My set of Marvel Masterpieces 1996 was placed in archival pages (Ultra-pro) back about 10 years ago. I recently pulled my set out to admire it and noticed that the archival pages were brittle, cracked and deteriorating. Some pockets had deteriorated considerably. Has anyone else experienced anything like this ? Is there something in or on the MM 96 cards that react with the archival pages ? Should I store my MM 96 set in some other media ? Are there other sets that this may occur with ? Sorry for all of these questions, but I’m concerned about protecting this set.

Dan Carleton

Dan,
Alot of the card sets which were produced by Fleer had a special chemical coating on it. It was so heavy on some of the sets that you could actually feel it and the scent was really strong.
I would suspect that you either had a bad batch of sheets, which is possible, but more than likely you had cards which had this chemical on it, which in some way reacted with the chemicals the sheets were made from.

that's ashame

Unfortunately that has happened to me in the past.
But luckily it wasn't an expensive set and only a few cards were damaged.

I have noticed (even with BRAND NEW ultra-pro) that over time, the cards/slips get a little oily. Kinda like there is some liquid inside or something.
Also, if the cards have been sitting in the sleeves for a long time, and been squashed by the heavy weight of folders sitting above them - they kinda stick to the sleeves.
Thus, when you remove the cards, sometimes the surface will peel off.

I've check most of my other sets from that time period, and have not found any others with the same issue. Phew.. I'm thinking it is more likely a chemical reaction between the cards and the pages, and was wondering if anyone else had experienced the same problems with their MM 96 sets. Luckily, the cards don't appear to be damaged in any way. I've removed the set from the archival pages. I've placed them in new pages, and I will be monitoring them much more closely for future problems.

That's unfortunate, those are my favorite cards. After I read this I had to go check on mine. Luckily they are all ok. How'd you like to get rid of those