ThreeSeas

When my Ex tried to start a business she went and picked up a stack of the priority boxes, which I just happened to find recently. These boxes are close to ten years old and I have used them to store household items as they fit nicely on the storage shelf. So now I wonder which one of us has broken the law, her for getting them and never using them, or me for discovering them years later and using them how I see fit...Sorry but this is all silly...I'll probably be arrested by the same people that will also get me for tearing off the old mattress tag...

7 hours ago, Gatchaman said:

For some reason my 19 yr old son likes Vampirella.  Don't know why........lol

Probably for the same two reasons that I still like her at 55. I bought her 5ft tall poster back in the late 70's/early 80's. I'll have to dig that up, I've got it stored with my Frazetta (I think) posters and all of my old Eerie, Creepy, Rook, and Vampirella magazines. 

18 hours ago, newshane said:

This is actually one of the worst materials to use for storage. 

I've written extensively on the topic. If anyone is interested in learning the results of my research, they can read all about it by clicking on the spoiler tags below. I've used a ton of professional sources to write an article on comic storage materials and methods. I hope you enjoy the read. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I've spent quite a lot of time over the last few days researching the optimal storage conditions for my CGC collection. Once I complete the Spawn run, I intend to entomb the collection for the long-haul. At first, I considered custom wooden filing cabinets. Some of these cabinets were made out of genuine hardwoods treated with various stains and sealants; other companies used particleboard with a melamine finish. One company even lined the drawers of the cabinets with cedar. This was done in an effort to guard against pest infestation.

 

At first, I saw a great deal of promise in some of the "wooden" products. I even researched the best specie of wood to use. After spending so much time researching wood, I eventually learned that the material is NOT IDEAL for the long-term storage of paper! Along with nearly any of the associated finishing materials or coatings, wood is responsible for a fair amount of off-gassing. Overtime, this can lead to damage. Dense woods, such as oak, are especially prone to off-gassing. The same is true for particleboard. Ditto for sealants and other chemicals used to finish wood.

 

Remember, your encapsulated comics are slightly vulnerable to the atmosphere. As proven in an earlier experiment documented in my journal, we know that the inner well of the slab is vulnerable to water penetration. In other words, the inner well is not COMPLETELY sealed, even if you do have to use scissors or an Exacto knife to cut through the plastic. Air exchange is possible. Your comic still breathes. So over many, many years, WHAT exactly, is the quality of the air your comics are breathing?

 

If your comics are stored in wooden cabinetry, they are susceptible to the oils and elements that leach off the wood and into the air.

 

After using the board's search function to peruse threads with useful information on the topic, I learned a great deal. I would like to put most of this is one place, and I may add to this in the future. So here we go...

 

WHY WOOD IS BAD:

 

Do not use wooden shelving or cabinetry for paper and film materials.

Wooden shelving, particularly shelving made of particle board and plywood,

gives off acidic gases that can contaminate and accelerate the deterioration of paper

and film. Paint and shellacs also give off gases that can contaminate documents and

hasten their destruction. Moreover, wooden shelving is flammable and that is another

great danger to paper and film documents.

 

- Source: Tennessee State Archives

 

Harmful acids and other substances, however, are emitted by wood, wood composites, and some sealants and adhesives. Although the levels of emissions are highest initially, in most cases volatiles are present for the life of the materials. To avoid potential damage to collections, storage furniture made of wood or wood products should be avoided.

 

- Source: Northeast Document Conservation Center

 

...paper and textiles will be harmed by the oils and fumes in cedar chests, says Museum of the Rockies registrar.

 

- Source: Montana State University

 

STEEL WITH A BAKED ENAMEL FINISH - THE EXPERTS SLIGHTLY DISAGREE:

 

Use heavy-gauge steel shelving and cabinetry with stable baked enamel finish for paper and film materials.

 

- Source: Tennessee State Archives

 

The key word there was stable and that's where the pros disagree. As it turns out, not all baked enamel finishes are created the same way. Read what the Northeast Document Center had to say about the topic:

 

Questions, however, have been raised about the possibility that the baked enamel coating may give off formaldehyde and other volatiles harmful to collections if it has not been properly baked (not long enough at high enough temperatures). This concern is especially serious when collections are stored on book shelves in an area that is enclosed or has poor air circulation, or are stored in closed furniture such as map cases, file cabinet drawers, and book cases with solid doors.

 

Because of this concern about off-gassing, baked enamel furniture is no longer widely recommended unless it has been properly baked. For us to be certain that it has, the furniture must be tested. Testing should comply with ASTM (American Society of Testing Materials) E-595. 1 This testing requires the use of sophisticated analytical equipment.

 

Sounds to me like it would be easier to go with a different material.

 

POWDER-COATED STEEL IS A BETTER OPTION:

 

Steel storage furniture with various powder coatings appears to avoid the off-gassing problems associated with baked enamel. Powder coatings of finely divided, synthetic polymer materials are fused onto the steel. Testing done thus far indicates that the coatings are chemically stable, present minimal threat of volatile evocation, and so are safe for the storage of valuable materials.

 

- Source: Northeast Document Conservation Center

 

ANODIZED ALUMINUM IS THE BEST:

 

It is lighter than steel and very strong. No off-gassing at all. But it's more than likely going to be cost-prohibitive. As a result, I think that power-coated steel is the material that would provide the greatest bang for the buck and will probably be the material I choose for my storage cabinets.

