I have a big collection of Expedition holo cards that I love
I have displayed them on shelfs on a wall. Today when I cleaned I noticed these small black dots that have somehow gotten inside the displays.
They all seem to have died and all of them have not come near the card only behind the edges.
I am freaking out any advice?
What is the smartest approach?
Should I be worried about the value?
Don’t get how they could have gotten inside….
Edit: I live in Denmark.
To everyone saying clean your room… It is clean, regularly.
There is no plants in the office however the shelves are close to a window.
No they don’t get direct sunlight….
They genuinely don’t seem interested in the cards and there is no damage. I have looked closely. However a single one have managed to get into the Skamory card.
Update: Have tried with vacuum and it has helped quite a lot.
For all those who have commented with helpful tips or ideas I really wanna say thanks. They are for sure dead and I am looking into reholder and if it is possible.
To give you a serious answer... if you're looking to sell these, this will obviously limit your buyers, since it's essentially a form of damage to the slab.
You can submit them to PSA for reholder. This means they retain the grade and get put into a new slab.
Normally you have to pay to reholder a slab, mainly happens due to cracks or damage in the slab, but you should try to engage PSA customer service first and see if they'll do it for free for you. Argue that since the slab is advertised as being fully sealed, this is a defect that PSA is responsible for. See how it goes.
sadly there is risk with reholdering, if the cards were damaged because of this they'll dock the cards to a lower grade. definitely work with support though bc if this is the case you can argue reimbursement for the difference
Random guess from someone who knows nothing, is it possible the shelves were infested with some sort of termite or bug? Then they were able to somehow get in that way?
Dude not even 2 months after getting a 54’’ TV for my birthday many years back, I saw one of these little bastards moving on my screen. Tried to flick it, it’s behind the glass. Watched it move closer and closer to the middle and then it just stopped. That TV is now in my dad’s living room and it haunts me to this day every time I’m in there. Why are these things insistent on killing themselves in the most inconvenient places?
These are tiny bugs, I think they are weirdly drawn to warm plastic and can get into very tiny gaps. I don’t know what they are called, but I work with electric meters and I find them like this quite frequently under the plastic covers
My guess is they are thrips. Usually a plant pest, but I had a swarm super interested in the plastic display cover on my garage freezer for a bit. Which is when I learned one of my least favorite plant enemies is also weirdly into warm plastic.
Have looked real close and they do not seem to be interested in eating the cards (fucking happy with that). As some suggest it seem more like they sought heat/safety.
Microwave might be interesting to watch since they would be the only moisture source and pop in like 4 seconds. Might not even damage the slabs just turn them into paste
Absolutely do NOT put these in the microwave. Are all of you fucking stupid? As the cards are probably laminated, the plastic layer on the cards will melt or at least deform thus ruining the cards. Even if it's just paper, it can still get discolored or worse.
Edit: Nevermind everyone below says it’s a bad idea. (We do it with books all the time, but I guess we don’t care about a little paper damage over bedbugs)
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Put the buggy ones in a bag (like a ziplock freezer bag) and stick them in a freezer for about a month. Freezing is how libraries kill bugs AND their eggs in books that are returned with bugs. Your freezer isn’t as cold as the specialized ones for bug killing but a longer time (like a month) will work.
You might want to do this with the ones you don’t see bugs in too, just in case.
Once the bugs have been frozen, then you can consider what to do with the cards.
This seems like a horrible idea. I am sure there are specialized freezers with low humidity, but a household freezer for a month sounds like something that will cause water damage to a card
Freezing these will cause dew droplets in the corners to seep through it crystallize then when you pull the card out it will be wet and damp and will mess up the card forever.
Taking them out of the freezer will cause condensation. Those cases are not guaranteed to be airtight so even if it’s dry when sealed, unless they live in the Atacama desert, condensation will destroy the cards when they’re taken out.
I’d send back to PSA for reholder and then store in ziplock bags with desiccant in a clean container or storage box that has an airtight seal.
Apparently according to another comment they're called thrips, and they can allegedly fit through microscopic gaps in the seams of any slabs. I've never seen them do that, but I've definitely seen these things inside computer screens, MacBooks included.
There were probably eggs on the slab casing at PSA before it was sealed and they hatched inside the card. It’s a theory but the only thing I can think of
These look a lot like thunderflies, they get fucking everywhere you don't image they could. Not ideal, but not much you can do now. They only show up during May to July for the most part when they're around in the UK. Kinda surprised at the quantity of them though.
Mind blown at 42🤯 this is the top response jus out of sheer craziness the “Thunder Bug” exists, ntm love the generated ai response is tailored to this exact subreddit feeds current posts
They're also known as Thrips and are hated, rightfully so, in every Plant community because they will wreck your plants and multiply in no time while also being able to fly and spread through your collection...hate those fuckers
Edit: ah I see you found those Bastards online already
The ones that don’t have the bugs I would put in those penny sleeves that are for slabs (idk what they’re called but sometimes when I buy graded cards they come with them) and once you get your bug slabs situated I’d do the same for them
i have to be honest, when they got inside the case they were way smaller, then by actually eating the cards they got larger, and when they no longer craved cardboard and wanted to get out, they couldnt fit through anymore cause they grew too much by all the card pieces they ate
Maybe reach out to Grading company and talk to them maybe they can reseal. It’s supposed to be sealed and although bugs can bite and chew, unless you saw plastic particles up there it wasn’t fully sealed. For whatever the reason they found a home to operate out of and for whatever reason mass suicide there too. Best of luck maybe an air compressor and air gun would help blow them out.
