Gone with the stain

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One thing no one seems to be talking about is that within our lifetimes, many of our cards will deteriorate to the point of no return unless they are properly conserved. That means de-acidified, cleaned of foreign materials, and stabilized. Most of our stuff was made using wood-based pulp that is rife with lignin and acids. Many 100-year-old strip cards, postcards and Exhibit cards are already quite brittle, and many prewar newsprint items are falling apart. I have boxing pieces that are nearly 200 years old and are fine because they were made with cotton rag paper, and I have thrown away wood-pulp based items that are falling apart after 100 years.

Is it going to be 'doctoring' if a collector takes steps to address these conditions with proper conservation techniques? Because if the answer is "yes", you better get ready to say goodbye to a lot of W cards, premiums and memorabilia.

Adam -

Curious about what the solution is to preserve these items. I'm certainly not against preservation, especially preservation that is obvious and known to everyone, rather than performed to deceive.

But I'm also completely ignorant about what that would entail. How do you properly conserve that card without the cure being worse than the disease?