Any Bubble Optimists out there?

[subzero]

I have an old house that is quite damp at times in the year. I have a dehumidifier running constantly in my small collection room and it pulls about 2 litres a week out of the air. It's ridiculous. I'd not be able to collect without it, I've seen condensation on the inside of my cabinets and believe me it shits you up big time. It's definitely worth paying for the extra electricity.

Wow, the insides??.. that's truly scary, another tip that you might be aware of is if you have a powerful enough unit and you close all your windows and doors you can spend a few days running it to get rid of all the extra moisture stored in your house, if done well enough it will even draw it from all the furniture and the walls, and kind of re-balances the building back to low moisture.

 

[Awl Skulkerkey]

All good ideas. Suppose there is no really easy fix. Everyones houses are different - I just focus on protection from evil UV light but will definitely take onboard the effects of moisture now

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

Plastic lasts a long, long time and the figure and bubbles should exist longer much longer than the cardboard cardback.

 

[Mini99]

Some interesting statistics there, who would have thought diapers would take that much longer when compared to aluminium!

 

[Dannywhiteley]

Depends on the plastic. I've not seen many plastic bottles turn yellow and brittle, even old ones.

 

[x-pack]

Was thinking just the same - these weren't handled carefully in factories

IMG_4556.JPG

Off topic but these stills make U grading a joke! Just wanted to say that :wink:

 

[Awl Skulkerkey]

Respect.. the Graph has spoken! I will sleep better now. Who'd have known, plastic tops the chart!?

 

[subzero]

Great, 15 - 1000 years for plastic, now i'll never feel calm because my MOC bubbles can explode at any minute starting from today, or it could be anywhere up to 1000 years, so i'll spend every single day of my life being paranoid :lol:

If it said 500 - 1000 years i'd have felt more relaxed

 

[Wreck-It Ralph]

So for Ideal storage conditions should you try to remove all the moisture from the room?

If you did have a way of regulating the temperature in the room with air conditioning or similar device what would be the ideal temperature?

 

[Lom]

Respect.. the Graph has spoken! I will sleep better now. Who'd have known, plastic tops the chart!?

But what about the glue? :twisted:

 

[subzero]

I can't remember what the ideal temperature is, but it depends on how much moisture is in the air, basically you need to control the RH level ( relative humidity ), which is the balance of humidity & heat, so you'd actually need to have some control over heat too ( with windows & radiators ), and it will depend on what country you live in, or north or south etc as moisture & heat levels are different in different areas. Changing the heat level in your room/house will change how much humidity is in the air, like raising the heat level which will reduce the humidity as heat draws out moisture.

When it comes to humidity you don't want to remove all the moisture in the room as this will be very bad as it actually dries out your collectables making them dry and brittle ( this is why old papers like comics start crumbling ), the key to controlling the RH level environment is getting the right balance. Your collectibles actually need some moisture to keep them in great condition, mostly when it comes to papers and card as those materials are manufactured with moisture already in them to keep them firm & supple. The main danger with collectibles is too many rapid or large changes in the RH level over time, too much moisture constantly evaporating and re-entering the materials is what can make ink colours change and cause paper warping etc, so the more these changes are limited the less damage is done ( constantly opening and closing a window in your collectibles room can cause bad rapid & wild swings in RH ). And if you plan on trying to control RH levels then you'll 100% definitely need a dehumidifier and an RH & temp monitor. Apparently though you can actually have a fairly high or low humidity level as long as it's kept fairly stable and not wildly changing up & down.

All this info might be a different story for plastics though, RH levels have different effects on different materials.

The best thing to do is do a google search for controlling 'relative humidity' as there is quite a lot of info on it and can take a little while to learn & understand it as there's a bit of a science behind it, but you can also find out what the optimal RH level % will be for different materials ( a lot of websites will have slightly different opinions on which % ).

The glue??.. oh great you've got me thinking about that now! lol

 

[Awl Skulkerkey]

Great, 15 - 1000 years for plastic, now i'll never feel calm because my MOC bubbles can explode at any minute starting from today, or it could be anywhere up to 1000 years, so i'll spend every single day of my life being paranoid :lol:

If it said 500 - 1000 years i'd have felt more relaxed

I'm hoping that's just plastic bags!? 8)

 

[Awl Skulkerkey]

Respect.. the Graph has spoken! I will sleep better now. Who'd have known, plastic tops the chart!?

But what about the glue? :twisted:

I think out of all three elements (card, plastic bubble, glue) you have hit nail on head. Surely the glue longevity is of paramount impotance!?

 

[Awl Skulkerkey]

(importance) :lol:

 

[Mini99]

Oh good, something else to worry about/ not care about. :roll:

 

[subzero]

longevity is of paramount impotance!?

:shock:

I used to get quite OCD over my comic book collection trying to control everything with the perfect storage environment and it causes too much paranoia lol. So since then iv'e promised myself this time to just use common sense with storage and not faff and worry over minute differences that can possibly shorten the life of my collection. And that if something degrades then it degrades, and most importantly to expect it to happen at some point and if it doesn't happen then it's a Brucey bonus! 8)

Like what's already been mentioned something can probably still have perfect storage conditions and end up degrading anyway.

 

[peekaygee73]

Respect.. the Graph has spoken! I will sleep better now. Who'd have known, plastic tops the chart!?

But what about the glue? :twisted:

I think out of all three elements (card, plastic bubble, glue) you have hit nail on head. Surely the glue longevity is of paramount impotance!?

The vast majority of vintage MOC buibbles were heat sealed, not glued.

 

[spoons]

But what about the glue? :twisted:

I think out of all three elements (card, plastic bubble, glue) you have hit nail on head. Surely the glue longevity is of paramount impotance!?

The vast majority of vintage MOC buibbles were heat sealed, not glued.

I think the heat seal works by heating up glue on the bubble.

 

[Awl Skulkerkey]

I think the heat seal works by heating up glue on the bubble.

Yeah that's what I thought! A heat sensitive glue?

 

[ScruffyLookingNH]

Gus Lopez addressed this at Celebration last year. He's had mint, ex shop stock figures tucked away in a dark closet for years. They discoloured over time just as badly as one that had seen the light of day. There are also cases of people opening sealed stock, like Hoth Wampas expecting to find pristine examples to U Grade etc... and they're just as yellow.

Yeah, this is my experience too. I bought some "Generations" Star Trek (OK, leave it) figures when they were a quid each in about '97. I stuck them away in a box and they've been there ever since. Never seen the light of day since bought. I dug them out about a week ago and two have gone yellow and the rest remained clear. They had all the same environmental factors, were packaged at the same time in the same factory with (I'm in no doubt) bubbles made of the same exact material. I think there must be something inside the bubble which is causing the yellowing, or perhaps lack of air if these seals are better than the others? Who the hell knows. Point is there's nothing that can be done to stop plastics like these deteriorate. They weren't made to last and it's a happy chance when something looks good 40 years after it was made.