card in bank safe deposit box
 

like i read in many thread, the bank safe deposit box look a popular way to protect valuable cards.

Anyone here have any problem in the past with this way ?

Any loss by fire or thieft ?

bank Safe deposit box steal is probably extremely rare ?

thanks

I keep all my valuable cards in a safe deposit box. I've had no issues at all.

I don't keep my cards in SDB but I do keep my gold and silver there.... Never had a problem.

I hear that the absolute way to protect your cards is to shoot them into orbit.

Nelson, I have kept mine in a SDB for 7 years without any problems.

Biggest threat probably humidity. Fire or theft from a SDB would be very rare.I would throw in some sort of desiccant pack and change every year. Especially important in a home safe !!

Never a problem. Given banks are air conditioned I can't imagine humidity is a problem, but I don't live on the east coast.
JimB

Ok thx guy.
Do you take insurance + sdb or only the sdb ?

Last year in montreal a national bank was victim of thieft during a 3 day week end..the theift open arround 50 sdb of the 450

It is why i ask if you ever saw a case like that.

Thx

Nelson, My SDB also serves as my "insurance" - and I keep my fingers crossed that nothing similar to what happened at the Montreal bank happens at my bank!
Val

Probably extremely rare...first time i saw a story like that in Quebec.

Had mine in a couple of banks for probably 15+ years. They even survived moves to different locations when my bank was bought out by another bank and the branch closed.

Have also used safe deposit boxes for 15 plus years. I've moved banks once or twice and upsized boxes with my collection. Never had a problem.. Except I can't see them when I want to :D

+1 :d

Also used safe deposit box for years. Never seen any humidity issues.

I'd be interested to know how many of you using sdp are also insuring those cards. When my collection has grown a little more, I plan on having my high value cards at the bank, keeping my other, less valuable cards in a safe, with sets and commons boxed and in the closet. But I anticipate I'll insure the cards at the bank, as well as those in my safe.

My SDB contents are not insured. Probably be wise to do so, but I haven't.

It is always a good idea to Insure your cards In a SDB in case of fire or theft as SDBs are not covered by FDIC insurance.

I keep my cards in a SDB and never worry about it. I combat the potential for humidity with those little gel packs you can buy. Pretty sure collectibles insurance will not apply to items stolen from or damaged in a SDB. Before I paid for insurance on top of an SDB I would be sure to read the fine print.

On a lighter note...

http://youtu.be/Q3JePwOZ_hQ

SDBs
 

I was an executor for my Uncle's estate in 1993 in St Louis. At the time he died St Louis was experiencing severe flooding. His bank was cut off and partially flooded, including the safety deposit vault. When the flood receded and I was able to get to the box, it turned out to be at the top part of the vault and was undamaged. But boxes half way up the vault were flooded and virtually all papers in them destroyed or damaged.

I am a volume set collector and do not keep my cards in a SDB, but do have a large box with a lot of papers and documents. I now am sure that the bank I use is not in a flood plane, I check to see what happens if there is a fire in any portion of the bank ( how sprinklers operate in vault), and if they keep the air conditioner going on weekends and evening, and to what degree

Yep, SDB is the only way to go. Yeah, it's a pain not to have instant access to you cards, but definitely worth it.

But with cards in Graded holder + in sealled bag, the damage by water is almost impossible.

Factors in the Selection of a Safe Deposit Box
 

1. The size of your collection of old cardboard

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images.../old-cardboard

2. A large collection of raw cards can be accomodated in a modest SDB

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...aller-bank-sdb

3. But if you have a larger collection of graded cards, you may need this

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...large-bank-sdb

4. Then of course you need to find a bank with a very large vault.

Actually, the insurance available for cards usually covers them in a SDB, and usually to the full limit of liability at each SDB you have. Insurers absolutely love it if you keep insured items in a SDB because the likelihood of loss from theft is virtually nil but the policy premium stays the same as though they were at your home.

I've had a SDB for 30+ years for my favorite/best cards. I tend to visit them once a month or so. For me it is a cheap way to be sure that any catastrophic loss at my home--such as a fire--doesn't destroy everything.

As for humidity, bank vaults are typically climate controlled. I put a few of the silica dessicant gel packs into my SDB just in case.

Silica packets
 

Does anyone have a specific recommendation for these? I need to buy some ASAP since I've got some cards (ones that don't fit in SDB) in a semi humid/moist storage locker. Looks like there's lots choices on Amazon.

It's tough being a collector and worrying about our valuables. Realizing that all our "stuff" is temporary often helps keep me grounded as far as collecting is concerned. These wise words often come to mind.

Matthew Chapter 6

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I keep some of my items in a safe...not at all fond of having possessions lost/stolen/damaged, but I try to keep in mind that at the end of the day, it's "stuff".

Really? One of the reasons I stopped using Collectors Insurance was because of that exclusion. Maybe I misread it.

I have had a few in one for many years, never had a problem.
I scanned the cards into my computer and printed them on photo paper and then put them in the safety deposit box. The cards i scanned and printed look great cut to life-size in my albums sheets with my real cards.

I kept my valuables in a SDB for a few years until the bank went out of business and they made me come and get em. I live in a very rural area and the banks are all small and have a very limited number of boxes. It's hard to even get one. Waiting lists. Anyway, the time my cards were in the bank, I lost interest in collecting. I have them back home now and I look at them everyday. I take some precautions, but no it is not very safe. To me if you have to lock your collection away, then what's the use having it?

anyone.. silica packet recos?
 

Feel sort of silly bumping my own question, but will be travelling as of tomorrow for most of the next 6 weeks and would love to order some of these and stick them in my storage unit & SDB when back home at the end of the week, prior to the big travel. It looked like at least 2-3 are using them. I had never really considered using, but am cringing knowing that my storage unit is not climate controlled and cards/balls have been there for over a year.

There are a lot of options out there. I would use something like this. They will let you know when they are saturated and need regenerated.
http://www.cannonsafe.com/silica-gel-dehumidifier.html

Kept ours in a gun safe for many years. A passive desiccant is OK, but if you have one you can plug in, or at least recharge, or dry out with electricity, it is much better.

Remington makes one that you can plug into an outlet to recharge for ~ $25. Depending on conditions, I recommend you check/recharge them every 30-60 days if not more frequently.

I guess I'm stupid, but I live near St. Louis. Hot and humid. Usually hell on earth (not this year). Never did anything about humidity. I've been collecting for 50 years and still have most of them from back then. Never had a card damaged by humidity. I think you guys are paranoid.

Hotlanta may be SLIGHTLY more humid than SL. Just sayin'.

Might be, but 90% is pretty bad, ;)

It has rained every day for the entire summer. There are mushrooms growing on the mushrooms. Ever see a "fairy ring"?

I live in L.A. Dry as the desert it is.

Being that you're from LA, you know we all live in fog up here.

I do feel better though now knowing another has stored in humid conditions without issue.. but feel even better being one of the paranoid that now owns (arriving Wed) two little silica gels large enough for small closet/storage space.:D Thanks all for input on dehumidifiers.

Ian, I don't know if this would fit in your sdp (or take up too much room), but I've seen this particular product recommended for a safe:

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Remin...ier/707832.uts

Recommended here by Tony N http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...=126083&page=2

Hope this helps. Safe travels!

Here's another to consider:

http://www.amazon.com/Remington-1994...fier+remington

Thanks for the suggestions Bill... Funny enough, I buy the kind that comes in a cardboard box (Hydrosorbent 900) and feel all proud, only to find out last night my wife has the same kind you've posted. She's been using it in one of our small rooms. Oh well, now we have 3 total. (posting from 30,000 ft when should be sleeping!!)

Alls I'm sayin..... "All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been
sealed... and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the
I.R.S." - President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933

I was also informed by my insurance agent that they will not issue me a policy for cards in a SDB. That said, I still prefer an SDB to home storage.

wish
 

I wish I had this problem.

