OT- Near disaster with "desiccants"

[itjclarke]

Wow, I feel a bit like Vincent and Jules (Pulp Fiction) after the little guy unloads on them. They check themselves, then each other, then realize every single bullet ended up in the wall behind them. I just went through my box of balls (3 dozen signed), packs, and a few cards.

Damaged- one blank MLB ball, and one blank 2012 WS ball. A couple soggy wax packs ('79, '80, etc)

Undamaged- ALL signed balls! Some felt a little damp to the touch, but given most all the ball boxes were soaked through, I feel beyond lucky!! They're airing out now with help of a fan.

I'm in awe. I do give much credit to the board however. At some point during the last 2 years, I took feedback from the board on how best to store autographed cards. My signed cards had all either been in cubes or wrapped in white paper inside the little cardboard MLB ball boxes.

After reading feedback on the board, I decided to wrap each in a little sandwich baggie inside their boxes or cubes and over top of the paper. This was a good move. Most of the ball boxes (seen below) were soaked completely through. The plastic baggies were wet, but the signed balls survived. Inexplicably 2 of the 3 or 4 blank balls took serious moisture damage, but NONE of my signed balls had noticeable marks.

The other really lucky part- the only reason I didn't use this crappy stuff in my safe deposit box is because I'd used it all up in my storage unit just prior. I would have preferred it for my safe deposit box because it's so cramped in there. I had actually thought about going back to my storage unit to get some beads to take back to the bank since the beads in the sacks would've fit nicely into the little cravasses/cracks inside my safe deposit. Good thing I didn't because I know it would have destroyed ALL the non graded contents. What could have turned into my worst day collecting is now a nice lesson--- don't ever take for granted that stuff will just work.. and be very thankful and appreciative when things work out.

I've posted a few pics to show how extensive the moisture from this "desiccant gone wild" truly was. Jay-- for piece of mind, probably not a bad idea to check your box. I will still post any product info I'm able get.

Soaked legal box, and individual baseball boxes (yellow were post it labels)
Wet cardboard box.jpgSoaked MLB ball boxes.jpg

Messed up blank MLB ball (seems actually split wide open), and perfectly white signed ball
Destroyed MLB ball.jpgPearly white signed ball.jpg

Airing balls out
Airing balls and cases out.jpg