Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I'm pretty sure that everyone is aware of 'bags and boards' for protecting their valued (and crap) treasures, and then the long or short boxes to store them in.

I'm noticing that the books at the back of the boxes are developing a warp or bend over time. This is affecting the board too, in fact it may be the board that is helping cause it? Anyone else experiencing this, and if so, what are you doing to alleviate it? It seems less pronounced on the boxes that I have more fully packed, but then it's a pain trying to scan anything in the box.

Another thing I've noticed is that the bags in the older boxes stick together, making it a real pain to look at any one book without having to pull a bunch out and manually separate them.

So, what issues do you have with comic storage?

How old are those bags if they're sticking together?

I don't know the actual length of time, but it's recommended you rebag and reboard after so many years.

I have never done so, of course. :lol: But, I don't have sticky bag issues.

My major storage issue is: no more space for them.

I've heard that too, and always thought it was a plot by the bags'n'boards manufacturers! :nopanic: I mean, how realistic is it to rebag your collection every few years? If I had 20 comics, no problem.

As for the age of the bags - no idea! It's possible these are over 15 years, but that's a wild guess. It might be that age is a factor, and I've considered the idea of needing to replace the sticky ones.

I have been re-bagging many comics from the 1980's (and earlier), and also some runs from the 1990's. I feel really old going through these 20+ year old comics in my collection. I had at least one long box where the bags were getting yellow/brownish in color and the bags were also sticking together, so those definitely got re-bagged-n-boarded.

You are supposed to rebag every few years or so.

Me - I'm just at the point of trying to sell them - as Chew said, there is no more room.

So, do the boards need to be replaced also? These are supposed to be acid-free boards, yes?

I go by visual inspection of the boards, if they are nice and white, probably don't need to replace them, but mine were sort of dingy looking, so I replaced bags-n-boards for all of them. I usually use silver age size bags/boards and store 4 comics per bag/board.

I haven't re-bagged in ages, just too many comics. I am a bit concerned about the basement of my new house, which seems moist or humid or something.

Haven't rebagged since 01 I believe. But yeah, my main issue is space.

Thought I'd bump this ...

I made the decision to start replacing bags and boards, starting with my oldest books. I bought some mylar bags since they claim to be good for 100 years (thus ensuring I won't have to rebag them again). Although they're harder to work with because of the thickness, the old comics sure look nicer in them as opposed to the regular polywhateverthefuck bags I had always used! Mylar is too expensive to do more than just the valuable comics but it's worth it for the gems of my collection.


http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...uperBanana.gif<--Superbanana!

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Sorry for the old bump here, but wondering about storage ideas for TPBs? I could buy long boxes I think, but would rather have something plastic/rubber. Has anyone tried any bins or totes from the big box stores? It looks like the rounded edges kind of ruin their usefulness, but there must be some good options.

(I'll probably end up with the long boxes, but those things just seem too pricey for what they are.)

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I put all my trades/hc's on a book case. To me that's the point of having them. I got tired of long boxes full of singles.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Sticky comics? -other-

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/9...tmaysticky.jpg

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I've been doing the re-bagging and boarding process over the past year or so. Mainly the stuff from the 80s and 90s. Some of the boards from the 90s are starting to yellow so I figured it was a good time to start.

I've also been converting over to Drawer Boxes which I love the hell out of.

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/.../ComicRoom.jpg

The boxes are a little smaller than traditional long boxes but the comics are so much easier to get to now.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

You can get plastic long boxes.

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Plastic-C.../dp/B003MGRKX4
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Comic-Sto...ef=pd_sbs_op_2

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I use bookshelves for TPBs, but I'm running short of space.

I always like Bronkster's banana so this is a good bump. :up:

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Depends.

There are three kinds of boards: regular, acid-free, and buffered.

When you store comics with boards, the boards can absorb acid from the comics and create more acid. An acid-free board is pH neutral, but will become acidic when in contact with a comic book.

Buffered boards are infused with an alkaline agent, probably calcium carbonate or something similar, that will neutralize the acid from the comic books.

If you're concerned about archival fitness, then you should go with buffered boards and not "acid-free" boards, which is more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Thanks for the tips, I'd like to do bookshelves, but don't have the space right now and we hope to move soon. I'm not talking a massive amount of books, and they are mostly a backlog of things I haven't read yet, I do have stuff I read on the shelves. :)

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

A decade or two ago I bought a few thousand buffered boards and Mylar or something else expensive bags to transfer my better stuff. All of those boxes are still unopened and moving from storage site to storage site.

