General Category > General Discussion
Storing UGC's in a basement...
Brandonh1091:
I'm sure a lot of you guys have went through the same problem I've hit recently with space. Basically my designated game room hit a dead end recently due to the sheer amount of space it takes to show off UGC cases.
I ended up going with some simple shelves down in our basement which has temporarily fixed the problem.
My question is, how safe, if at all is it to store UGC's down in a basement? I figured surely some of you guys have had experience with it. There wouldn't be any concern on my end at all but recently I was down there cleaning up a little and came across a few trading cards I had evidently placed in there at some point. They were in those little hard plastic protectors that clasp together and apparently at some point the card had essentially "cooked" inside of the plastic case. It was very damp and had a mildew-like smell to it.
The basement itself is unfinished (as you can see), but it's also an above ground basement, so I wouldn't have thought there would've been a huge humidity problem. I live along the south eastern part of the US and humidity is usually relatively high, but I've never noticed any signs of the concrete floors/walls sweating. The air in the basement usually feels pretty dry and cool, but those cards being essentially destroyed have got me worried a little.
Any advice?
wiggy:
My man cave is in my basement, and thus my games as well.
If humidity is a known issue, then I'd do 2 things.
1) Buy a bag of silica gel packets and toss one or two in each UGC before you close it up.
2) buy a good dehumidifier and run that thing at full throttle.
People never believe it, but Cleveland, Ohio gets some pretty intense humidity in the summer. It's something that I've dealt with my whole life. Between those two solutions, you should be A-OK ;)
larryinc64:
--- Quote from: Brandonh1091 on June 10, 2012, 08:49:13 PM ---
--- End quote ---
I never understand why people put games like the way your SNES games are, wouldn't it be hard to get ones on the bottom out?
But as a added question to anyone, I live in CT, around the upper east coast and its been getting really hot on some days in my room to the point where its unbearable to be in, its on the second floor and my AC is broken. I may get a window unit soon but that's up to my mom, because I'm 16 and have no job at the moment. Should I be consented about my games and systems? I move my 14 consoles out to a cooler room, but I can't move my 400 or so cartridges and discs and my Vinyl LPs.
Does anyone think they will be alright or should I be concerned?
Brandonh1091:
Yeah, it is kind of a pain in the ass getting one from the bottom, believe me. ...Even more so putting it back after you're done. It's really more of a "Don't really have much choice" issue than anything. I could definitely consolidate some space in there maybe with some new shelves and save myself a whole lot of space/trouble. I just honestly don't even know where to start.
As far as the basement goes, I had originally planned on having it finished and making it into a full-fledged man cave/game room that would've had more than enough space for my collection, but that's kind of fell by the wayside for right now, mainly over cost and the fact that I'd have to purchase some sort of outside storage building to store my riding mower/tools/yard equipment/etc. It'll all eventually come together, but for right now I'm just kind of out there in limbo with the whole thing.
I appreciate the suggestions Wiggy, I had thought about a dehumidifier originally and I may just look into one.
larryinc64:
You could maybe try to take the covers out if you are afraid of wrecking them. But that defeats the purpose of displaying them.