I’ve talked about the relative insecurity of safe deposit boxes, but as a broader answer to OPs question, here’s some food for thought.
Burglars and robbers are likely not going to take your cards in the highly, highly unlikely event of them invading your home. They’re after the low hanging fruit of electronics, cash, booze, and obvious jewelry.
Additionally, home invasion has become extremely uncommon in the 21st century - it’s really quite unlikely that it will happen to you, let alone happening in a way to specifically target your cards.
If you really want to keep your collection safe at home; if your collection is worth that much money, here’s what you should actually do:
Get your collection insured via a specialty service. There are a few reputable ones out there.
Separate out your collection so that it’s not bundled in one convenient place to be easily taken in one fell swoop.
Store the cards in an inconspicuous way. Unmarked cardboard boxs, binders buried in the back of closets, etc.
If you are really hyper-paranoid, there are a few things you can do to make your cards un-stealable. Keep in mind, most burglaries last several minutes, tops, because that is the response time of police in most urban/suburban areas.
Get a large, lockable case (like a Pelican) and 10 feet of metal chain from your hardware store. Chain the locked box with a heavy padlock aroud a support beam of your home or apartment. Or, go on ebay, craigslist, etc, and buy a bunch of 45 lb plates; the kind you would see in a gym. Chain your box to the weights. Now, whoever wants to move your locked box needs to transport 500+ lbs of bulky, large, and loud material.
There are a million other scenarios that can make moving or stealing your collection very difficult, but you get the picture. Or, like Dyl said, just send your high-value cards to PWCC or ebay vaults.
You raise interesting points, and of course anyone considering a safe deposit box should do their due diligence making sure the storage conditions and insurance caps match their needs. The lowest insurance cap at my bank is 80k, with the option to go way higher. (Also, how the heck do mixups happen? Banks here literally cannot, legally or physically, open a safe without its owner in the room)
I gave a quick look to the options you mentioned, but between Collectors Vault only taking slabbed cards and eBay taking 3% of the cards’ value or up to $50 a pop whenever I want to get them out, the safe deposit box still feels like the better option in my case (mostly ungraded collection, with proper storage and insurance conditions on offer).
It is definitely possible that safe deposit boxes are better in your country. They are not great in the U.S. and should really be used for important documents and the occasional family heirloom.
Consider the humidity issues in your area. Does your bank run A/C in its safe deposit box location when they are not operating? If so, it sounds like a great place for your raw cards. If not, you should consider the damage of unwanted humidity on holos (e.g., curling) and - at worst - mold growing.
Regarding mixups, I know it sounds crazy, but it happens more than you’d think. These horror stories are all over the sports forums that go back decades. I researched this issue years ago with great interest and found that vaults (PWCC, eBay) are the best for me.
To the OP, @octaane is absolutely right. Burglaries are quite uncommon in 2024 in most neighborhoods (albeit, much higher in urban areas that suffer from poverty in the U.S.) due to the increase in external security measures (video cameras, lights), gated communities, traffic cameras, etc. I would recommend buying a Ring camera or something similar for your home if you are paranoid. They also work wonders for documenting high-value deliveries that require a signature.
As someone who works in a credit union I can confirm that our deposit box safe does not have A/C running constantly. The only safe we have that is climate controlled is our vault that contains out IT infrastructure.
Good thread idea. Very easy to overlook the importance of storage, insurance, financing, logistics etc. this is often what separates small collectors from large ones (aside from scale).
I have run this small safe from Fort Knox for several years now and I love it. It’s designed for pistols but I would estimate it could hold up to 30-40 slabs depending on how much padding you want inside. It’s got thick gauge steel (not a “security cabinet”), and can be bolted to the floor. Best of all the entry is physical push buttons. No battery, no electronics to fail, and can be easily opened in the dark very quickly without looking. This was a must have for me when storing firearms. Additionally, it’s extremely easy to conceal as @octaane pointed out. Aside from being bolted into the corner of the floor where it’s impossible to pry out with a crowbar, you can put boxes or laundry on top and it disappears. Can’t steal what you can’t find.
Lastly, if you have extremely high value items that you do not want to store on the premise, I would look into high end art storage. Most serious art collectors for paintings use high security art storage that is temperature and humidity controlled and insured.
Either I’m way to laissez-faire or everyone else is way too paranoid. Just store your stuff in multiple physical locations and if something happens, it happens. The risk will never be 0% but if you split up your stuff at least it’s highly unlikely to lose it all with one rare unfortunate event.