I do hope to get some drawer boxes at some point; it's such a pain to move long boxes all over trying to find or organize things. But darn are they expensive.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I may need to put my comics in a local storage site. I know I need climate controlled, but how careful should i be? One place promises temperatures will always stay 50 to 80 degrees, which the pessimist in me says will really be 45 to 85. Another place is about $20 more per month but promises 70s 24/7 year round. Advice?

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Here are some storage tips:

http://www.comiccollecting.org/page/how-to-store/
http://www.atyourlibrary.org/passito...ng-comic-books

It sounds like it boils down to keeping them in a place that is:

Dark
moderate temperature (50's-60's)
moderate relative humidity (40%)

I'd also add that you should assess your flood risk in the storage facility. I had a storage unit that had black liquid crap leaked into it from the unit above. Fortunately, it missed my belongings, but it would have destroyed any paper products it had landed on.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

In the swamps of Virginia, it's the summer humidity I would be worried about with the comics.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I had several long boxes of old comics -- Marvels and DCs from the 80s that were printed on newsprint -- that I had stored in an attic. It would get to well over 100 degrees in the summer up there. The comics were stored with plain bags and boards, and spent about ten years up there untouched.

When I finally got them out, they were fine. They didn't look any different than the comics I kept in climate-controlled conditions.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I went away to college for a few years and when I came back found that thousands of books had been touched by mold. In some cases it skipped books that were unbagged or boarded and got into many that were bagged and boarded. You can never know in advance as such things can creep up on you if you aren't vigilant and it's heartbreaking to find previously beautiful books (like a gorgeous copy of Avengers #53 that would have gotten at least a 9.5 on CGC) with fuzzy growths on them. No matter what, bad things can happen, but I think it worthwhile to be as prepared as you can.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

It was this, wasn't it?

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__.../Black_oil.jpg

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__..._black_oil.jpg

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Almost rented a 5' by 15' storage site for my comic books (and some other stuff) today; but reading more about comic storage has stopped me. If I'm going to bother to keep them, I might as well try to protect them. I'm fairly sure that my extra room will have better temperature, humidity, and flooding control than a storage site. One tip said to never put your comic boxes on a concrete floor, due to humidity and temperature wicking, and I'd have no idea what to buy to keep them off the floor at a storage site.

Back to the drawing board on my space issues. Perhaps moving all my DVDs to binders is the only way to make headway.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Just put them on bricks or cinder blocks. Or maybe a wood pallet.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Get some of those metal shelving racks from Walmart/Target. Just don't assemble the shelf. Set them on the floor and comics on them. They are wire racks that will keep your items 1-2" off the floor. Close but air can flow under it.

Also, be sure to pay the monthly fee or Dave Hester will be coming for a visit. YUUUUPPPP!!!

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

^ Thanks for the ideas on the the cinder blocks or metal shelves; I'll look into them.

Right now, I'm just trying to find enough non-comic stuff to get rid of or move to storage, and leave my comic collection here so I can enjoy it, and organize it. I imagine that I'm ready to sell about half of it; if I ever make the time to go through it all.

Of course, I may change my mind and put comics in storage tomorrow....

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Continuing my ranting/thinking out loud, I decided against putting the comics in storage. I think they'll be safer here at home, even though my upper floor does push 80 in the summers. Plus I really do want to get back into reading them and organizing them and filling in holes and probably getting rid of a good chunk of them. If I put them in storage I'll never make progress on those goals.

I spent good chunks of the last few days moving them downstairs to prepare them for storage, then moving them back upstairs; and briefly went through many boxes, getting re-energized about my primary hobby since age six.

I remember how close I once was to owning every appearance of my favorite characters (Swamp Thing, Spectre, Phantom Stranger, Demon, Man-Thing) and series (Plop, Micronauts, the original JLA, Nexus, Zot, Stig's Inferno); and how I've bought perhaps 5000 books since the last time I completely organized and indexed my collection.

I think I need to invest in drawer boxes. It's such a pain to move 40+ boxes around finding things. Can Valeyard or any others with experience with them give me their opinions on them, any tips, cheapest place to get them?

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I bought 2x4 pieces of wood and basically sit my comic book boxes on top of that. So the boxes are at two inches off the ground. I have no idea if that's a good idea, so I keep most of the junk on the last row of boxes.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I love the hell out of the drawer boxes. So much easier to get to my books now. They stack nicely and are heavy duty. I met the guy who runs the company at SDCC back in 2005 (or 2006) when he was just starting out. He use to stand on each box to prove how strong they were. Definitely better the my older long boxes with the lids crushed in.

