postcard.co.uk

Not really an avid collector but I have my Grandmothers original Victorian postcard album. The pages of the album being paper are getting damaged and not always holding the cards in, and of course you can't read the message without taking them out.
Question is, is it worth persevering to keep them together or shold i take the card out and put them in a more modern album?

A dilemma indeed.

In a modern album you can at least view both sides of a postcard without taking them out... depends on how often you need to view the message, of course.

Will the plastic sleeves keep as long, I wonder?

Old Albums tend to be more attractive... you can still get some that are in good condition too.

While it is nice to keep a collection in the original album and they are indeed generally more attractive, they are not generally archival. The paper can turn the cards brown and cause them to go a little grubby. Plus the brittle nature of the leaves mean that cards can get damaged while browsing through. I would therefore go modern myself, but if you do steer clear of anything with adhesive. Plastic albums like those sold by Rob Roy (a member of the PTA) are generally considered as archival as they get. I think it is nicer to have them in an album rather than loose too.

Some plastics such as PVC should be avoided as these are more harmful than the old album pages. Until a few years ago albums were being sold for postcard collections in PVC and this type of page is still available, though most reputable suppliers such as Rob Roy now sell polypropylene which is inert. The best material (used by museums & libraries) is polyester as produced by companies such as Secol, though this is more expensive. I put a piece together about this subject a few years back... http://sunnyfield.co.uk/dayspast/archival.htm