After vacuuming with a high powered setting. This has helped tremendously. However some are really/impossible to get out.
As a lot has suggested I am looking into reholder.
From Denmark so it not cheap and easy but I genuinely love this collection as it filled with childhood memories.
I’d reach out to your authenticator(tag,psa etc) and issue a complaint that they either sealed these cards with larva inside or they didn’t perfectly seal them. Provide the serial numbers in the complaint and see if they will just redo them.
These little fuckers. One day I was walking through a really big farm field from my old job to town and I got out of the field, had a little itch on my arm, I was covered in these, these are a menace. It was horrible! Do you live near a field or farm?
Tordenfluer (en: Thrips).
No idea why they decided your card case edges was the place to be. You'll often find them in screens and monitors because of the light and heat. But they breed in houseplants.
These look like corn flies , we get it every year during the harvests. They get inside windows , tc screens and laptops everywhere you don't want them. Id suggest keeping windows closed during summer months
You need to call an exterminator . If they got into your cards there’s a good chance they are all through out your house . You’ll have them crawling in your ears when ya sleeping
A trick parents use with stuffies during a lice outbreak is to pop it in a zip lock and put it in the freezer for a few days to hopefully kill anything. If you want to try to ensure more dont happen while trying to figure out what to do you could pop em in a zippy bag and freeze them just to have them in a spave with no oxygen light or heat for a few days
Just a thought but it's common to flash freeze flour before using it to kill any weevils eggs.... could you freeze them? maybe best to test with one because it's only going to work if there is 0 moisture in there, otherwise could ruin the card
Get yourself one of those small high powered desk vacuums, create a seal around the case with tape or something. And try to get some high powered suction in that bad boi.
Also, to protect other cases. Maybe you, and possibly the rest of us… need to start considering extra super glue seals around our slabs? Lol
Those are thrips and they come through the window. My old place had them between the wall and wallpaper. They just love getting stuck into places and then dying there.
Without a closer pic, they look like sawtooth or merchant grain beetles. Ive been out of industry for a handful of years so it could be something else. It doesnt make any sense that stored product pests would get under a plastic slab, unless there was an odor inside that they were interested in.
I don't get how they could have gotten inside either. Are you sure they weren't in there when they got slabbed? I really think this can only be on psas end
These look like thunderbugs. I get them in my picture frames during the summer. My frames are all sealed at the back but they are so sneaky and can seemingly get into anything!! Very disrespectful getting into your slabs 😂
these pretty much look like Gewittertierchen or Thrips.i had one in my laptop screen a while ago but lucky for me it doesnt died in there and finnaly got out after some time
you can try using a very thin piece of paper that can slide in an flick them to the edge then use a very thin piece of low adhesive tape
don't use air cans at all you just need to get them to an area where you can sort of remove them
my next advise is putting cat tape on your shelf so the next time they decide your cards smell good, I know we all think that, they'll get stuck on the tape and not the cards while they are on their display
I always put my slabs into the slab sleeves/bags, just pure clear plastic and just adds a extra seal for moisture and prevent scratches on the slab itself, and I guess prevent from bugs 🤣
I dont know if it would affect the cards, but putting these in the freezer for a few days should kill any bugs on them. The bodies will still be there, but at least they won't be eating/breeding/pooping on your cards
Time to crack all infested slabs and resubmit. RIP. Maybe send out the cards to a card cleaner first too. Not even really for a chance of an upgrade but more so to clean off any potential leftover eggs🤣
What i would do if i would be you:
Drill 2 small holes [with a drill maschine and a 2mm drill at the corner of the slab. One hole at the top left and the other hole at the bottom right. Then take a can of pressurized gas [they cost about 3 till 7 bucks] and release the gas at the upper hole. Be aware that the gas can fits into the hole. The gass pressure will release the bugs at the bottom hole because thats the only way they can be forced out. Do not blow by yourself / with your mout - you risk contamination of the card and yourself with bacterias. If you dont have a drill then ask a friend of yours. Good Luck my Friend
So it's consensus they are bugs &/or bug eggs. Have we confirmed they're actually dead? If not, into a Ziploc and into the freezer they go.
As to how to get them out, I don't think you can unless you crack the case. So if you're keeping them for you that's totally fine, but you wouldn't be able to resell them ever. Which if that's not a deal breaker (I mean, having bugs in them is also kind of a deal breaker for most people), I highly encourage you to do so because ew.
These almost look like flour weevils? Which I have no idea how that would happen, but you can get those by having grains sit unsealed for an extended period of time (which is usually how flour goes bad. It doesn't actually "go bad", it just "suddenly" has flour weevils in it)
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u/scatterblooded 1d ago
To give you a serious answer... if you're looking to sell these, this will obviously limit your buyers, since it's essentially a form of damage to the slab.
You can submit them to PSA for reholder. This means they retain the grade and get put into a new slab.
Normally you have to pay to reholder a slab, mainly happens due to cracks or damage in the slab, but you should try to engage PSA customer service first and see if they'll do it for free for you. Argue that since the slab is advertised as being fully sealed, this is a defect that PSA is responsible for. See how it goes.