How to Protect/Preserve Autographed Sets?

[Ranion]

Hi, some of you may have read my thread where I meet Adam Reed Tucker at a lego convention and get several autographs from him on a Robie House instruction booklet, a 1st edition sealed John Hancock Center set and a T-shirt.  Recently I also acquired an Exo-Suit set signed by the great Peter Reid himself!

 

Right now, I have the sets and instruction booklet stored inside heavy duty freezer bags and kept out of sunlight and humidity.  but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to store them better, and maybe have them be more displayable?

 

I know The Container Store has clear plastic polycarbonate boxes they make for footballs, baseballs and other sports mementos but I haven't been there in a while and do not know if they have anything that an Exo-Suit or Architecture set would fit snugly into.

 

One other thing I'm worried about is preserving the signature.  Two of the signatures are in that "silver-ink" pen, which seems sort of flaky.  I'm worried it will crumble off in time.  Any ideas on how to preserve them?  I'd hate to have to cover the signature with a clear packing tape to preserve it.

 

I'm never going to sell them, so any permanent changes are probably ok.

 

Ideas?

[stephen_rockefeller]

Get then AFA graded. Or just buy the clear plexiglass cases not sure where to get them though.

[gregpj]

We have a couple custom made frames with some plaster busts of our kids hands and feet from when they were babies. The glass is a UV resistant glass used by museums to protect items from fading and discoloration. Wasn't cheap but if you're that serious it'll provide better protection than a plexiglass case which will only protect against dust. Any good custom framing place will carry it.

I'm not sure what those AFA cases provide as protection.

Sent from Multi-Post iPod touch using Brickpicker

[Neosphinx]

Put them in ice. If it can keep a mammoth intact, i'm sure it can hold an exosuit fresh.

[gregpj]

Get then AFA graded. Or just buy the clear plexiglass cases not sure where to get them though.

 

I was curious... Seems you can get UV resistant acrylic cases when you get it graded. If you're not planning on displaying them, a regular case will do but if he's worried about the ink deteriorating then protection from UV would be pretty important. Also, all those white bricks on the box cover will yellow over time.

 

http://www.toygrader.com/submission_uvacrylic.aspx