For you geo-cachers out there: a question...

They're pretty rumpled, especially if they're in a high-traffic area for cachers. I haven't see one get all soggy in a film canister, but changes in heat and humidity still change the paper's crispness. They're readable/writeable but not pristine after a few years.

If the canister is still sealed, you'll find that the paper will be in virtually the same condition as when it was first put into the canister. It might be a tiny bit more brittle, due to the heat, but it will still be quite legible and usable.

Now of course, there are plenty of factors that could cause the canister to break/fall, and if the canister has been opened, the paper will be destroyed (if it's even still with the canister).

Where are you placing the canister? With the smaller caches like that, you have to consider the possibility that small animals (squirrels, raccoons, opossums) might take off with it.

What Melindamusil said. The few I found were generally a little, well, old-paperish. A touch crisp, noticeably different from new paper, but not brittle or thin or breakable. The top sheets were generally rumpled and those near the middle seemed almost like new.

Some had waterstains on the edges. One was badly stained and illedgible, but the rest were fine.

Tightly closed, with no 'new' air introduced, it would be about the same as if you opened it ten minutes later. It is the frequent air exchange that would do more damage than time does.

I live in quite a wet part of the UK, logs don't do well in film canisters. Some put the logs in plastic bags inside the canister, with varying degrees of success.