Who will encapsulate signed pieces with JSA loa?

[chaddurbin]

ahh thank you. i think the head of Beckett grading is a member here, i'll drop him an email. thanks.

I changed the title to reflect that SGC might not do this anymore.

[RichardSimon]

Chad - I have never seen any authentication service state that the encapsulation tomb is acid free.
Am I wrong here?
If the plastic tomb is not acid free I would be concerned about wrapping a plastic tomb, non acid free, around my autograph.

[mr2686]

I've never heard that either, and would also be curious to know if they have UV filtering also.

[RichardSimon]

This is only a guess but it would not surprise me if it is just a cheap piece of plastic and certainly not with a UV filter Mike. I would think that if it was acid free and UV filtering they would have let the hobby know.
If I am correct then you are putting your pieces into acidic crap and down the road (it does take time) you will see results that will make you very unhappy.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

This is only a guess but it would not surprise me if it is just a cheap piece of plastic and certainly not with a UV filter Mike. I would think that if it was acid free and UV filtering they would have let the hobby know.
If I am correct then you are putting your pieces into acidic crap and down the road (it does take time) you will see results that will make you very unhappy.

It doesn't take long for non-paper-friendly material to create visible negative results on your paper items.

I recently acquired an Ed Reulbach hand-written letter that was framed with a photo that someone had bought from the HOF, so I doubt it was more than 15-20 years old. The entire thing was matted and framed. When I removed it, the letter had the acid results all around it where the matt had been against it.

Even if the plastic doesn't effect the piece, I still remove them quickly - I prefer my items smelling like old paper, as opposed to fresh plastic chemicals.

[chaddurbin]

from reading the various boards, the consensus seems to be beckett has the uv filter, while psa and sgc may not. i also get the impression the penny sleeve that beckett uses is acid-free. this would make sense as beckett is the undisputed king of modern cards and they slab alot of the cards from topps/ud/bowman etc that have the certified autograph.

[thecatspajamas]

Haven't looked into the others, but I did do a quick scan of SGC's site, and found statements that the flip insert and the black framing insert were both acid free. I did not see any explicit statements that the plastic holder itself was acid free. That of course doesn't mean that it isn't, but it does seem odd to specifically state that the other materials in there are acid free but not say anything about the case itself if it too is acid free.

As I said, I haven't looked at the others, but I do find it surprising that any of these companies would either 1) use acid free materials and not have a big bold explicit statement to that effect or 2) skimp on the cost and not use acid free materials. Every collecting supply that I have purchased for paper collectibles in recent memory have all had some statement to the effect of "certified acid free". We can debate what that means exactly (acid free at the time of manufacture, truly inert, etc), but the bottom line is that all of the major manufacturers of these supplies recognize that being "acid free" is a major concern for collectors, particularly where paper is involved. To just gloss over (or, perish the thought, skimp on) that part of your product seems negligent to me. Just sayin'.

[HOFautosChris]

Originally Posted by Runscott

It doesn't take long for non-paper-friendly material to create visible negative results on your paper items.

I recently acquired an Ed Reulbach hand-written letter that was framed with a photo that someone had bought from the HOF, so I doubt it was more than 15-20 years old. The entire thing was matted and framed. When I removed it, the letter had the acid results all around it where the matt had been against it.

Even if the plastic doesn't effect the piece, I still remove them quickly - I prefer my items smelling like old paper, as opposed to fresh plastic chemicals.

Any pics of the damage. I find this topic fascinating.