Best storage options for vintage?

[profholt82]

Originally Posted by G1911

In cardboard and cigar boxes without a sleeve in sight.

There's something to be said for this. All of the great finds over the years are in old cigar boxes or similar containers. And basic card boxes are made of cardboard, just like cards, so no worries about long term chemical reactions of any kind there. While it makes sense that hard plastic slabs or binder pages or any other plastic holder would protect a card better, when it comes to longevity, as in many decades or even a century plus, we don't technically know because they haven't been around that long. So it's all just speculation. In the short term, yeah, hard plastic holders are great because you can drop it and can't bend it or anything. But will that card still be ok in 2122? Who knows. In that amount of time, we don't know if there will be a reaction between the inks and the plastic or perhaps outside forces like UV light or moisture in the air or some other issue that we don't even know about yet. But cards sitting in a cardboard box for that long have been proven to be fine.

[homerunhitter]

Very very interesting point! It makes you think if we have been doing it wrong all of these years and should just keep it simple and put them in cigar boxes! I like that idea actually. I noticed that one time when I bought a PSA slab on eBay, when I got it. It had moisture condensation in the slab. Now that totally sucked.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by profholt82

There's something to be said for this. All of the great finds over the years are in old cigar boxes or similar containers. And basic card boxes are made of cardboard, just like cards, so no worries about long term chemical reactions of any kind there. While it makes sense that hard plastic slabs or binder pages or any other plastic holder would protect a card better, when it comes to longevity, as in many decades or even a century plus, we don't technically know because they haven't been around that long. So it's all just speculation. In the short term, yeah, hard plastic holders are great because you can drop it and can't bend it or anything. But will that card still be ok in 2122? Who knows. In that amount of time, we don't know if there will be a reaction between the inks and the plastic or perhaps outside forces like UV light or moisture in the air or some other issue that we don't even know about yet. But cards sitting in a cardboard box for that long have been proven to be fine.

Sleeves are needed if one is dealing with Mint condition items with 4 sharp corners, but as I live in low grade land, I think it's much ado about nothing. I keep my modern cards in penny sleeves because they have 4 sharp corners to preserve, but 99% of my vintage is sleeveless. A VG tobacco card doesn't need a sleeve; sitting in a cardboard box won't hurt it. I don't see much evidence that me actually handling my cards hurts them either. More of them fit in a box, I have no worries that cardboard boxes will hurt them over long periods of time. Tons of cards are damaged by modern protection, from edge nicks on SGC cards slapping into the black frame, from screw downs pressing cards, I have not seen a card actually damaged by a yellowed top loader but I have doubts that is good for the card inside. I'm not sure the modern ways are better for anything except corner protection. Plus, it would cost a fortune to go buy top loaders or card savers and penny sleeves for all my cards at this point.

People spend way too much time fretting about slips and sleeves and slabs and not enough time just enjoy the cards for what they are.

[Bestdj777]

Mine were in toploaders in a show box for the longest time but now are in waterproof safes to protect them in the event of fire or water damage.