I'm not knocking anyone's choice for storing or protecting there collectibles but I've personally never understood why anyone would want to store there cards in a SDB. If you need the piece of mind that your collection is safe why not buy a nice home safe for $2-$3k and keep your collection in house? If you bought an expensive piece of art would you not hang it on your wall, or inside of your local bank vault? Again, not criticizing anyone's protection methods just throwing in my two cents.:)

Safety deposit boxes have the advantages of climate control and security over a home safe. You might say that if you have a $2-3K safe, that's pretty secure. However, I think most people would be comfortable saying on a forum that thousands of people might read that they keep their valuable cards in a SDB rather than in a home safe. Sure, you might also add that you have guns and dogs in your house, but why invite danger when you don't need to?

Fires
 

I live in a very small town on the edge of the eastern sierras after living in the L A basin for over 40 years. Population 1350. No traffic lights, no banks, no doctors, no helicopters, you get the drill. Up until last week, we had less than an inch of rain for the year. Humidity can be non-existent, often under 10%. Our big worry here is fire, wind-driven wildfires. In 2011, the entire town was evacuated when a downslope wind blew a fire down a creek bed and into town, taking out 50 homes. The fire was less than a quarter mile from the home we now live in. Last year another fire started on Highway 395 and caused another evacuation warning before two air tankers were diverted from the Bay area and knocked that bad boy down. Winds were in excess of 40 mph, it could have been very bad. So we look for smoke.

The closest bank is in Bishop, 15 miles to the North. I keep a few more valuable cards there in a SDP, along with my will, passport, and gold fillings. A home safe just would not provide fire protection, so I spread the risk round a bit.

My thinking is I bought the cards to enjoy, so I do. I am not a fan of insurance, having been on the short end of policy 'exclusions' once too often. I gave up a little to get a lot by moving away from population centers and jobs, so I drive an 18 year old fishing vehicle and a trade- off of fire risk with little career opportunity. But being a semi-old fart, what do I need a boss for;).

Keith, 2 things. Don't leave your Will in a SDB. If you pass no one can get it out! Then it will be useless.
The other thing is you can get a safe that will protect from fire. They are data safes. Not cheap but they will not let anything get over 100 deg. inside.

The data safes, which i have looked into, are ridiculously expensive at a size that would be at all useful to a collector.

This is one I just found that is intriguing.

http://www.totalsecuritystore.com/pr...FRPl7AodOmEAxQ

It's only got 1.7 cubic feet of storage, but comparatively, that's not bad for the $1,272 asking price. One hour fire protection keeping the inside temp to 125, protects against "sprinklers, water and humidity", and it's 440 lbs, so nobody could pick it up, and make off with it.

That media safe could store 324 SGC graded cards, 420 PSA graded cards, or 264 Beckett graded cards in A Box Factory's Graded Card Storage Trays.

http://aboxfactory.com/index.php/col...rage-tray.html

Unfortunately, the interior is not quite wide enough for the wood or chipboard boxes that are 4 rows wide.

The interior of the safe measures 25" high x 12 3/4" wide x 9 1/4" D

The graded card storage trays measure 5 11/16" high x 4" wide x 8 15/16" D

So, you could do 4 rows of 3 trays each.

Pretty nice.

Most of your higher-end gun safes (also used for cards) will have a one hour plus burn rating.

I have 2 safes...One is a heavy duty digital one, while the other is a portable water-proof one.
id say almost ALL my cards are slabbed (that are valuable) ..Is it necessary to use those "humidity sacks" ?? My others cards are in albulms on shelves.
Never thought about any of this and what it will do...Well what does it do???

Desiccant packs or even the more professional museum quality desiccants are an inexpensive investment to protect against humidity. There are several companies (and I believe some were listed on this site a couple years ago) that sell museum quality archival supplies.

Your wife is a smart lady. :p

Again, yep to the desiccant packs. About a year ago I opened a small safe I hadnt opened in a couple years. Important, but not valuable papers had significant moiture damage ( wrinkled and stuck together). I was shocked. I had a few slabbed modern cards in there that appeared unaffected. So since then, lots of desiccant in larger safes!! I live in midwest, lots of humidity, and yes my house is temperature controlled too. Dont risk it. You can dry out or " recharge" these packs every so often by putting them on a baking sheet and heating in over at 220 for 30 minutes or so. Cheap and in my experience a must

So, instead of making a new thread....
 

