Slabs - Truly Protective or Harmful?

[packs]

Yeah what's the worry exactly? Has there been any instance of a card being damaged while inside of a holder by the holder?

[sterlingfox]

Originally Posted by packs

Yeah what's the worry exactly? Has there been any instance of a card being damaged while inside of a holder by the holder?

Yes, I've seen a few SGC slabs where the card got damaged by sliding around and getting over or under their gasket.

Just got another one like that, and am debating returning it or getting SGC to re-slab it (hopefully at no charge) at the next National.

The card slid over the gasket and got jammed under the label. When un-jammed, the corner became nicked with a tiny piece of paper loss!

This was, unfortunately, a very nice tobacco era card...my reasons for keeping it, if I decide to, are that I still like the card, the damage won't affect the "Authentic" grade, and most importantly, I'm afraid that shipping the card will damage it further (it's what caused this in the first place).

[KMayUSA6060]

Originally Posted by packs

Yeah what's the worry exactly? Has there been any instance of a card being damaged while inside of a holder by the holder?

As Dmitry mentioned, yes, I have seen instances where cards are misplaced inside the slabs, causing them to slide around or get pinched and damaged.

The main reason for my question is grading is still relatively new, all things considered, and I've never heard of any of the companies stating what their slabs are made of, or what technology is used to insure the ultimate protection beyond the obvious holder. I don't know exactly when the first "slab" came around, but say we're in year 20. What if by year 30, we find out the plastics are corrosive? It could be too late for some cards.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by packs

Yeah what's the worry exactly? Has there been any instance of a card being damaged while inside of a holder by the holder?

As the article I linked states:

"The practice of slabbing began recently enough that there is not a long enough track record to be certain that damage will not result over time."

Plastics have been seen to destroy other artifacts over a long period of time. At this point the concern comes from the uncertainty of these plastics.

[drcy]

Relative (emphasis intentional) to other ways of storing-- including other ways you would store the particular card--, I think the slabs are okay. If you put it in a penny sleeve and top loader you aren't certain how it will be in thirty years either.

Not sure if this would apply to cards that have spent many years encapsulated, but I was watching a documentary many years ago on PBS, if memory serves, and they had several medieval books that had been stored for years with very little or no exposure to air. The moment they were taken out of that environment they actually started to disintegrate and crumble. I don't remember if they were composed largely of vellum or actual paper?

[drcy]

The major cause of damage to cards is physical handling-- so you if you're taking cards in and out of various holder systems regularly, the physical handling is the biggest potential source.

A serious study of holder, materials etc would be excellent for the hobby, but I think keeping a card in a holder/penny sleeve in dry/dark conditions is good.

As a side note, I got a storage rooms tour of the Chicago History Museum by the head historian, and they have different environmental conditions for different things. Photos are stored in different conditions than say medals. The highlight of the tour was the bed Lincoln died on. It had what they believed were his blood stains, but they weren't willing to do a DNA test yet until it could be done by taking only a very small piece of the cloth (the current required amount of cloth isn't to their liking). Though he said with scientific advancement he assumed it would be done in the near future.

[packs]

The damages you guys mentioned are from the card not being properly secured within the holder, not damage caused by the holder being made of plastic. Before slabs I used pocket pages and smaller cases, they were made of plastic as well.

[steve B]

I've had doubts about the slabs myself.

I believe most are polycarbonate (lexan) which is halfway decent, and has some UV blocking ability.
The sleeves when used are either Mylar - excellent. Or polypropylene, also a fine choice.
While I like SGC for looks, I'm not so sure about the gasket. Acid free is possible but the details aren't known.

The idea I had early on was that for cards on acidic paper like strip cards, and most Topps and Bowman, the slab might seal in the acid from the cardstock degrading. And that would accelerate the process.

I actually asked SGC, and their slabs are not airtight, so there may be enough transfer of air to prevent that.

I do think some study and/or some transparency about materials from the grading companies would be a fine thing.

Steve B