Storing/displaying cabinets, Old Judge's etc.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

which have an especially bad wavelength for photos and newspaper. A colleague of mine had a Ruth-Gehrig dual signed NY Times page displayed in his office and it was severely damaged by the fluorescent light.

All light is bad for paper products because it accelerates the acid reaction in the paper. Bright, direct light is the worst. Leave a newspaper one day in the sun and it "ages" several shady years worth. Art paper is generally made acid-free or buffered, which is why serigraphs, prints, etc., can be displayed year after year in indirect lighting and remain vibrant. Since cards are not made with buffered or neutral paper, they should be kept in a dark, dry storage at all times except when being looked at. Inside a safe deposit box in an atmoshpere controlled vault is ideal (kinda sucks for casual viewing, though).

The best way to display rare and valuable cards is to have top-quality color laser copies or laser prints from scans made of them and display the copies. Properly matted and framed, they look great and you can put them wherever you want with absolutely no fears of damage. You can also blow up stuff to suit your fancy--if you want a foot-tall OJ on the wall, run a big copy or print.

If you are going to mat and frame a card, don't forget to have it conservation framed. Mat and frame materials must be chemically neutral or they will damage your items. Also, don't trust casual framing that comes with a purchased item. I have opened a number of "professionally" framed items won at auction (primarily autographed items displayed with various photos) and have found routine use of "no-no" materials in these items. Even a short exposure to tape adhesives, for example, can permanently scar an item.

One technique I have used successfully to keep nice items framed without spending an arm and a leg is to put the item into a protective sheet before framing and then frame it inside the sheet. I have done this with signed letters and the like, and they display well and don't have any direct contact with the framing materials. I've undone items after several years and found them to be undamaged using this technique.

Overall, though, I highly recommend displaying only copies of items. With the quality of the copies you can get today, virtually no one will know the difference.