Back when I was a kid my Mum bought for me some Star Wars Power Of The Force 2 toys, this was my first time collecting toys and not playing with them. I kept them MOSC in the hopes that one day they would be worth lots of cash like the original Star Wars toys. I recently got them out and I noticed all the cards had warped, gotten bumped and dinged and the bubbles have all gone yellow. Unlike my childhood SW collection which is worthless just because it's POTF2 my small number of Transformers that I've kept MISB/MISC in my collection are going up in resale value quite nicely. But after inspecting my SW toys and seeing how the packaging degraded despite been kept away from the sun and in cool dry environment I'm wondering short of AFAing them how to keep my Transformers boxes/cards from suffering the same fate?
My Sealed TFs are on top of my desk with no sun light in a cool dry room, which as I understand it are supposed to be perfect conditions. But my SW toys which had even less light on them because they where in a box had degraded badly.
Some thirteen years ago I bought four carded Teck Deck finger skateboards. One of them I opened, checked it out, and put it back in the card. I then packed all four away together in a box to be forgotten; three Tech Decks still sealed on card. Fast forward those ten years, and I'm looking at those cards again. The transparant bubble of the one I opened looks good and is clear and colorless. The three cards that are sealed, however... have ALL yellowed very very badly. I have no idea why the opened one didn't yellow at all, while the three sealed ones did. Certain gasses which eminate from the toy? Air which was trapped in the bubble during production? I have no idea; the only thing I am sure of is that they were all bought on the same day, and all have been packed away under the exact same circumstances.
I have some MOSC POTF2 figures, their bubbles are still clear, they are displayed in a plastic cabinet/book case. I'm not sure what caused the ones you have to yellow, but I'm guessing the box they were stored in is not acid-free. About the TF, boxed ones can be wrapped loosely in bubble wrap then stored in acid-free plastic bins, put some silica gel packets to with them for good measure. Carded ones might fit in Star Cases if they are Minibots or in Minibot-sized packaging, this would prevent cards from warping and the cases are acid-free. For larger carded ones, 2 acid-free comic book backing boards can be used, one in front, the other at the back, carefully cut the front board with a cutter in the area around the bubble/blister. You can then wrap it in bubble wrap and put it in an acid-free Ziploc bag for further protection.
