Cards that self destruct

[Boinks]

I ran into a couple of these yesterday while organizing my Yankees collection and thought it would make for an interesting discussion.

Who has a card in their collection that self destructed? Were you able to save it?

Here's the examples I've dealt with:

1. (Various sets) Cards that stick together

I've run into some old packs over the years where the cards stick together. Pulling them apart leaves paper damage.

I've tried the trick where you leave them in the freezer overnight and it actually helped. They came apart with much less damage. Just something to think about.

I have a full set of 2003 Upper Deck baseball that I put together when it came out. I checked on the set a couple years ago when it turned 20 and it had become a dozen or so bricks. I was able to slowly separate the cards without any damage though. I think if you get to them in time you can just separate them every few years. Honestly, I don't think the set is worth buying 700 penny sleeves for it.

2. 2001 Stadium Club Diamond Pearls insert became sticky



These cards have a paper back and a plastic front.

I've run into this problem before with early 2000's electronics that have a soft velvet rubber coating on them. The plasticizer that is used to soften the plastic breaks down and turns sticky after 15-20 or so years. I imagine that the same thing happened with this card.

For electronics I've been able to save them by rubbing the top layer off with a magic eraser and windex.

I didn't want to scratch the card so I just used a paper towel and windex. That didn't work very well so I switched to goo-gone. I know a lot of people hate this stuff, but I've found that any citrus smell or staining it leaves behind will go away if you just let it sit out for a day. I've cleaned price stickers off of a lot of records and CDs using it.

3. 2003 Stadium Club cards become cloudy/foggy





I have 3 of these cards and all of them formed a foggy rainbow colored cloud on the surface of the card.

I've had this happen before with a few DVDs and CDs that reacted to the plastic case they were stored in. I guess the high gloss of the card reacted to the 9-pocket page it was stored in for 20+ years.

It's hard to see in the 2nd picture, but the card looked really terrible in person. The spot of light from my phone over Jeter's elbow is how the entire surface of the card looked in person.

I used the same method as I do with CD/DVDs, just a paper towel and windex. These cleaned up really nice, I can't even tell anything was wrong with them before.

4. Some years of Sweet Spot Signatures fade to nothing



This scan is from about 10-12 years ago, it's actually faded to a light yellow color now. The camera still picks it up well, but it's hard to see the signature in person.

Upper Deck used cheap pleather baseballs for these instead of leather ones. The same thing happens if you get a 'Made In China' baseball signed in person. They seemed to have fixed the problem in later years of Sweet Spot, this 2007 Winfield faded to yellow but I have a couple 2008 that are just fine. Unfortunately there's nothing you can do to save them.

5. 2004 Fleer Tradition Throwback Helmet Relic



I think Fleer did the same thing and used pleather helmets for these. Whatever they are made out of, after 20 years it soaked through the back of the card and left a round grease stain on it. The front of the card still looks good though. I don't have a picture handy right now but if I can get one later I'll add it to this post.

[pwaldo]

Haha thanks for posting this. I have those Stadium Club Pearls cards and there isn't a mint one in the bunch. I though they were all damaged because I received them in a large junk, lot that the guy just didn't take care of them but now I know they all just have crappy surfaces.

One I disappointingly found the other day was 2000 MLB showdown foil cards. I had a few that I pulled that turned up with a foil damage so I thought it was how I kept them or something. Don't know what caused it but after trading for some on here from somebody and receiving them gem mint I knew the problem was me and not the cards I thought. But the other day I took out those mint cards to look at them and noticed the foiling discoloring. Then I checked comc and the set is littered with them. Here's what I'm talking about.

A normal card with no foil damage



Foil damaged

[Boinks]

Yeah I forgot to mention that I was able to get the stickiness off of the Diamond Pearls insert, but it still looks a little weird. It's a little cloudy around the edges of the card. I stopped messing with it because at least it doesn't stick to the binder anymore.

[ethunder]

That happened to me with the Sweet Spot autograph. You could barely see it after 2-3 years.

[pwaldo]

2007 Bowman's Best is another one that the surface just goes to hell after awhile



You can see it when I compare two cards from the same set:



and



The surface just bubbles and makes dark/black color dots all over the place after awhile

[Boinks]

That's crazy, it almost looks like foxing. I have some Bowman's Best 1995 and 2001, but no problems so far.