Also, each box comes with 5 comic dividers for your sorting pleasure.


Now the drawbacks:

• They are smaller than normal comic boxes (see my pix above). Meaning, you won't be able to fit the entire contents of a normal box into just one of these. You may end up with more boxes than you currently own. Ironically, their short drawer versions are little longer than a regular shot box!

• The books at the very back are hard to get to unless you pull the drawer all the way out.

• The top row of boxes will tip over if you pull a top drawer too far out. The bottom rows have the weight to hold them down but the top doesn't. The company, The Collection Drawer Co, have a solution for that now - BoxLox anchors. The anchors "lock" drawers together, side by side so the top won't tip.

• Cost. Drawer Boxes run about 13 bucks each. Pretty pricey. I've seen some stores sell them for as much as 15 each. Even if you order directly from the company, shipping brings it back up to roughly 13 bucks each. You can find a store near you here - Box Me.


BCW offers just a drawer shell that you can put the long boxes you already own into (sans lid). I've never bought one but I hear they're a little cheaper than the Collection Drawer. Also, they're designed to hold a regular size long box so you have more space to work with. They're a bit thinner than the Collection Drawer.


Personally, I stick with the Collection Drawer boxes because I like the uniformed look and "heaviness" of the box. Despite some of the drawbacks I mentioned above, I highly recommend them.

Hope that helps!

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

^ Thanks!

Yeah, from the few reviews I've read I'm pretty sure if I did it I'd stick with the original (?) drawer box ones and not the cheaper BCW ones. I'd save money with those since I already have ~50 long or short boxes, but they seem much less sturdy.

I just got a quote from them and 49 drawers (45 long and 4 magazine) would be over $800 shipped. And that's with a volume discount and shipping discount. Holy crap. I've never seen them cheaper at a local shop but I'll look, and maybe start with just a few to make sure I love them $800 worth.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I use the BCW houses. The BCW products are just more easily available to me. I have several of the collection drawer boxes and they are great, but not worth the money/hassle to get them.

I actually have my bcw short boxes/houses on an edsal shelving system, so they don't go more than four high and the durability doesn't really seem to be a major issue yet. I also have some of the long box/houses 3 high on top of my filing cabinets and they seem to be fine. If you don't stack them too high, the BCW is fine. I actually have several of them filled with TPBs.

I also like these business card holders. I put them on the end of the box so that I can keep a box identifier on them(i.e. SB07 for short box 7) and have all my content managed in a SQL database that I wrote some web scripts to manage and present.

It has helped me organize some of the mess that my collection started to become with boxes becoming kind of random and unorganized.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Similar to the business card holder pockets, I use clear packing slip envelopes to label my collection drawers. I cut off the one end and stick it on the front as a pocket so I can easily slide in an computer printed list of what is in that box. That way, I don't keep writing and crossing out what is in a particular box as things change.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

^^ great ideas on the box labeling! I've always used the little labels that are sharpie/eraseable; although I haven't seen them in the office supply stores for years and hope they still make them.

I'm still debating on what to do about organizing my comics. Those drawer boxes are closer to $17 each shipped to me in bulk, although I noticed the quote includes their BoxSort rails at $2 per box. I guess that's their system for allowing you to put dividers and have spaces as needed? Do I want those? Valeyard?

To be honest, I have several months minimum of other projects before I even start on the comics again.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I personally say get them if you want to do drawer boxes. They are nice and you can use them to leave a gap at the back of the box so you can access all the comics without removing the drawer. And not removing the drawer is one of their nice features.

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I have a couple drawer boxes, they're pretty damn good. I did get a pack of the dividers, but I can also use halves of manila folders for that (which I did with regular boxes).

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

Personally, I haven't used their BoxSort rails yet. I was planning to once I converted over completely to the Drawer Boxes. Have you been able to find a local comic shop that carries Drawer Boxes? It might be a couple of bucks cheaper.

Also, using business card holders as box labels is BRILLIANT! Thanks for that, exharrison!

Re: Comic Care and Storage Thread
 

I love how they look even though I was looking for something more like the packing list envelopes that dfmaverick2 mentioned. Overall I like the look on the boxes and it makes organizing a lot simpler. I will say that I did not come up with the idea. Somebody else somewhere posted it along with the company that they made. I'm just sharing someone else's good idea :)