I'd like to get some up to date information from people that are putting their cards in a safe deposit box. I have my box now, and I have several cards I'd like to put in it. The bank is, of course, climate controlled, but I always want to make sure there's zero moisture anywhere near my cards.

The Box I have is 6" x 10" x 18". For those of you using a safe deposit box, what are you putting in with them to protect against moisture? I'm only about 2 miles from my bank, so putting a new ___ in every couple of months is no problem.

Do I want to use silica gel packs? Or something else? If you could please, provide a link to where you buy them.

Thank you!

I keep about 90% of my collection in safe deposit boxes. Never had any issues other than looking for them when I sell a few.

I'm more about putting my cards out on display for viewing than locking them up in a deposit box. However, if you collect high dollar cards for investment, perhaps a safe deposit box makes sense. I have a SDB myself, but not for card storage. I'd say the only potential drawback of a SDB is that the gov't can seize your assets that you keep in a SDB if you get into the sort of issues that would warrant such an action.

As for humidty, I don't think you should worry about it unless you're putting your raw cards on display in the bathroom. Even if you did, your cards wouldn't be completely destroyed. As I've mentioned and shared on this forum a few times before, I bought a few T206s that were found nailed to studs behind drywall in a Philadelphia bathroom during a renovation project. My favorite is this dirty Hooker (who was nailed to the stud). It's definitely dirty, but not completely destroyed. :D

http://www.t206blog.com/wp-content/u...ern-League.jpg

No No - it's just way too easy to comment of this

:D

As a tropical biologist who lives in New Orleans I have two contributions to this thread.

1) If you keep your cards in a safety deposit box (I keep mine at home) you should consider how prone the bank is to flooding. In the case of a storm like Katrina or Sandy you might not have time to get to the bank to pick up your valuables before you evacuate as you wiill be busy with a lot of preparations, traffic is bad, and the bank might be closed during normal busniess hours so that their employees can evacuate. You also might prefer to leave your valuables at the bank rather than carrying all of them with you in your car! In choosing your bank you should look at a floodplain/elevation map and pick a bank that is in a high zone. This could also be a consideration for non-coastal cities as areas flood due to heavy rain or flooding rivers. I asked the local insurance agent that sold me my renter's insurance to show me one of these maps and they were happy to do so (and I am glad I did because we didn't flood during Katrina).

2) Anyone looking to buy silica gel should skip the prepackaged stuff that comes in little tins and which is sold in places like camera stores. If you look closely at it, you see lots of grains that look like kitty litter and a few scattered in there that will be either pink or blue depending on their level of water absorption. Those colored crystals are what is doing the work, I believe the rest is more or less filler. For my work in the rain forest I buy pure silica gel and put my electronics with it in a sealed bag each night. It is more expensive, for obvious reasons, but does a much much better job. One note - when the crystals (referred to as gel) aren't in a package you need to exercise a little caution when baking them. I have been told that they are somewhat toxic so it would be wise to use a dedicated pan for baking the water out rather than a dish used for cooking.

Sorry for the long post!

Wow!
 

that was a great post jobu:)

Gracias - I just don't want to see anyone's cards get damaged or lost, I know how bummed I would be!

safe
 

I feel the safe dep box is the only way to go.


The way I do it is every year when Topps come out with a new set..I bring it right over..... I started doing that with the 1st set I ever deposited..the 1985 Topps set, I now have EVERY set Topps ever produced from 1985 to 1995 ( I feel these are the core years..the cant miss type stuff ) .. and they are all locked up ...yes Id like to look at these more often...enjoy my investment..but its too risky

Are you joking, or are you being serious? :confused:

Are you joking, or are you being serious? :rolleyes:

Thank you, Luke, I am terrible, with, commas.

Daryl,

I was just joking with you. There's no way Ralph was serious :)

I hope you're right. http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=146858

safe
 

Yes, I know..there are fees involved with renting the Bank saftey box..but I feel the investment of the sets should outweigh the monthly fee of $ 5.00, I feel all the great rookies alone should cover that..Im mean come on - that 1987 T set is loaded !..