General Forum

We recently moved from Denver to Tucson, Arizona and I lost having a basement to store my collection in the process. I'll actually rephrase that to saying that short, of getting a temperature controlled storage unti, I have lost any indoor storage here at home just due to us moving into a smaller house. That being said, does anyone have experience with storing cards in the heat (ie, a garage) somewhere that the temps hit triple digits in the Summer?

I have lived in Arizona half of my life and storing your collection in a garage or attic space is going to destroy part of your collection. Just a couple of things I have seen over the years; cards drying out and breaking up (older vintage cards), cards with coating sticking together, binder sheets drying out and becoming brittle, penny sleeves turning yellow, autographs disappearing on balls and cards and cards either getting jaundice (turning yellow for base type cards) or Hulking out (turning green for older chrome/refractors).

I grew up in Tucson but I also lived in the Phoenix area and now live in Northern Arizona. Tucson isn't as bad temperature-wise as Phoenix but it is still bad at times. Additionally, during the monsoons there can be a sudden increase of humidity that can damage cards too if they are stored in an area without temperature control.

Fellow desert dweller in Phoenix here.  I wouldn’t recommend storing cards anywhere other than somewhere air conditioned.  I even recently moved my boxes from a closet shelf to an industrial shelf in my office at home due to worrying about the weight.  I moved the shelf to the other side of the room after a couple days because they were by the window and even that was making the boxes warm.  Nearly burnt my hand touching the window to check how much heat was coming through.  

Also, don’t leave cards that have been purchased in the car too long.  I have some warped Bowman from last year that taught me that lesson. 

if you have very little room under your bed or in the closet under your hanging clothes, or an AC storage unit but need to check on the unit frequently to make sure the AC is right and not leaking water into the unit. 

80 degrees is the highest temp and 72 degrees is the lowest temp I feel is comfortable for my collection.

Thanks all for the suggestions..Will have to see what alternatives I can come up with..

When I lived in the Valley I stored my boxes under my bed and my binders in my closet. I had black out curtains too, so that helped alleviate some of the heat and sunlight.