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I have a large album full of 3 1/2 x 3 1/2" prints. It's the kind with "magnetic" pages that has lost its stick, so the prints are always falling out when the pages are turned. I'd like to reorganize them in a new magnetic-style album but am having trouble finding a nice one. Most albums now are made in a 4 x 6" format, which wouldn't work well for these small, old prints... So I definitely want another magnetic style.

Target is my usual go-to store for these kinds of items, and they do have magnetic albums for a very reasonable price; but the cover doesn't seem at all durable... as if it will snap off after a few uses.

So, my question is... Do you know of places that have durable albums in the style I'm after, preferably not costing the moon and stars?

Get the archival sleeves and do away with the magnetic type. Many of mine were stuck to the backing and I had to take a knife and split the backing of the photo page.

And you can get pages to fit your prints:
http://www.archivalusa.com/312x312prinp.html

nettiejay, I would definitely suggest that whatever you do, DO NOT use the "magnetic" pages as they can be very destructive to photographs over time. The "photo" portion adhers to the magnetic paper (which yellows over time) and, basically shreds the photograph as I learned from personal experience after my Grandmother's passing when we tried to remove her many photographs stored in "magnetic" albums in order to have them duplicated. What a loss of many years of family history!

You are lucky that yours are only slipping - so far! Instead, check out the archival sleeves as KYIS suggested! Good luck!

You can purchase archival (non acid) clear sheet protectors from an office store, very cheaply. Buy some acid free 8.5x11 paper/card stock and use photo corners to hold your pictures. Slip the pages into the sheet protectors and put in any 3 ring notebook.
Cheap, safe, easy to change out and re-arrange, and several notebooks can help to organize photos.

Thanks for the suggestions, ladies. I had assumed no one made filler sheets to accomodate that size photo, and I never thought about common office supplies working for that purpose.
Good ideas!

Slightly different question but ya'll seem to know what you are doing.

Old photos that have been damaged either by those magnetic sheets or by the older albums that had that newprint type paper... will they continue to deteriorate if they are moved to a better place or will it help to stop that.

I've wondered that too, Metwo.

I have several 8X10s of my kids '70s era from K-Mart and other discount stores. The kind that turn all orangey after a time. Have been considering that those cheapo prints would've done that no matter where they were stored, but I did remove them from albums years ago in the hope they'd get no worse. Am not sure if it helped or not.

Once they have degraded, they will not cure themselves.
Have copies made of the old off color photos. Most good home scanners can do it, then many of the photo software programs (even free Picassa) can allow you to cure the color problems with just a bit of tweeking. Then you can have a good image to retain in your album. Plus while you are at it, go ahead and put all those images on CD for storage and sharing. =)

If you move them to acid free they should not get worse.

As conrad stated, scan and save to CD. I did quite a few of my mother's photos, portraits, etc. in 2004 and gave several family members CDs. Since her recent death, I am sorting and scanning again, then passing each sibling's photos to them...and dealing family pictures out like dealing cards. We will all have CDs with even more photos...

I just read an article about photo storage. Apparently, CDs are not immune to degradation unless they are specifically archival quality. The article said the only sure way to have photos forever is to print them on photo paper the old-fashioned way. Of course, I'm not sure if the author worked for a photo processing company .

The thing is, I'm not overly concerned about preserving photos of our vacations, DS's Cub Scout den meetings, or DD's baton class for posterity. Only need them for the 30 or so years I have left on earth. Who the heck else will care in 100 years? I think it's important to keep 3 or 4 important-occasion portraits of each family member to pass down thru the ages, but that's about it.

Seems nothing easy lasts forever. CD and copies on photopaper kept safely, will probably be fine till an even better way to retain them is available.
Best to distribute the photo images to several of the family members who are interested, so the chances of saving the images is greatly increased, whatever the format.