storing slabs: standing up vs. flat down
blue227
Posts: 185 ✭✭
I was interested in hearing the opinions of others as to whether they thought there was any potential long-term harm to encapsulated cards if they are stored standing up vs. lying flat down.
I was eyeing the Roop wooden preservation cases as a nice way (i.e. perfectly sized for the slabs, easy to sort through, great eye appeal) to store my best graded cards when the thought crossed my mind -- would i potentially be harming my cards over the long-run (in this example, let's say 30+ years) if i stored them in an upright position in the Roop box? My layman's guess would be that it would be better to have the weight of the card (and perhaps the slab's weight) equally distributed over a wider surface area rather than on its edge. Granted, not all slabbed cards touch against the plastic holder (but i think the majority do).
This thought crossed my mind when i was recently digging through some old boxes of cards that i had not touched in over 10 years. Within one of the boxes were a few of the LA Police Dept Dodger sets that were issued in the early 80's. (It should be noted that the card stock used in these sets is thin when compared to your standard card stock of the same era.) In looking at the cards under a bright light, i noticed consistent wear on the edge of the card that was touching the bottom of the box.
It was as though the combination of gravity + thin card stock + years of storage resulted in a sort of flattening of the edge so it was no longer as sharp as it had been when i bought a few of them in bulk and stored them away all these years. (i admit i am speculating here --- for all i know the edge wear that i'm noticing today was a byproduct of the cards' cutting/sorting/packaging process that was already there when i first got the cards in the early 80's and i just never noticed it at the time.)
Assuming the edge wear WAS caused by the combination of gravity + thin card stock + 20 to 25 years of on-edge storage, does that mean that the better quality, more commonly used card stock might exhibit similar wear but instead over a longer period of time (i.e. 40-50 years)?
I suppose one why to have your Roop and store it flat too (kind of like having and eating your cake
) would be to have the Roop box lie against its backside. (However, having never seen a Roop box in person, i don't know if there are any exposed hinges which would make the box wobble if stored on its backside.)
Comments?
I was eyeing the Roop wooden preservation cases as a nice way (i.e. perfectly sized for the slabs, easy to sort through, great eye appeal) to store my best graded cards when the thought crossed my mind -- would i potentially be harming my cards over the long-run (in this example, let's say 30+ years) if i stored them in an upright position in the Roop box? My layman's guess would be that it would be better to have the weight of the card (and perhaps the slab's weight) equally distributed over a wider surface area rather than on its edge. Granted, not all slabbed cards touch against the plastic holder (but i think the majority do).
This thought crossed my mind when i was recently digging through some old boxes of cards that i had not touched in over 10 years. Within one of the boxes were a few of the LA Police Dept Dodger sets that were issued in the early 80's. (It should be noted that the card stock used in these sets is thin when compared to your standard card stock of the same era.) In looking at the cards under a bright light, i noticed consistent wear on the edge of the card that was touching the bottom of the box.
It was as though the combination of gravity + thin card stock + years of storage resulted in a sort of flattening of the edge so it was no longer as sharp as it had been when i bought a few of them in bulk and stored them away all these years. (i admit i am speculating here --- for all i know the edge wear that i'm noticing today was a byproduct of the cards' cutting/sorting/packaging process that was already there when i first got the cards in the early 80's and i just never noticed it at the time.)
Assuming the edge wear WAS caused by the combination of gravity + thin card stock + 20 to 25 years of on-edge storage, does that mean that the better quality, more commonly used card stock might exhibit similar wear but instead over a longer period of time (i.e. 40-50 years)?
I suppose one why to have your Roop and store it flat too (kind of like having and eating your cake
) would be to have the Roop box lie against its backside. (However, having never seen a Roop box in person, i don't know if there are any exposed hinges which would make the box wobble if stored on its backside.)Comments?
0
Comments
Did you make a move to a new place with the cards? Especially a long distance?
This is interesting - I will check later - I have cards in the upright position for way more than 10 years.
My intuition? A card is not heavy enough for gravity to "push" the total weight of the card causing damage to the bottom edge without addional forces/factors?
mike
yes, i did make a long distance move but i'm not sure that the edge wear would be caused by the move.
I'd be curious to hear about what you find in checking your cards in storage.
I agree it makes sense that the weight of the card should be too light to cause edge wear. However, then again, many experts (and common sense) initially thought it was impossible for a piece of foam to cause materially damage the steel hull of the space shuttle. An after-the-fact experiment to simulate the collision between foam and steel proved otherwise.
Can any Roop box owner comment on whether their wood boxes can stand on their backside (when full of slabs) and not wobble (due to exposed hinges, uneven weight, etc.)?
Edited to say..............damn,.....wrong forum!!
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