Mylar sleeve vs. PSA holder for preservation

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

Thank you.

Welcome

[jchcollins]

Is it safe to assume that cards in my collection are going to be "okay" in polypropylene sleeves and top loaders or Card Savers for at least the rest of my lifetime? I've read this thread and others including the SCD article on HOF preservation with Mylar with intrigue and interest, but I'm not exactly keen on going out and spending 4x the cost or more of regular stuff for Mylar.

I have some nice older cards, but no T-206 Wagner or '52 #311 or anything like that to where I would actually be that concerned that they are one day passed to my children's grandchildren intact. I do like that idea of "museum quality" preservation, but think that may be taking it a bit far.

Wouldn't even changing toploaders and penny sleeves out every 20 years or so be better than nothing?

Thanks,
-John

[steve B]

That's probably fine. In most cases more than fine.

Baring fire, flood, tornadoes, small children etc what's truly archival and what's reasonable for most people have gotten a lot closer since the 80's.

We know now that tight screwdowns might cause damage, PVC pages do damage even more often.

The currently available stuff while it wouldn't be ok at LOC should be ok for a long time. My one T3 is still in a homemade screwdown from 1978 and hasn't gotten any worse. Not that it could get much worse, but there's been no change. I must admit I still have a handful of cards in the old PVC sheets and even those are ok. I just haven't gotten to transferring them into sleeves and boxes.


Steve B

[Volod]

When I entered my second childhood back in the '80's, I put all my cards in mylar sleeves because they were relatively inexpensive - around ten bucks per K . Unfortunately, I stored many cards upright in boxes and noticed after a few years that they were bending noticeably from the effect of gravity. So, I have to agree that, while polyester sleeves may be more attractive, the best long-term storage method is a rigid or semi-rigid sleeve. If we're considering no more than a few prized cards, however, which can lay flat, this firm has many reasonably priced sizes of polyester sleeves: