UV and collector cards: why filter the light

The light that “shows off” a collection is also the one that destroys it. UV breaks the chemical bonds of pigments and photo dyes. The damage is slow, cumulative, irreversible. You see it too late: the white has yellowed, the holo is dull.

What UV does to paper and film

On a TCG card, ink and coating react: blues and reds leave, the frame turns cream. On a Polaroid / Instax, film dyes are even more sensitive: a few months near a window are enough. A PSA slab does not stop most UV: it is a capsule, not a museum filter.

The heat that comes with the sun speeds yellowing and haze of the holder plastic.

Sun, window, heat

• Direct sun: the worst (UV + heat).
• A window even behind a light curtain: UV still present.
• Some poorly spectred cold neons and LEDs: less violent, not zero.
• Associated heat: speeds yellowing and haze of the plastic.
• Fingers and dust: on top of UV, a surface without a pane wears faster.

What Anzena acrylic does

Bumper panes filter more than 96 % of UV. That is not an invitation to display due south: it is the barrier for ambient light and FlexWall walls in a living room. Without a bumper, every visible hour is a dose.

• UV filter +96 % on the exposed face.
• You no longer touch the paper or the slab.
• A wall without raking sun + bumper, not one or the other.
• Low-heat LEDs, distance from the spotlight.

Put the piece behind the pane

The filter only works if the card is well seated in the bumper.

1. 01Open the bumper of the right format (raw 63 × 88 mm, or PSA / PCA / CCC / Instax).
2. 02Slide the card, slab or photo, face toward the pane.
3. 03Click shut: no play, no fingers on the original.
4. 04Place the bumper out of raking sun — FlexFrame or shelf.