes. Generally, they are firstly packed in regular OPP bags and then put into the boxes. However, this method is not recommended when there is no sufficient project budget.
In terms of packaging, under normal thickness, it is more common to see 100 sheets per package. As the thickness of the card page increases, the weight will also be affected. Therefore, it is recommended to make 50 sheets per package for thicker card pages. It also can also be made into 10 sheets per package, 20 sheets per package, etc. depends on the actual needs.
There is no great restriction on the packaging of card pages. But the specific packaging quantity needs to be confirmed, because it involves additional packaging bag costs. The fewer the number of card pages in a package, the higher the overall unit price. If there is no special requirement, the default package can be 100 sheets per package under normal thickness. And it is recommended to pack 50 sheets per package when the single-layer thickness of the card page is above 0.1mm. Or the weight of the single package will be too heavy.
Overall, these are all the details about how to guarantee a single piece of card page is premium and quality enough. And I hope the info could improve your understanding of card page product.
For more product details from production, or any other questions on customization, feel free to be in touch with us!
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Article edited by Thousand Body Crafts
