Thoughts on the freezer trick for older glossy unopened boxes such as Fleer Ultra
BenG76
Posts: 1,055 ✭✭✭
I know a few here check out some of my videos. I started a pack a day series recently on my YouTube channel. Today I opened a few packs of 1992 Fleer Ultra Series 1 Baseball. I do not know how the box was stored before I got it. I have had the wax box in my chest freezer for about 4 to 6 months now. I kept forgetting about it until recently when my wife asked how long I was gonna leave them cards in there.
Today I opened a few packs and noticed they did not seem to stick quite as bad as I have experienced before. The top pack was barely stuck at all. As I went down in the pile of packs I did notice they stuck a bit but I did not notice any snow on the surface from them being bricked together. So maybe I got lucky or maybe the freezer helped. I will open some more packs from the box soon to see how the rest fare. Also I have another Ultra box that has been in the freezer a while as well. I will soon bust them to see how they turn out.
What are you guys thoughts on this? Thanks
https://youtu.be/R6104gpDvQ8
Comments
Might be worth a try, to freeze long term. Thanks for the info.
I opened a box of 1992-93 Ultra NHL series 1 in October and experienced much of the same thing...top packs had no sticking, the lower in I got the more sticking I saw, but only two packs took any damage, and luckily I got undamaged versions of each card as well. I have no idea how it was stored, my mom got it on eBay as a birthday present.
I would be curious to know the results of your other tests...please post updates. It would be nice to know if I got a lucky fluke or not, because I have a lot of 1990s NHL cards to chase.
Here is a follow up video below. I opened some packs from the other Ultra box I have. If I run across anymore boxes of glossy cards I will at least try freezing them for a while if I plan to open them.
Maybe turn the box over to possibly shift the weight when putting in the freezer.
It's been my experience that the worst culprit for gloss cards sticking to each other in '90's hockey is 1993 Upper Deck. I've wondered if there was a difference in the type of gloss used compared with other cards of the era.
I've tried freezing for short periods, freezing for long periods, heating for short periods, heating for long periods, boiling, compression, you name it. I have found nothing to be reliable in freeing the cards. The cards are either slightly freed from the start, which can possibly be freed with very careful card-by-card prying, or they are stuck together and there ain't shat you can do. The only thing I've found to be consistent is that some issues brick and others don't.
There has never been a dearth of people proclaiming they have the super secret way to do it though. That is also consistent.
Arthur
Watching your video, I wonder if the longer they are exposed to room temperature, the more they want to stick. If they were in the freezer for more than a couple of days, the outside or inside packs really shouldn't matter. Everything in the box would be below freezing level. I am guessing that by freezing these glossy cards, we are trying to remove the moisture (even though very little) between the cards. I am curious if it's the time exposed to room temp. air and the natural humidity that room temp air holds. Kinda like frost building on the outside of a beer mug pulled out of the freezer. (Ya, I like my beer
) That frost is actually from the moisture in the outside air, not the mug.
If a person had the time/desire and the freezer space, I think freezing packs individually and opening straight out of the freezer would be the trick. The box coming out of the freezer and sitting is pulling moisture out of the air I think. But, I'm not exactly Albert Einstein so it's very likely I'm talking out of my posterior.