I have a few valuable cards. I'd like to stick them in my safe for long-term storage. I know that moisture is a concern in most safes. What I'm planning to do is double sleeve the cards with Polypropylene inner & outer sleeves, put them in hard deck boxes, put those in vacuum-seal bags, add a few silica gel packets (color-changing), then seal them up. I'll check the packets every few months for saturation.
Is it possible to over-dry cards using silica gel packets? IE, can they become so dry that they become brittle? Anything else I should watch out for?
Edit:
Does using multiple packets make any difference, beside lengthening the amount of time before they become saturated?
I never had any cards become brittle, but in general i have a safe of expensive cards in a room that is cool, dark and dry, nothing extra put into it.
Foils especially warp and get damaged if the conditions are changing, so if its dry and then humid, or they get in sunlight for some time, thats really bad.
Whats probably more reasonable is to get some sealing gel to make sure your safe is more or less air-tight and waterproof, so tiny slits are filled.
Then if nothing gets in or out, it should be quite condensed, and for the little humid inside, if you have a very humid environment, a small pack should probably do it to soak up humidity 1 time (as after that, no extra humidity should find its way inside for any meaningful effect).
If you open and close it much more often, well, could put the cards themselves in a air-tight container as well, in addition to the safe.
Is it possible to over-dry cards using silica gel packets? IE, can they become so dry that they become brittle? Anything else I should watch out for?
Edit:
Does using multiple packets make any difference, beside lengthening the amount of time before they become saturated?
24-tips-for-making-playing-cards-last
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I never had any cards become brittle, but in general i have a safe of expensive cards in a room that is cool, dark and dry, nothing extra put into it.
Foils especially warp and get damaged if the conditions are changing, so if its dry and then humid, or they get in sunlight for some time, thats really bad.
Whats probably more reasonable is to get some sealing gel to make sure your safe is more or less air-tight and waterproof, so tiny slits are filled.
Then if nothing gets in or out, it should be quite condensed, and for the little humid inside, if you have a very humid environment, a small pack should probably do it to soak up humidity 1 time (as after that, no extra humidity should find its way inside for any meaningful effect).
If you open and close it much more often, well, could put the cards themselves in a air-tight container as well, in addition to the safe.
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