Mid-term storage of gaming stuff (6-8 months)

Will Fleming

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Just getting the hive mind to perhaps give me some insight. Basically, I am looking to do some traveling and would store my stuff maybe 6-8 months or perhaps a year.

  1. Storage that is climate controlled.
  2. Put foam into the boxes where stuff might shift around.
  3. Put some desiccant into each box or baggie with counters
  4. Shrink wrap the boxes once #2 and #3 are done
Seems to me that should be sufficient or even overkill.

Anyone have problems storing stuff. I know the guys who put their stuff in the basement for years and had mold and/or flooding damage. Pretty sure I will get a decent rental storage location.
 

76mm

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I think it sounds like overkill. I had ASL stuff (boards, counters) in a cardboard box in a basement for 35 years and it was like new when I retrieved it. I don't think it made a difference, but my counters were stored in plastic counter storage trays.
 
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Houlie

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Yep. Humidity is usually what makes gear get musty. I throw desiccants from other products I have purchased into all my boxes of ASL stuff.
 

Gordon

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I don't think there's anything such as overkill if it makes you comfortable and allows you to travel without worrying.
 

Ric of The LBC

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I think it sounds like overkill. I had ASL stuff (boards, counters) in a cardboard box basement for 35 years and it was like new when I retrieved it. I don't think it made a difference, but my counters were stored in plastic counter storage trays.
I think the plastic did make a difference. All the unpunched counters I have ended up with Foxing (CdG, GH, CoB, RB, KGPI, Sola) including any rules pages. The punch counters (BV, Y, P, WoA) stored in baggies in the module boxes did not. Humidity is not a problem here.
 

76mm

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What climate are you in?
My stuff was stored in St Louis, which is rather humid. The basement where it was stored did not flood at all, but it was a typical basement, so probably a bit damp.
 

76mm

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I think the plastic did make a difference.
Maybe, although I also had more than 30 mounted boards which were simply sitting in a cardboard box, with no plastic, and they were also like new.

If I had known when I packed them that the stuff would be in storage for 35 years, I probably would have packed them more carefully, but at the time I thought it would be for a couple years, then life got in the way... Anyway, I'm not saying not to pack stuff carefully, but I wouldn't go overboard.
 

Paul M. Weir

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While everybody talks about each board, etc being given their own ziplock, etc, there is another option. Pack your stuff normally, with possibly some packing to avoid shifting and mixing. No matter whether they are in cardboard boxes, etc. Then put whatever fits into heavy duty bin liners, possibly with silica gel packets and seal the bin liners. As long as there is at least one impermeable layer it should protect.

Of course if where you live causes boards to curl up and grow an inch of mould during the course of an evening's game, you would need more individual packaging.
 
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Gordon

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Of course if where you live causes boards to curl up and grow an inch of mould during the course of an evening's game, you would need more individual packaging.
I'd think you'd need more than that! :eek:o_O:whistle:;)
 
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