Plastic for Cards, I can't Stress Enough!

[danmckee]

Please if any of you long time collectors have cards in old top loads or card savers that are turning yellow from the acid in the plastic, please rescue your collectibles. I can't stress enough that it can eat the cards.

Those small green parts still in the holder are from the front of the Candy Card.

See attached:

[Brian]

Terrible!

I assume that the deterioration of that toploader did not cause any problems with nearby cards or any other cards stored in the same box?

[Fred]

Wow - thank you for the heads up. I have cards in that type of holder and they've been there for a long time. When I get a chance (soon) I'm going to start checking what I have. I'm hoping that the fact I live in a low humidity area will result in minimal damage. It would really blow to have a nice card damaged like the one in your post.

I have a lot of cards in penny sleeves and then those are inserted into other more substantial plastic sleeves. Does anybody know if the penny sleeves are relatively immune to plastic decay?

[BioCRN]

Because I've only had a few conversations with other people about it I consider my view to be mostly anecdotal, but even with badly yellowed Card Savers and toploaders the penny sleeve inside them was 100% clean and protective of the card.

I know there's a sizable camp of people that view a penny sleeve as unnecessary in a Card Saver and even some that view it unnecessary in a toploader, but since I started replacing yellowing CSav/toploader in the late-90s into the 2000s I don't mind the extra plastic.

[Lucas00]

I wonder if this also applies to old photos? I have my snapshot collection all in small-Large card savers (basically brand new).

I've tried researching do card savers bend cards/photos over time (as they usually are not straight) do they stick etc. Very little info I can find. The small amount of info I've read say it's climate related. And lots of first hand accounts I read say their yellowed plastic holders are perfectly fine.

I have an unopened hanger pack of top loaders from the 80s that seem perfectly fine and are still clear (as clear as 80s plastic can be). So I'm really not sure what to think.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

My question is if it was more a case of being stored in a humid environment rather than the fault of the holder.

I have discovered boxes upon boxes of cards in top loaders from my youth that have all turned that fetching shade of nicotine. All were kept in an ideal, unchanging clime for decades, and all were fine. The top loaders looked like a disaster, but the cards, once removed, were as bright and beautiful as a tranquil sunrise. And, because they were from my youth, this predated when the 1-2 punch of the penny sleeve/top loader came into play. These cards were naked inside their top loaders, so had been exposed to over 30 years of direct contact with the plastic.

In fact, just yesterday, I discovered a stack of goodies that had sat in a corner, forgotten about since the days when you could say "Bel Biv Devoe" and people didn't immediately think you were having a grand mal seizure. A small pile of 52T, and for my fellow hockey lovers, a pair of Turk Broda rookies. Nicotine top loaders. All was well.

Then again, the OP was using some sort of off-brand Card Saver, and I'm going on about top loaders. Perhaps my musings amount to apples vs. oranges because of this? Who knows.

[gabrinus]

E98s seem bad about that for some reason...Jerry

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by gabrinus

E98s seem bad about that for some reason...Jerry

100% agree, I've seen it quite often with E98s.

[NiceDocter]

Also had some “Magic Marker” autographed photos have the marker bleed into the plastic page wrecking the autograph