How Not To Store Duplicates.

Got these years ago thrown in with a lot I bought.
Mostly Canada with some USA and worldwide.
Catalogue # on one end and a stamp taped on the other.
327 boxes with around 100 in each.

Please note that cardboard is acidic and frequently can cause 'toning' (paper turning brown and brittle) of stamps stored in them; it is not recommended for long term storage.

This is not to say that your stamps have already suffered nor is it to say that this solution has not worked for you over the years. If you have been very good in controlling the general environment in the storage area, the stability lessens the chance that acidification has occurred.

But I mention this only as a notice to others who might consider this solution.
Don

WoW, this is fascinating! Are these matchboxes?

I'm learning a lot about storage as well. I thought plastic was a good way to preserve stamp sheets but I read in one of the threads, that paper must breathe! It was clearly stated many times. Made me reconsider the plastic sleeves.

Match boxes are not a good storage option.
This is more of a how not to store your stamps.

As you said most have 100 stamps per box ,your better off putting them in glassines and storing them in a shoe box , one shoe box will hold 327 glassines

I kinda put these away and forgot about them.
They will be put in a safer place soon.
On a side note if the boxes were not marked up they would be worth more than the stamps.

I'm using mostly stock books and Vario pages. I give away the extra. I try not to accumulate!

I have bought many carton lots that have had used stamps bundled in QTY=100, each bundle held together with thread, tied around like a ribbon around a birthday present. I don't know that people do that today, but it was almost SOP back in the 1940's-1960's. Maybe earlier or later.

Anyway, cardboard is ill-advised, and tape is a huge no-no. Even if you are not taping directly onto any stamps, over time, Scotch tape will turn to goo - actually, I think it is the gum on the tape - and bleed through almost anything ultimately getting to the stamps inside the 'pack'.

I save manila stock pages when I get them in large lots, and store insane amounts of dupes in those.

Not to speak ill of my Grandfather but he took the cake for bad duplicate storage. He put his duplicates in empty cigarette packs back in the 50's. When I got a hold of his material there was some cleaning out to do. One bright spot, I sold about 30 of the empty cigarette packs on ebay for 20 bucks. Can't recall the brand anymore but they sold fairly quickly.

I'm sure everyone has seen their share of "unique" storage options used for stamps and covers.

Not only is the matchbox cardboard a problem, but the matches they contained had lots of Sulphur in them which ruins orange and some red colored stamps.

It was mentioned here that plastic isn't good because the stamps need to "breath"?
Can anyone explain? Is it for fear that anaerobic germs, or fungi, will attack the paper?

Still looking for those bundles of dollar value Columbians.

I read that in one of the thread but I couldn't find it back.

I was thinking of buying plastic sleeves to protect my stamp sheets and to put in my binders but someone somewhere repeated that it wasn't good, depending on the conditions as well, because paper needs to breathe. Maybe it was sarcastic and I didn't understand properly.

Sheet protectors are not an archival panacea; they do not eliminate archival issues, add cost, and in some cases can increase problems.

The sad truth is that paper is pretty unstable and ultimately will degrade into dust. Paper conservation is about trying to fend off or delay the inevitable. As good stewards of the material we own, the obligation is to slow the breakdown of paper.

In my opinion the best conservation measure we can take is control the environment. Sheet protectors will not help with a poor environmental and in all probability increase degradation. In a good environment they help only by preventing mechanical damage (page turning, perfs 'fighting' with each other on facing page, etc.).

Is the money spent of sheet protectors worth reducing the risk of mechanical damage and increasing the potential risk of rapid degradation if the environmental conditions are poor? The answer from libraries, museums, and the archival community is 'no'. Keep in mind that we might not be around to ensure a good, stable environment, how we assemble our collections can easily outlive us and end up in a poor environment.

The second thing that collectors should be doing (beyond environmental control) is to occasionally test for acidification. It is cheap, easy and gives you an additional reason to look closer at your storage solution on a periodic basis.

Why is our hobby so slack about acidification testing? Do we just want to look the other way? Do philatelic suppliers not want to us to know that they are using the term 'acid free' when it is just marketing puffery? Why would we wait around until our stamps, covers, and paper reference materials are already showing signs of acidification (when it is too late to do much about it)? Buy a paper testing pen, replace it once a year (annual cost <$10), and test everything that is around your philatelic shelves. Album pages, album covers, album spacers, slipcases, boxes, 102 cards, glassines, hinges and mounts are all candidates for testing.

The added benefit is that testing schedule forces us into taking a closer look at our material every year (which is always a good thing)!
Don

Paper testing pen
https://www.amazon.com/Lineco-Testi...p/B000KNJCSS

Thank you Don for that excellent explanation. Didn't know that a pH testing pen even existed.