[Brianruns10]

Hey I'm just trying to offer the best help I can. Like the advice of a doctor or lawyer you can take what I have to say, or leave it. But you'll probably wind up regretting it.

Make no mistake, there is a right way and a wrong way to display any item, and you all are quite simply doing it the wrong way. Go ahead and treat your collections like junk. Because that's what it'll be after a few decades of display the way you all are doing it.

Let's forget money already. I don't collect for the money. I collect because I love these cards as works of art, as piece of history, and as relics of a past-time that is dead. Yes, dead. And there are reasons beyond money for bothering to take care of things that mean a lot to you.

Would you store a box of photographs or films in a hot attic, or in your basement beneath a dripping waterpipe? Would fill your classic car with regular unleaded, and let it sit out in the sun all summer uncovered, exposed to the elements and the birds? Sure, you can, but why would you if you truly care about those things?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I was brought up to believe that when you care about something, you treat it right, and take care of it. My Charles Lindbergh banner has little monetary value, but I care about it as a piece of history and a treasured hand-me-down from my grandfather. So I intend to treat it properly and display it right. And I wanted to share my experience with everyone else. And I am grateful to my dad, who kept his cards in boxes all those years. Not because he viewed them as commodities. But because he loved those cards. And dammit, he was going to take care of them, and keep them safe.

But I'm just one voice, and really, what do I know? I only studied history and archival research in school. I only studied studied film preservation along the way to my masters in cinema and photography. I only worked for two years as a freelancer who specialized preserving films, obsolete tape formats and photographic negatives and Kodachromes. And I'm currently just a paid professional who does historical research and archival management of a stock film library for a major film production company. And I've only been collecting stamps, coins and ball cards for the last 23 years of my life.

What do I know?