Penny Sleeves and Archival Safety

[celoknob]

Originally Posted by wastewater

Another question, are top loaders safe for storage of pictures and such or should these also be put into soft sleeves. I see where BCW and Cardboard Gold say there products are archival safe but Ultra Pro is marketing soft sleeves to put in theirs. For large or oddball sized items this can be problematic.

Yea, I have stuff (photos, etc) like this too. Size too odd to put in soft sleeve so I put it directly into Ultra Pro toploaders. I don't have the answer but have had the same question whether this is ok for storage longterm.

[Bugsy]

Also be aware that calling a product "archival," doesn't actually mean anything at all. It's not like there is a government agency regulating what can and what cannot be called "archival." It is a relatively new buzzword in the collecting community used to sell plastics. The manufacturers love stamping this word on their packaging. The reality is that your cards are probably doing just fine in plastics from 10 years ago.

Chris

[Exhibitman]

It's not all that complex. Real archival quality as used by museums means one thing--polyester film aka mylar. However, for our purposes polypropylene is sufficiently inert and inexpensive.