card in bank safe deposit box

[drmondobueno]

I live in a very small town on the edge of the eastern sierras after living in the L A basin for over 40 years. Population 1350. No traffic lights, no banks, no doctors, no helicopters, you get the drill. Up until last week, we had less than an inch of rain for the year. Humidity can be non-existent, often under 10%. Our big worry here is fire, wind-driven wildfires. In 2011, the entire town was evacuated when a downslope wind blew a fire down a creek bed and into town, taking out 50 homes. The fire was less than a quarter mile from the home we now live in. Last year another fire started on Highway 395 and caused another evacuation warning before two air tankers were diverted from the Bay area and knocked that bad boy down. Winds were in excess of 40 mph, it could have been very bad. So we look for smoke.

The closest bank is in Bishop, 15 miles to the North. I keep a few more valuable cards there in a SDP, along with my will, passport, and gold fillings. A home safe just would not provide fire protection, so I spread the risk round a bit.

My thinking is I bought the cards to enjoy, so I do. I am not a fan of insurance, having been on the short end of policy 'exclusions' once too often. I gave up a little to get a lot by moving away from population centers and jobs, so I drive an 18 year old fishing vehicle and a trade- off of fire risk with little career opportunity. But being a semi-old fart, what do I need a boss for.

[Texxxx]

Keith, 2 things. Don't leave your Will in a SDB. If you pass no one can get it out! Then it will be useless.
The other thing is you can get a safe that will protect from fire. They are data safes. Not cheap but they will not let anything get over 100 deg. inside.

[the 'stache]

The data safes, which i have looked into, are ridiculously expensive at a size that would be at all useful to a collector.

This is one I just found that is intriguing.

http://www.totalsecuritystore.com/pr...FRPl7AodOmEAxQ

It's only got 1.7 cubic feet of storage, but comparatively, that's not bad for the $1,272 asking price. One hour fire protection keeping the inside temp to 125, protects against "sprinklers, water and humidity", and it's 440 lbs, so nobody could pick it up, and make off with it.

[the 'stache]

That media safe could store 324 SGC graded cards, 420 PSA graded cards, or 264 Beckett graded cards in A Box Factory's Graded Card Storage Trays.

http://aboxfactory.com/index.php/col...rage-tray.html

Unfortunately, the interior is not quite wide enough for the wood or chipboard boxes that are 4 rows wide.

The interior of the safe measures 25" high x 12 3/4" wide x 9 1/4" D

The graded card storage trays measure 5 11/16" high x 4" wide x 8 15/16" D

So, you could do 4 rows of 3 trays each.

Pretty nice.

[LEHR]

Most of your higher-end gun safes (also used for cards) will have a one hour plus burn rating.

[pawpawdiv9]

I have 2 safes...One is a heavy duty digital one, while the other is a portable water-proof one.
id say almost ALL my cards are slabbed (that are valuable) ..Is it necessary to use those "humidity sacks" ?? My others cards are in albulms on shelves.
Never thought about any of this and what it will do...Well what does it do???

[ocjack]

Desiccant packs or even the more professional museum quality desiccants are an inexpensive investment to protect against humidity. There are several companies (and I believe some were listed on this site a couple years ago) that sell museum quality archival supplies.