Protecting your cards
 

Hi everyone,

I am sure this has been discussed before, but I cannot find mention of it.

I put my PC cards in a soft sleeve, then into a top loader, and finally seal up in a team bag and then store in a dark bedroom closet. I am reading horror stories of humidity issues and cards warping.

Am I storing these cards correctly? Should I not use a team bag? Any thoughts are appreciated.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

For unslabbed cards I do the same and store the standard size ones in Dome boxes. I don't think you'll find a total consensus online but I don't think you'll find too much negative about the toploader and penny sleeve method.

I used to buy mylar sleeves from a company called Stampmount. I found the mylar was far superior to the plastic penny sleeves.

https://www.washpress.com/stampmount.jsp

Yeah, if you're trying to preserve the Declaration of Independence.:eek:

Personally I think one doesn't have to go that far, and mylar sleeves in my experience are hard to use with toploaders.

There's a Nicholas Cage joke in there somewhere, I'm just not clever enough to come up with it. :o

I've noticed something odd with the toploaders I've purchased this year. They appear to have been made with a different "recipe" than what I've gotten in the past. They have a definite chemical aroma. For long-term storage, I personally will not seal these "new recipe" toploaders in an air-tight manner. I simply don't know how the"off-gassing" might react with my cards in a sealed environment.

Just my unscientific opinion. Do your own research.

Thank you to all who have responded to this post. I appreciate all of the feedback. My main concern is trapping in moisture by putting the cards into a sealable team bag. At my age, I probably won't have these cards for more than about 4-5 years, but still a concern.
Thanks again.
Charlie

It isn't an airtight seal or anything, I doubt it, but welcome other viewpoints.

Forgive me, for I have hobby sinned. I don't use anything. The vast majority of my vintage is unsleeved and kept in cardboard boxes.

I know this is blasphemous, but I've seen far more cards damaged by corners dinged while putting into a pocket, bouncing around a loose slab, etc. than I have ever had damaged while handling myself. It's different if a card is Mint, but my century old cards are not mint anyways. I don't see much value in sleeving my VG T card. Makes them a lot easier to store, the colors look more vibrant, and oddities can be examined directly without a sealed plastic layer between my eyes and the card.

I don't use toploaders because I am a klutz and tend to damage cards trying to get them out. My raw prewar cards are in mylar sleeves and then in albums, which works just fine and greatly facilitates sitting down and having a look. If you get the mylars designed for 1951-52 Bowman size cards they fit perfectly into 9 pocket pages. Anything really valuable is in a slab because, you know, $$$$.

Card Storage
 

Charlie,

You may want to consider picking up some refurbished military surplus ammo boxes. The refurbished boxes come with new rubber seals. The boxes are water tight and keep humidity out. The smaller size boxes fit a single row of graded cards perfectly; the larger 7.62mm boxes fit double rows of graded cards perfectly as well.

Higher end cards in a safe deposit box, lower stuff in binder pages or toploaders with penny sleeves.

For piece of mind, recommend purchasing insurance for your collection.

For raw cards, I don't like toploaders because they are made with PVC (I've seen old ones yellow which shows they aren't made with materials archivists would use imo). I look for archival safe plastics. Mylar/polyester is the gold standard, but I don't like working with it. I prefer polypropylene (I check my penny sleeves and binder sheets are made of this before purchasing, typically they are).

Humidity is a different issue. I would recommend a temperature controlled space - no basements or attics. Keeping the humidity within a certain range probably isn't feasible, but my theory is if you're comfortable, the cards are probably fine.

I store mine, sleeved, 9 pocket page, binder.

so far no issues

Sleeve, toploader in a team bag is probably ok under most conditions.

I don't use the team bag, I just don't think it adds much. Plus I'm cheap sometimes.

Most houses these days have some climate control and are built to keep dampness out.

Now in an old house like mine, bagging on a very humid day then storing in an attic with major temperature swings could cause a problem. I've seen bagged ephemera at flea markets that has obvious condensation inside the bag.
BUT
I have other stuff stored in the attic that was bagged on humid days and haven't seen any issues whatsoever in over 20 years.

I used to use the penny sleeve/top loader/team bag method for decent cards. I used the team bags only because when I'd look through the cards without them, the top loaders would scratch each other sometimes and I was OCD about it. Commons stayed out of any packaging and went into boxes.

I'll still pick up raw now and then but my goal is to have everything I get graded for the sole purpose of if I kick the bucket one day, at least my family members will know what the heck they are looking at and dealing with.

I started using team bags over toploaders to keep out dust. It's hard for me to believe they are harmful. Then again, I don't know much.:eek:

Once again, THANK YOU, to all who have responded. I am starting to feel better about my storage method. We do not have too many moisture issues in my house, except winter time things get a little dry.
Happy Holidays to everyone here on Net 54

No toploader made in the 21st century by a reputable supplier contains PVC. That stuff was hobby headline news in the 1980’s, if not before. Even if they did, the chances that such toploaders would noticeably damage your cards in your lifetime is all but nil.


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I think the Mylar thing for the garden variety collector is largely unnecessary. Yes, it is the most "inert" material, but realize that the HOF uses Mylar because they need the cards in their collection to last for hundreds / thousands of years more, not just the next 50-75. I mean I enjoy the idea of my collection outliving me and serving generations to come, but in reality I'm going to be fertilizer in all likelihood 50 years from now - so why do I really care? Polypropylene products and the other stuff that penny sleeves, toploaders, Card Savers, and One Touches are made of is also "inert" and "archival", even if they don't pass the same rigorous tests that Mylar does. The one time I tried to use Mylar, I found it very rigid and difficult - and I will agree with the previous poster who said it doesn't work well with toploaders. My cards looked great when finally IN the Mylar, but good luck getting them in or back out. Not for me.

Not true. It's the SLEEVES that are PVC free.

https://www.bcwsupplies.com/topload-holder-info

BCW Toploads are manufactured from rigid Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) which contains no plasticizers or stearates (a salt or an ester of stearic acid). They will not migrate or harm your cards, photographs, or prints. BCW Toploads come in a variety of sizes and are an inexpensive way to store and display your collectables.

https://www.ultrapro.com/product_inf...oducts_id=1376

Protect your valuable collectible trading cards with the original Ultra PRO toploaders! These rigid plastic protectors are made with super clear PVC

Ok, I stand corrected - but hear me out: The problem in the 80's with PVC was the plastic pages (soft sleeves) that had PVC. Right? Toploaders I don't think were ever really questioned because the PVC in them acts differently / takes longer to break down?

Pretty sure the concern was the pages that were prevalent back then. I think the reason toploaders may not be concerning is that they aren't directly in contact with the card if you use a sleeve?

Toploaders might have PVC, but I think at this stage in the game if they were regularly damaging cards - we would know about it by now.

I should think so.

This is an interesting idea. Do the 50 caliber boxes hold SGC slabs? Thanks much

I use ultrapro binder pages. Nearly all of my cards are in binders and I don't sleeve them prior. I have only had issues once and it was junk era left in a hot attic. Otherwise, thousands of cards from the 1880's to 1969 are bindered with no ill effect. T205/6 Cobbs, Ruth, Gehrig, Williams, Sullivan and so on with no fear by me. They are also in a fire safe. I do monitor for humidity, but that's it. I also have thousands from the thirties to sixtiess in boxes with no protection. This hermetically sealed stuff is overkill. A sleeve within a slab within a sleeve within a binder page or box is wild stuff. A friend collects ephemera far older than our oldest cards and many are rare historical documents. They are not even stored as heavily as a Tom Brady foil deluxe green rubism card of today.

The PVC toploaders tend to yellow and look roached over time. I've had to replace quite a few. I want to put my cards into holders once.