With prices what they are at this point, it’s become a paramount concern of mine to find a better way to store my most expensive stuff. I do not have a safe deposit box at a bank, nor is that a desirable option for a variety of reasons. I live in a pretty secure apartment building, so theft isn’t really a concern, but I want something that might protect my most valuable stuff in the event of a fire, burst pipe, etc.
Doesn’t need to be huge… Just big enough to hold a couple booster boxes, maybe ~50 graded cards, and some deckboxes. However, most of the fireproof boxes I’ve found in my own shopping around are quite tiny. Any suggestions or recommendations? Thanks in advance!
That sounds actually fairly large compared to most home safes. They’re meant for jewelry, a bit of cash, etc, not stacks of cards. My Stack-On lockbox, a pretty standard size that you could find at home depot could fit maybe 4 booster boxes.
You may be more interested in something like a gun safe with a few shelves inside. I don’t know if there are any fireproof gun safes though. And they’re quite heavy… I hope you live on the first floor.
Ironically one of the main deterrents for people buying safes is the often the same thing that deters thieves. The bigger and heavier the better. If you carried it into your house what’s to stop somebody else from carrying it out?
You can get “fireproof” lockboxes for under $100 but it’s not impossible to carry them away and won’t actually protect your slabs and booster plastics in a big fire (plastic warps and melts at only 150-200F or so which the inside temp will eventually reach).
You can get fireproof safes which are better at protecting from both theft and heat but the only fully fireproof solution is to have a data rated safe which isn’t always ideal for an apartment because they are so big and heavy with little space inside.
Probably best to compromise and look for something 100-120lbs and somewhat fireproof, (like digital media level rated to keep it under 248F) then hope there is never a fire or the fire brigade has time to put it out reasonably quickly. You can also put fireproof boards around the safe to help insulate it or have a fireproof case inside it
This is a good suggestion; I’ll probably pick up one or two of these. I actually already hoard silica packets, so that’s accounted for. Thanks a bunch!
Bought this a while back after my better half complained about valuable cards being scattered all over the office floor: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074KHWNJZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Don’t recall paying $305 though. Perhaps many are looking these days? This fits about 18 PSA boxes with ~20 cards each … Definitely has made a difference to my office floor. Now if the house burns down, I have bigger priorities than saving cards …
I recently drove quite far for a local deal regarding a few Shadowless cards. Upon inspecting the cards before purchase, they appeared to not be entirely “straight”. It’s hard to describe, but it wasn’t the typical curve/bend you see regularly on WOTC holos, but rather a wavey look. The card went up, then down again, then up again. It wasn’t quite as bad as the card in the thread linked above, but it was enough for me to pass up on the cards.
The dude was using one of those black airproof cases. After looking into the topic a bit more I found the thread I linked, that’s the main reason I can imagine why his cards had this.
Not trying to make you panic, but just wanted to share this since there’s more that comes to it, it seems. I don’t have a lot of storage experience myself, but it clearly doesn’t come down to “throw in a safe and forget about them for years and they will be fine”.
This fits about 18 PSA boxes with ~20 cards each … Definitely has made a difference to my office floor. Now if the house burns down, I have bigger priorities than saving cards …