Certified autographs fading question?
 

Hello,
I finally found samples of a question I asked previously. This is what I mean (PHOTOS BELOW) In regards to factory certified autographs from Topps (Pack pulled) fade over time. the blue sharpie turns to a purplish grayish color and then fades like these examples below. Cards I had were keep out of the sunlight, in fact some where in boxes in the dark and never saw sunlight for over 10 years and still faded like these/ even when out there was very little light exposure, so i ask, does certified topps autographs fade over time and why do they fade like this when they were not in lighting or sunlight? maybe topps uses cheap sharpies to sign cards?

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/y...amBam/FORD.jpg

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/y...mBam/PAFKO.jpg

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/y...am/MUSSINA.jpg

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/y...am/JACKSON.jpg

I know when you're hunting signatures at spring training you've got to wipe a dry eraser across the fronts of the cards to get the gloss off. Otherwise the signature will streak. Maybe gloss is at play with these cards.

You may be correct... assuming these cards were not exposed to light or excessive heat, some sort of chemical reaction between the ink and the finish on the card is the most likely explanation. Sharpie ink is not going to simply disappear from an inert, stable medium.

Ink is actually more stable on a glossy surface than an old cardboard one. On a glossy card, the ink rests on the surface, whereas with older cardboard cards, the ink actually bonds with the medium. This is what causes the ink to bleed over time (creating a slight haze around the signature) in somewhat rare occurrences on older Topps cards. The tradeoff is that signatures can be removed or "scratched" on a glossy card because no bond is made between the molecules of ink and the molecules of the item that was signed.

I have thousands of signed glossy cards that don't exhibit this fading so I don't think the gloss is a factor. Some type of chemical reaction may be the cause, but a more probable reason would be moisture. Direct contact with water would do this although I'd suspect the card itself would show more signs if the card had actually become wet. However this may have happened if the cards were kept in an area that had high humidity. Honestly, this looks exactly like fading from exposure to light, so I would question if the signatures hadn't been exposed to flourescent lights at some point, possibly before you acquired them?

I don't think that's true considering all of the cards are from the same set. I'd be more inclined to think that the issue is with the manufacturing of the cards themselves.

Thanks guys for your responses. the ones i had that faded like this I bought at card shows and card shops so your right, before i bought them the sellers probably kept them in their card shop cases 8 hrs a day in daylight and under fluorescent lighting and at card shows out all day on their table in the daylight, so that might be why they faded. once i got my cards i kept them out of light, but your right we never know how the people e bought them from stored them(light, moisture, humidity, etc) come to think of it, cards that i got from packs and send for ttm requests still look good, its only the autographs i bought on ebay, card shows and card shops that are fading.have faded (cards that other people owned that im unsure how they stored/displayed them) so that might have solved this mystery of fading autographs. i notice them more with factory certified autographs. with regular cards ive noticed the sharpie bleeds into the card over time causing a "halo" or ring effect.

Could the problem have something to do with the quality of the ink used in the pens?

Playing the other side of the coin......Do we know for sure that those are Sharpie pen signatures and not some other inferior brand?

i assumed topps using sharpie, but maybe they use cheaper pens in bulk signings? to reduce their costs?