OT- Near disaster with "desiccants"

[itjclarke]

Just getting back from my safe deposit box and apparently dodged a major bullet. Earlier in the day, I discovered water and sludge in and on boxes of memorabilia in my storage unit. After looking inside them, I realized it was coming from bags of a "desiccant" product which had basically liquified between now and probably May.

A few mths ago, my wife gave me a mixed bag filled with various dehumidification products. It included the little pouches that come in food/drug/etc, little tins packed w/ beads, and then loose beads she'd put in cloth bags (not sure where from but they looked the same as to ones you buy in pouches/boxes). It was the latter that failed.

As it is, I've got a few dozen signed balls, and game programs, etc that are soaked. Luckily most of the cards in those boxes are graded and look fine. If they'd been in top loaders, they'd be toast. I'm not sure as to the extent of damage within these boxes yet, because I left those at home and rushed to my safe deposit box. 80% of cards in my safe deposit are in top loaders and my best signed balls, including one my dad got of Mickey Mantle and his Joplin team as a kid in OK (priceless to me) were were in there. Luckily I discovered I had only used the desiccants in the tins there, and there was no such oozage/damage. It is blind chance that I had used one style of desiccant in the storage boxes and one in the safe deposit. Phew!!!!

I'll try to post more specifics once I get my hands of the product (name/type) my wife had given me that went bad.

[Al C.risafulli]

Oh, what a nightmare.

Glad to read that most of the stuff, and the Mantle ball, seems okay, but still - had to be devastating to see.

Hopefully the wet stuff comes out okay.

-Al

[Jay Wolt]

Ian, thanks for the heads-up, will be heading to my safe deposit box tomorrow as I have a bunch of them in there as well.

[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

[Al C.risafulli]

Whoa.

-Al

[edjs]

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

Whoa.

-Al

Whoa is right, look at that MANTLE!!!!!! Sweet!