Signed Carbon Paper? Help please...

[GoCubsGo32]

Long story short....

I was on the same plane as the Davidson Men's Basketball team in Dec 2008, shortly after they lost to Purdue. I got Steph Curry autograph on my plane ticket, but it's made of carbon paper.It was a very unique cool experience, with some great stories & memories. Is there any way of saving this before it completely fades? I'm not sure if UV/museum glass would save it since it's the material it's signed on. Thoughts?

[Butch7999]

Hi Gary, we wish we knew some way to preserve all of that legibly. We're assuming it's the ticketing/booking information that you're worried about,
which already appears to be very faded -- the USAirways logos and Curry's signature should be relatively safe and stable.

It looks like the ticket is printed on paper similar to fax paper, and from what we've seen that stuff just fades until it's invisible, no matter what you do.
We've got fax pages from the pre-internet days of our roto league, which have been kept inside a closed notebook, inside a sealed box, inside a lightless
storage cabinet, and 15-20 years later they're just blank sheets now.

Hopefully someone else here might have a preservation technique for that sort of paper and ink, which we'd be as glad as you to learn. The only thing
we could do, when we first noticed how quickly and severely that sort of material fades, was to make xerox copies of the pages (copy machine ink lasts).
Unfortunately, that doesn't do much to help with what you want to show off as the genuine Curry autograph, which should maintain its integrity but,
before long, only on a blank sheet.

[Lordstan]

Gary,
I would make a high quality scan and use settings that darken the print a little. I would then frame them together so the memory is preserved even if the printing fades.

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by Lordstan

Gary,
I would make a high quality scan and use settings that darken the print a little. I would then frame them together so the memory is preserved even if the printing fades.

I like that idea. I know of no way to "save" the ticket.

[steve B]

Making a copy is probably about the only way. Thermal printer prints are really hard to preserve. There might be something on the LOC website, but it might not be practical for a hobbyist.

Don't let it get too warm, or it will become a fading black/gray piece of paper.

Steve B

[Gary Dunaier]

In 2000, the Mets offered fans the opportunity to buy tickets via "ETM" ticket kiosks in malls and such. Unfortunately, most of the information that would identify the ticket - which, in this case, is practically everything - has faded. You might be surprised to learn that this scanned image...



...which was made in 2012, when the ticket was 12 years old, is much more legible than the actual ticket itself.