Display Cases and Indirect Sunlight

[tcalca24]

I have a beautiful Pennzoni display case that i bought which claims to have the UV protective glass. It’s well made and looks great in my office. I am displaying graded and raw pre war cards and can’t help but wonder if the cards are safe from UV light. I don’t have anything terrible expensive. Most are T206 and Goudey commons in grades 3 through 5. I even have and older Bucher Gold Coin in SGC 50. How comfortable would you be not doing any long term damage from indirect sunlight? Thanks Ted

[rainier2004]

Originally Posted by tcalca24

I have a beautiful Pennzoni display case that i bought which claims to have the UV protective glass. It’s well made and looks great in my office. I am displaying graded and raw pre war cards and can’t help but wonder if the cards are safe from UV light. I don’t have anything terrible expensive. Most are T206 and Goudey commons in grades 3 through 5. I even have and older Bucher Gold Coin in SGC 50. How comfortable would you be not doing any long term damage from indirect sunlight? Thanks Ted

You don't want any sunlight if you care about protecting the color of the cards. Long term exposure will fade the cards, sunlight is the devil. When I had my cards out I bought a special curtain that had a few layers in it and was designed to absorb all sunlight. I also replaced every light in the room with a LED including my desk lamp.

[MVSNYC]

Sunlight is a killer, even indirect. I'm not a fan of displaying cards...I've seen too many get faded. Sorry, just being honest.

[Jay Wolt]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

Sunlight is a killer, even indirect. I'm not a fan of displaying cards...I've seen too many get faded.

Same w/ display pieces & autographs.
Know first hand about fading

[tcalca24]

Thanks for the feedback and i agree about keeping cards out of sunlight both direct and indirect. My question then becomes how effective is the “ UV Acrylic 100% For Direct sunlight (+ $45.00)“. Are we saying it’s like a condom. Good and effective but not 100%?

[JollyElm]

Wait, it just dawned on me. Did our mothers put all of our cards up in the attic simply to protect them from the sunlight??

[conor912]

Originally Posted by tcalca24

Thanks for the feedback and i agree about keeping cards out of sunlight both direct and indirect. My question then becomes how effective is the “ UV Acrylic 100% For Direct sunlight (+ $45.00)“. Are we saying it’s like a condom. Good and effective but not 100%?

It's probably as effective as pulling out...mostly.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by tcalca24

Thanks for the feedback and i agree about keeping cards out of sunlight both direct and indirect. My question then becomes how effective is the “ UV Acrylic 100% For Direct sunlight (+ $45.00)“. Are we saying it’s like a condom. Good and effective but not 100%?

UV ratings are not the most accurate when it comes to affecting cards.

I say display you collection.

These are probably the 3 main things to do:
1) Make sure your display case glass(whatever product) already is UV protected.
2) On a regular basis use a spray on UV protector on the glass.
3) Rotate your collection on display.

With treated glass and regular applying of a UV protector you can easily reduce the amount of fading. Doing this will make it take around 10X as long to begin fading. The real problem is once the fading process becomes noticeable it accelerates really fast.