Safes - Fire Protection (Slabs?)

Joe_G. · #1 12-15-2014, 09:46 PM

Nice recipe Mike

Good discussion points Bryan, Aaron, et al.

A UL 125 safe isn't an option for me given my interest to store large items (bat, rifles, imperial cabinets, etc.) at a "reasonable" cost. I may store digital media in the safe but realize that I'm at high risk if my safe is exposed to a long and intense fire. If my digital media becomes important enough I may invest in a small UL 125 safe.

The purpose of this post was really to try and understand where card slabs fall in the pecking order. If I had to care for a McGreachery OJ overnight, I want to know the risks and how to best protect it.

I do believe damage would occur to our cards within slabs before the plastic's melting point is reached. I know coin holders have wide range of melting points amongst TPGs although it may not be as important for coins since a melted slab may not damage the coin (one such story here). I would hope sports card slabs are held to a higher standard but they may not be. I did broach this subject with SGC at the National several years ago and didn't get much of a response (didn't appear they were hiding anything, but really couldn't answer my question). I suspect the ranking for most to least sensitive items in my safe would go something like this:

electronic data (safe at <125F, high risk of losing in house fire)
plastics (safe up to ???F; different results expected for various slabs, top loaders, plastic sheets, etc.)
paper yellowing (safe at <300F)
albumen print damage (safe up to ???F)
dry wood charring (wide range based on wood type, moisture content, length of exposure, etc. generally higher than paper yellowing)
paper combusting (safe at <424F)

I may run the test from post #2 and include expendable samples of items I will store to better understand what should perhaps be placed in a better safe, what should remain low in safe and what I can raise to top of safe (higher temps). This is just taking the responsibility of caring for my collectibles one step further. I'd hate to lose anything I place in the safe and a little knowledge could go a long way towards protecting everything.

If any TPG services are following this thread, I'd love to hear anything you are willing to share on this topic, either privately or publicly.

the 'stache · #2 12-16-2014, 12:59 AM

Joe, if you were to look back through my posting history here, you'd see this was an issue I struggled with mightily. I wanted to keep my most valuable cards at home, and I found some really good, secure safes that would offer 2 hours of fire protection, and protect, too, against water. I wasn't worried about moisture, because I found a wireless, renewable dehumidifier that would work perfectly to protect my stored cards. Link on Amazon.com.

The stumbling point was always my concerns about internal temperature. At least early on, the majority of high value pre-war and vintage cards I've bought, and will be buying for the foreseeable future, will be slabbed, and any fire exposure would most surely melt the slabs, ruining the cards. The media safe was the only option I found, but I couldn't fund anything with over 2 cubic feet for under $1,400 delivered.

Eventually, I just gave up, and rented a sizable safe deposit box at my bank. It's only a few miles from my home, so I can see the cards any time I want. Once I get my new scanner, I'll be rescanning all the cards I have, and hosting high resolution pictures of them on the website I design.

I would love to see an entrepreneur develop a collectibles-specific safe, one that could be used by collectors of baseball cards and ephemera, coins, stamps, comic books, etc. But, in the mean time, my solution was the best, safest answer I could come up with.

I will be very interested to see what you end up doing. Good luck!

Bill

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