Which CD side to touch the plastic sleeve?

Ketchup - the bit about not picturing the faces of the CDs (with bandames, label imprints etc) could have something to do with royalties and trademarks or somesuch.

As for your comments, Clbeans - you've learned the hard way like so many of us have, and you speak the truth. My falling out with "the car" came with cassettes - nothing sacred ever went in the car after a couple precious ones went south. With CDs, it can happen even faster.

My rule is: nothing at all goes into the car unless it's a CDR dupe of something safely in my original collection, or unless I truly KNOW I don't care, and am really, really sure of that.

As for the "label side" - a CD in some cases can sustain far far more damage to the underside (data side) and still play than it can to the "label side" - which is a reflective layer that if it peels up, the underside could be pristine, but if enough damage is done to the top, the disc is done for - the laser won't track without that reflective layer 100% intact.

With a manufactured disc (like a CD you buy at the store), the label side is much better protected - perhaps by some sort of coating, but that isn't enough in the heat of a car from preventing these plastic sleeves from gluing themselves to the top layer of the CD and causing damage when pried apart, as mentioned in the thread.

With a CDR, the protection of the label side varies from none at all (like a blank, bulk-quality CDR with no top label - these peel like crazy - at least put a CDR label sticker over the entire label side face, or forget about reliability - even for the week!) to good (a CDR with a full "marker-ready" painted/labeled/coated label face).

If I were you, I'd only take CDRs into the car that are CDRs with a "finished" label face that's printed and marker-ready, and entirely avoid any envelope/cd booklet that employs a clear-plastic face on ANY surface that touched the discs. You can get fiber-enveloped booklets with partial cutaways in the sleeves that show enough of the disc for you to identify them, even if the fiber sleeve is opaque. If you make CDR's, you just write the disc title up top, and put them in showing the name, as best as possible.

Thanks everyone for such thorough answers.
I'll probably just continue to use my regular weighty carry cases with the regular CD jewel cases inside so I can be safe with all my original CD's, when on my way to an audio store, or club meeting.
My cars are so old that I still listen to cassette tapes with the in-dash player, and always take a few tapes along when driving. Luckily, none have melted in the heat.
I have accumulated quite a collection of cassette tapes since so many audiophiles have gifted me their old tapes now that CD-R's are preferred.

I never let the originals leave my listening room, and they always stay in the jewl cases. That seems to be the best way to insure that they stay near mint. But when traveling or in the case, I use burned CD-R copies in those plastic & cotton sleeves. That way I don't what happens to them. It seems to be the best compromise for me at the time.

Is there any reason why you are taking the originals with you?

Always use jewel cases for best protection against disc damage! Forget the convenience of those nasty plastic protectors!

I'm with everybody else...I ruined a bunch of cd's with those plastic sleeve holders and wouldn't ever consider using them again...jewel cases for me now.