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Does light in rooms damage collectibles?


cartman

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I use lamps instead of overhead light in my game room where my collection is.  I've always had this worry about light in the back of my mind since I started collecting, so I figure having lampshades come between the light sources and the collection provides at least a partial barrier to whatever degradation is bound to occur over time...

Edited by Dr. Morbis
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On 3/10/2021 at 10:01 PM, Tulpa said:

What type of light and where is it in relation to where you store the games? If it's not blasting the games directly for hours, I can't see it being that damaging for at least another few decades.

Keep in mind these games are now pushing 30-35+ years, and kids/teens used to have them strewn about the room or stacked on top of the TV with incandescent or fluorescent lights lighting up the room. Maybe some were in their boxes, or shoved into closets, but the average lit room will probably not to a whole heck of a lot of damage for awhile.

Most of the faded labels are from flea markets that had games outside under the sun for hours on end, usually in spring/summer when the sun is shining full force.

If you're concerned, I'd say do as Mr Wunderful said and get some good LEDs. They're energy efficient and will save on your electric bill anyway, so that's reason enough to use them.

I mean, at some point in the future the labels will deteriorate, but that's just how glued paper rolls.

Just 2 bulbs inside a oval casing or whatever it's called and i have no idea what type the bulbs are. Some signs on the walls and a glassed shelf.

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I would say have a dim switch installed on display case(s) would help eliminate any kind of severe damage .

Out in the open , dim lighting in the area you ll be sitting to help keep the rich colour of the item(s) . Something like a table lamp .

Only turn on the light at when , you need something going on ( like searching for something ) or at when you have company over . 

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13 hours ago, cartman said:

Just 2 bulbs inside a oval casing or whatever it's called and i have no idea what type the bulbs are. Some signs on the walls and a glassed shelf.

A “fixture”.
 

fun fact: in the industry, any sort of bulbs are actually referred to as “lamps”. When I was an apprentice, I had to “re-lamp” 200,000 sq feet of fluorescent lamp 2’x4’ fixtures.
 

I went through 5000 to 6000 lamps. Took me a month!

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58 minutes ago, Jfreakofkorn said:

I would say have a dim switch installed on display case(s) would help eliminate any kind of severe damage .

Out in the open , dim lighting in the area you ll be sitting to help keep the rich colour of the item(s) . Something like a table lamp .

Only turn on the light at when , you need something going on ( like searching for something ) or at when you have company over . 

This is also a great idea, just make sure your dimmer is compatible with your fixture type (LED, incandescent, etc) 

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Administrator · Posted
28 minutes ago, DorkOverlord said:

Oh great, something else for me to be paranoid about...as if disc rot wasn't enough...

Disc rot doesn't really like, just happen. You gotta be storing that shit in a basket in your garage or attic. You're doing your games dirty at that point. 

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On 3/11/2021 at 7:41 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

And my wife though I was the sucker for taking dibs on the windowless room deep in the recesses of our house.  Joke's on her!

The house my wife and I own used to belong to her parents, and it's where my wife has lived for like the last 20 years or so.

My game room is currently set up in her former bedroom, prime sunless-facing real-estate on the 3rd floor high above the riff-raff and floodplains below!

I got curtains and blinds over all the windows 24/7 and run a dehumidifier in there to combat Taiwan's tropical conditions. The light source is one of those big remote control LED set ups, so I can run full blast blue during the day or turn down to a mellow yellow at night for those more intimate gaming moments...

You know, there's a space for you on the comfy two-seater Reedy boy! A spare controller and beers in the fridge! How about you hop on a long-haul and I plug in the two player and turn those LEDs down REAL low... 😘

  • Wow! 1
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On 3/10/2021 at 5:53 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

Those EGMs were sacrificed for the greater good!

Also, I'm hoping being up at a high Ricky Mountain elevation (and having the house on a hill) mean that's less likely to happen.  Also the work room next door has a drain.  So we shall see!

Yeah if that floods there ... you need to be building an ark

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19 hours ago, Gloves said:

Disc rot doesn't really like, just happen. You gotta be storing that shit in a basket in your garage or attic. You're doing your games dirty at that point. 

Good to know! I don't store anything in the garage or attic, but I thought it could happen anywhere spontaneously over time. 

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2 hours ago, DorkOverlord said:

Good to know! I don't store anything in the garage or attic, but I thought it could happen anywhere spontaneously over time. 

1 hour ago, Matthewnimmo said:

Yeah, me too i just assumed they all just naturally rotted. Good to know you have to have certain conditions to trigger it

"Generally speaking, disc rot occurs due to chemical reactions with the reflective layer of the disc, ultraviolet light damage, scratches that expose the delicate and corrosive layer to environmental factors, or the deterioration of manufacturing materials."

Some discs are just pressed badly and leave air pockets inside the disc that can expand into rot but I think the expansion is limited by the amount of oxygen in each bubble and good storage might not help with these cases. Rot that happens to good pressings is most likely from sources unrelated to the pressing itself, hence avoidable.

Case 1: Just checked a PS1 game that released in 2003 and that I've owned since 2012; zero holes when looking against a light.

Case 2: I bought an unlicensed TurboGrafx CD game in 2014 (released in 1994), the CD had a few small clear spots that go through the disc when looking against a light. I checked it few years later and I don't think the holes were any bigger or more numerous.

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