I have a few vintage cards that I’d like to preserve while waiting for PSA to reopen submissions. I don’t mind waiting, but I don’t want my kids’ and my cards to become damaged over time. I already have them in penny sleeves and clear card savers, just so I don’t have to touch them more than necessary (once grading is open). So my question isn’t about how to sleeve or protect them, it’s about “where” exactly I should store them…
Should I get some type of water/fireproof safe to store them in? Should I use clear ziploc bags to protect them from water? Should I be using desiccant packets to keep them dry? Should they be in a cool or warm dry place?
Basically, what is the best climate and element protection for longterm storage, considering it might be a while before PSA opens up again, and I don’t want these cards to get damaged?
Thanks for the help, everyone, I don’t want to mess up my kids’ and my cards before PSA starts accepting submissions again!
I may be underthinking it, but my grading pile lives in a tin in my office on a shelf. Temperature and humidity are pretty standard and stable, so I’m thinking they’ll be alright there even for a few years.
I’m in the same position as you. I previously stored all my raw cards in a cigar box and they were fine. But I recently bought a case for my slabs, and decided to put my high value raw cards in there too. It’s perfect and eases my mind that they are safe from any damage. Here is the link
Penny sleeves + BCW (or any other brand) white card storage box
No reason to overcomplicate it. But do also make sure that the relative humidity level of the room they’re stored in is between 35% and 50% (you’re probably already in that range unless you live in a place with a very arid or humid climate).
Before I started to go on my anti-top loader rants years ago, here on E4, threads like this said top loader, top loader, top loader. I’m sure you can find them in our archives I took a lot of heat from the naysayers here. Now above, not a single mention of top loader.I guess I can fade away in peace;)
Instead of worrying about whether your desiccant packets are fresh or not (I’ve heard the packets that have the colored indicator balls may contain toxic chemicals, apparently it depends), a dry cabinet is set and forget. Just set whatever level of humidity you want and it maintains that level as long as it’s plugged in. I have a bluetooth hygrometer inside of mine to verify it’s working correctly and it keeps the humidity exactly at the level that’s set.
For the price compared to the price of the cards within it, it’s a no brainer for the peace of mind it provides. One of the scariest moments in my time collecting has been taking out some cards that were in long term storage (in card savers) and noticing a small amount of moisture that was collecting around the corners, even with a bunch of desiccant packets within the same box. There’s been absolutely no worries about anything like that with the dry cabinet
I put my cards in a KMC exact fit sleeve, and then put a regular sleeve, and then put the double-sleeved card in a toploader. Then I stack all of my cards and put a heavy granite slab on top of the stack to prevent any bending and keep the cards under pressure.
Did this for hundreds of cards over the years. Seem to grade fine. Last batch had 72% come back as PSA 10s. The rest were not expected to get 10s.
Current stack is about 10 inches thick! PSA better start taking orders soon …
Wow, I would have assumed the weight on the cards would be a negative somehow, like causing the colour to bleed into the plastic or something. Interesting!
Penny sleeves, then into card saver 1s or equivalent semi-rigids, then into storage boxes like this. Have several filled so far waiting for cheaper tiers to open back up
+1 this. My collection isn’t worth a fraction of what a lot of peoples on here is, but I still got a dry cabinet because before that all of my cards and slabs and binders were literally just on my kitchen counter. It’s a nice storage place, and the safety from humidity is a good plus
