My aunt told me to store my vintage postcards in acid-free sleeves, and 3 years later I found 2 of them had turned completely yellow because I used the wrong kind.

I got a deal on a bulk pack of sleeves online for my growing collection of 1940s travel postcards, and now the ones in the cheap plastic have this weird orange tint, has anyone else ruined part of their collection by cutting corners on supplies?

3 comments

3 Comments

emery_black1mo ago

Heard polyvinyl sleeves can do that, they leach plasticizers.

reesel501mo ago

Wait, they LEACH plasticizers?" That's horrifying, I had no idea those sleeves could actually do that.

jenny_hall1mo ago

Actually, there's something else going on too... those sleeves can trap moisture against the sleeve if the humidity is even a little high. I've found that some of my polyvinyl sleeves developed a sticky film after a few years, and it wasn't just plasticizers, it felt more like mold or mildew starting. I stopped using them completely and switched to paper inner sleeves for anything older or valuable.