how long do decals last

I've got decals that 30+ years old that are as good as new. I also have decals that are newer and are useless. The only reason I keep them is one of these days I am going to scan them to have a record of them for future use in making a new sheet.

I've got a few that are closer to 50 years old, but they are turning into dust right on the carrier sheet. 

a big part of it has to do with where you got the decals and how they were / are displayed .  I get a lot of decals from shops, but unfortunately they tend to be stuck in a box standing up right so you can flip thru them. By this time the Micrroscale decals are starting to yellow (and sometimes thats the only decals of your subject avialable and not all of us are photoshop whizzes with ALPS printers).   When I get any decal home I put it in myclosed box in my closet.  Haven't had aproblem yet with storage (Im in South Lousiana, humidity city). If I encounter any problems with older decals it usually comes in the way of yellowing which I take care of with the old south facing window trick.

 I also use a lot of dry transfers and my original dry transfers from twenty years ago that I got in Germany are starting to give up the ghost.....

David

I just used some decals that I've had since '83. They were old Microscale decals. I usually keep mine in a Ziploc bag. I did build a Monogram Neil Bonnett NASCAR stocker in 2003 with the original decals (copyright on box was '89). They had supposedly been in someone's attic for some time before I got the kit a couple of years before I built it. Time didn't seem to hurt them, but late '80's Monogram decals weren't state of the art even then!

Glenn