Do you have a collection of baseball cards that you do not know what to do with? Chances are that the collection is worth something, but only if you keep it in great condition. Here are some tips for storing your baseball card collection so that the cards are not damaged.

Keep Away From Humidity

One element that can potentially damage your baseball cards is humidity. This will happen if you store your cards in a place that is cold and moist, such as in a crawl space or self storage without climate controls.

It is best to keep your baseball card collection in your home in a place that gets heated and cooled by your HVAC system. For instance, a bedroom closet is going to be more ideal than your basement that is not heated or cooled throughout the year.

The dangers of humidity is that it can cause the cards to warp over time. A baseball card that was once in good condition and has value could be worth much less because of the environment that you stored it in.

Use a Cardboard Box

You will want the cards lined up in the box with uniformity so that there is not any excess pressure put on the cards. Too much weight could cause a corner to become bent, which could ruin the value of the card.

While you can get by with a simple shoe box, there are specialty boxes you can buy that seal the cards inside. You may want to use a specialty box to keep your high value cards, and designate all the others to the shoe box. Placing the cards upright will also allow you to easily flip through them when you want to see which cards you have.

Use Plastic Sleeves or Cases

For your cards that are somewhat valuable, consider placing them into individual plastic slaves or cases that will snap shut and lock the card in place. This is the best way to protect the card from accident damage, and still allow you to look at the card or show it off to others.

Consider a Safety Deposit Box

For the extremely valuable cards, like a Mickey Mantle rookie card, consider going one step further and placing them in a safety deposit box at your local bank. No matter what you do at home, your cards won't be protected from a house fire or theft, and some of those rare cards are potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.