Desiccant packs were dry, only thing that seems could be an explanation is pressure from being in an airtight fire/waterproof case. PSA cases are nowhere near airtight clearly.
Two people on discord noted similar damage to cards tonight… Many cards have this damage. Both have a First Alert box. Get your cards out of airtight safes/cases ASAP.
What the f***
No Safe Gang is clearly best
I’m so confused… is this because you live in an area of high humidity? I keep my cards in a water tight case with an o-ring around the perimeter. I have a pair of dessicant packs inside, but don’t expect any issues.
You think this is specific to safes or all air tight cases? Why would the pressure in the safe be different than atmospheric?
It’s strange to see so heavy curving in second card. My graded card collection has been sitting 99.9% of the time inside waterproof SKB case and they still look the same like years ago when I got them.
I suspect this is due to OP’s location? The safe might not be kept in an air conditioned, temperature controlled environment. Still, I’m surprised this would happen. That’s some noticeable damage!
For some reason the air must be humid and causing the cards to warp.
Where do you live where you need to put $30 PSA cards in safes
My damages are a few thousand at least, with multiple $300+ cards, so…
This might be due to the fireproof seal of first alert cases leeching… Apparently the desiccant packs didn’t do their job…
Dang my condolences, I think you might be right about the pressure being the issue. Yeah desiccants do jack shit at best it will drop rel. humidity by a couple percent.
Leave it out in a regular box and mold grows, put it in an airtight case and it warps
What is we to do? Would a dry cabinet make sense?
Do you open the safe regularly as per the instructions? Every safe I’ve ever owned has always said to open at least monthly if not more often and I open them all weekly at a minimum. I also use the larger “rechargeable” dessicants that change color instead of crappy little packets that are one time use and hard to tell when they are used up.
Waterproof safes are often times overkill for many applications and are always worse when it comes to this issue which is why I don’t go for them. Non waterproof ones often times become waterproof in the event of a fire when the foam seals expand.
www.firstalert.com/how-to-properly-maintain-your-portable-safe/
It had been months since it was opened. I fell out of collecting and life got in the way.
I did have more desiccant in volume than there was air, nearly the full case was filled with cards and the rest of space had silica packs.
I’ll be doing a write up with findings at a later date on this issue.
Air holds water. Humidity is a relative measure of how much water is in the air. It’s relative because it depends on the temperature. Hotter air can hold more water so 100% humidity at 30C is a lot more water than 100% humidity at 0C
If you open your safe at 100% humidity and 30C and seal that air in, if the temperature of where your safe is being stored drops down to 0C, the water in the air has to go somewhere. It will come out as condensation (this includes the air in the PSA slabs).
Silica packs will reduce the water in the air but they will have a saturation point and won’t be helpful after the water condenses.
If you live in a place with occasional high humidity and variable temperatures, you are probably at the highest risk. Opening the safe periodically will make sure you arent trapping summer humidity in the safe over winter. Also my understanding is that smaller safes are more prone to this humidity issue over larger ones.
Be sure to open and then reseal your safe in a walk in freezer weekly to be safe.
But seriously. RH monitors are super cheap and I have one inside my safe. “Rechargeable” dessicants are super cheap and easy to tell when saturated. Follow the directions on your safe and you’ll be fine. It amazes me sometimes how little people spend (time and money wise) to protect their very valuable collections.
It will be interesting to see years from now how many PSA cards are coming up on eBay with issues where the card no longer meets the grade due to climate issues that PSA doesn’t cover with their financial guarantee. Will be a thing you’ve gotta watch out for for sure.
I keep mine in a big pelican case. So far I’m good to go.
Just keep your cards inside your house…
You said you had damage to much more expensive cards. Can you also share photos of those?
I’d like to see how all of the cards were affected since you noted this was not just a flaw in this case and affected all of the cards you stored.
If it’s a universal issue with graded card cases, all of the pictures of your damaged cards would be very helpful for others to avoid the same problems.
I had to Google what a desiccant pack was. The saying “you learn something new every day” continues to be truuuueeee.
On a side note, if you buy a bunch of shoes you can get those little packs for free in the box