All my cards are in a PWCC vault and I highly recommend it. I have two small kids and enjoy the aspect of knowing they’re safe and insured. I also like that they scan them in so I don’t have to do it and I also screenshot and organize all the photos of my cards in my phone. So it’s kinda like a virtual binder. It’s also nice dropshipping them out of my vault if I sell one somewhere and sending purchases there because….Oregon
I have a dream of going to pick them all up one day once the kids are older/out of the house and buying a few massive display cases.
I second all the posts arguing for a collectibles-specific vault to store your items. Not only is your local bank’s safety deposit box not all that ideal for high-value trading card storage, it’s also going to be way more expensive than vault storage. Most of the reputable vaults will give you free storage for life on items over a certain value threshold. I use PWCC, and their value threshold is $50 USD.
The collectibles vaults are also just better integrated into the buying/selling landscape. PWCC has a built-in fulfillment function where I can ship cards back to myself, directly to anyone of my choosing, or send to auction on their platform. Not to mention the cards are fully insured.
I’d recommend against buying most kinds of safes. The smaller ones are just “burglar convenience boxes” as @gottaketchumall says. Once you get to a size where it’s actually effective against theft, it becomes cost-prohibitive. Add in the problems with climate-controlling safes, and the fact that “fireproof” safes still reach temperatures inside that melt your graded cards, I have wrote off safes completely.
I’m in the same boat as @pfm. Store your stuff in multiple locations, don’t be an idiot, and you’ll be fine.
I think a bank safely deposit box is safer than a cardboard box full of slabs in my home closet. If my house gets broken into, floods or burns down; poof all is gone.
Some people think government regulation is required to make something legitimate. The fact though is that this type of system will be as safe and secure as the institution running it makes it with or without government regulation. You have to do your own due diligence and research to determine if one of these services will fit your needs. I have no experience with them myself, but a specialized service run by a large business with actual resources such as eBay seems like a good bet.
Safes can offer protection from a random burglary, but many burglaries are targeted. If the thief knows your cards are in your house and in a safe, they can prepare for that and get around it. If they don’t know where your cards are or how they are stored, your cards will be safer.
Also I’m very pro-2A, but a firearm is not going to be able to protect your collection. You can use one to protect it when you are home, but what about when you’re gone?
Does anyone have any good brands for fire proof safes? I wouldn’t mind getting one in the future. I think burglary wouldn’t be too high of a concern for me personally but would be a little more worried about fires or hurricanes.
Some of the businesses on Maui that got affected by the Lahaina fire said they had safes, but apparently it melted (so they say)
Most commercially available safes are UL Class 350, meaning that their job is to keep the internal temperature of the safe below 350°F (175°C). However, the cheapest safes will only do so for 30 minutes at most and the best ones available will only do so for roughly 2 hours. House fires burn at 1,110°F (593°C) on average and can engulf an entire residence in less than 10 minutes, so any delay in firefighting will fry your cards.
If you think 350°F is OK for an hour or two given that paper burns at 451°F and cardboard burns at 427°F, you need to consider the melting point of plastics (i.e., cards sleeves and cases used for grading). Unfortunately, most plastics melt far below 350°F. So even if the safe is doing the right thing by protecting your valuables at ≤350°F for 30-120 minutes, your cards will have been damaged/fused with the plastic that protects them for some time. Also, none of this takes into account the potential for smoke damage and the issues that safes can have with regulating humidity.
Ah that’s good to know. Well hopefully nothing happens for the next few years (knocks on wood) until I can move into my condo that’s being built. Then the only thing I need to worry about is if something knocks the building down Thank goodness for mandatory sprinklers in condos
If your concern is fire, then having something like a Pelican case in a discreet location, but close enough to grab in the event of an emergency evacuation, might be the way to go.
I don’t see the point of owning something if I don’t physically have it in my possession, so safety deposits and especially vaults seem like a non-starter to my brain.
I’d agree that using some sort of safety cases, hidden in separate, unassuming places are the best way to balance storing a collection safely, while also keeping them accessible…not that I’m saying that’s what I do - discretion is another part of keeping your collection safe.
One tip not mentioned with regard to fires is simply closing the door of the room where your cards are stored. All modern doors have some level of fire rating
Thank goodness for mandatory sprinklers in condos
