Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Dont wipe that on your sleeve... or how to store your comics.

Tip for the Comic Collecting novice#1
Nothing can make an old book look better than putting it in a new bag and board.

I have gone thru and completed re-bagging, boarded and boxed about 90% of my collection. The older stuff mainly. The cheap polybags start to look dingy after a few years, and if not stored in a consistent climate they turn yellow fast. All of my existing ones were different sizes (heights and widths) from a variety of manufacturer's and that annoyed my overly anal self. I just wanted consistency and uniformity;not irregularity in the box. Plus, they just looked funny to me.

So after checking and conferring around I made the leap to Mylar storage
I haven't looked back. 


My preference is to use the silver/golden age size (775M2) because it will fit anything I'm likely to encounter. Doing that gives me the clean uniformity I like in my short boxes. This stuff ain't cheap. 

Combine it with the acid free board (so the book doesn't digest itself in the bag) plus the acid free box (overkill, but it fits the bag and boards stunningly well). 

These will be last bags and boards I ever need to buy. No more switching them out ever so often because these wont degrade. Here is a nice little guide to help you decide which size(s) are best for your collection.

My initial rule of thumb was to use it for any book worth over 20 bucks.. this worked nicely with random key issues... but not so hot for a run of modern books. Luckily for me, most of my contiguous my runs ARE Silver and Bronze age comics, so for the most part I can adhere to the 20 dollar rule of thumb pretty easily. 

My one notable exception to this rule in my collection is: 
Walt Simonsons' run of Thor that Starts at issue 337 and ends at 477(?) 


I bought these when they came off the rack as I was working my 1st job in High School at a comic shop. Simonsons Thor; THIS is a prime example of the reason to collect comics in the 1st place. I bagged those in Mylar out of Sheer sentiment. 

The size of my collection has ebbed and flowed over the years. I even sold some x-men while in college to fund a spring break trip. But I always held onto those Thor's.

I spend so much time hunting for treasure, that it just doesn't make sense not to preserve it when I find it.

2 comments:

  1. I am a cheapskate! I double up comics in the same bag with an AF board in between. Sometimes.

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  2. HEY!!
    No skipping ahead to Tip #2...

    Well, yeah - Doesn't everyone put 2 books to a bag and board?

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