 

SO WHAT IF I'M ALREADY INVESTED IN WOOD? SHOULD I FREAK OUT?

 

No. There is a solution. It's a product called Marvelseal and it's available from this website. Below is a description from the site:

 

The MARVELSEAL® family of Barriers is the Industry Standard in protection of Art and Artifacts during shipment and storage. All barriers offer excellent protection against the transmission of water vapor and other atmospheric gasses. All are economical, flexible and easy to fabricate…and are ideal for lining the inside of shipping crates and exhibit cases and for lining shelves with the objective of eliminating off-gassing from exposed wooden surfaces.

 

The best Marvelseal product seems to be 1311, which is a lamination of Cloth/Foil/Poly and offers excellent MVTR protection and is ideal for easily attaching to wooden crates or shelving using wood glue or other adhesives. This seems to be the ideal solution for the concerned collector who is already using wood cabinets.

 

WHAT IF I STILL INSIST ON WOOD CABS? HOW CAN I MINIMIZE THE POTENTIAL FOR LONG-TERM DAMAGE?

 

1. Use a raw wood finish for the interiors of the drawers.

2. Use a low-acidic, soft wood like poplar, which doesn't off-gas as much as oak or other harder species of wood. I'd use poplar for the drawers and a harder wood for the exterior. After all, you want your cabinet to resist dings and damage over the years. Poplar and pine dent up fairly easily.

3. Line the interior of the drawers with the aforementioned Marvelseal product.

 

DOES ANY OF THIS REALLY MATTER? AM I TAKING IT TOO FAR?

 

I probably am. But I'm approaching the subject from the viewpoint of someone who has the utmost concern for the details. I think that people, myself included, ultimately spend too much time thinking about these sort of micro-conditions. After all, comics from the Edgar Church collection were simply stored in tall, vertical stacks and without the benefit of all the plastics and acid-free materials available to the modern collection. Perhaps we do over-think stuff, but studying about the best ways to conserve a collection has given me a lot of unexpected joy. It's part of the fun of the hobby, at least to me.

 

* * * * *

 

There are many other factors to consider when building the prime storage area for your CGC slabs. We just now covered the appropriate kind of material for the cabinets. We've talked about the dangers of off-gassing. In the next post, I will discuss how I intend to "accessorize" my cabinets in a way that will further protect against atmospheric pollutants, temperature and humidity fluctuations, light, theft, and insect intrusion.

 

Bottom line is that wood is not the best material to use in your cabinets if you intend to store paper for the very long haul (measured in decades, not years). Power-coated steel or anodized aluminum aren't nearly as beautiful or as romantic as wood, but the alloys offer the greatest long-term protection.

 

More on this later...

 

and I wrote lately regarding Neil Gaiman. I will have a Gaiman-related announcement for you soon. I'm really pumped.

Below is the second part of a series of posts on building the perfect storage cabinet...

 

* * * * *

 

STEEL - IT STILL AIN'T PERFECT! SOME CONSIDERATIONS...

 

The serious collector should store his or her collection in a room where the temperature and humidity are under strict control. After researching the use of steel as a construction material in cabinets used to store comics, I discovered that it's possible for condensation to develop inside of a closed steel cabinet. However, this largely applies to steel cabinets that are stored in basements, sheds, attics, or any other area that isn't climate-controlled.

 

Once again, I quote the Northeast Document Conservation Center :

 

Condensation can be a problem in closed steel cabinets when the relative humidity where the cabinets are stored fluctuates.Condensation can result in rusting or mold growth in cabinets. For this reason, conditions in closed cabinets should be monitored. This is most easily accomplished by the use of dial hygrometers or paper-based humidity indicator cards. These devices do not have a high degree of accuracy, but they are sufficient to indicate problematic conditions. If possible, the use of closed steel cabinets should be avoided unless the cabinets are well ventilated or the relative humidity is closely controlled and monitored.

 

After considering the situation, I think that a "sealed" metal cabinet should be fine as long as it's stored in a climate-controlled area. Building vents into strategic locations along the back of the cabinet is another option, especially if they are designed in a way that allows for quick and convenient opening and closing. If nothing else, simply opening the cab for an hour or so every day or every other day should also do the trick. You could also improve the interior environment of the steel shelves by using the Marvelseal product mentioned in part one of this series.

 

The key is to ensure stability in regards to temperature and humidity!

 

You also want to make sure that the temp inside of the cabinet is equal to or greater than the ambient temperature of the room. Condensation could happen if the interior somehow got colder than the rest of the room.

 

What are some other ways to protect against possible fluctuations in temperature and humidity?

 

1. Make sure that your cabinet is at least a few inches or more off the ground. This helps ensure that the contents on the bottom shelves aren't subjected to cold floors and/or flooding.

 

2. Don't store your cabinet on a concrete floor.

 

3. Avoid placing the cabinet close to exterior windows or heating and air vents along the floor - places where the room temperature is almost certain to vary. If possible, try to avoid placing the cab against a wall along the exterior of your house. These are all examples of "micro-climates" that can develop inside our homes.

 

4. Don't place the cabinet along a wall stuffed with water pipes! If a leak happens...

 

5. Use the appropriate mix of fans, air-cleaners, and de-humidifiers to ensure the circulation of clean air.

 

Bottom line? Make sure you monitor the interior conditions of the cabinet. There shouldn't be any problems at all if the steel cabinets are stored in a place with climate control, but a good measure of common sense, and a built-in vent, can make all the difference!

 

* I thought about the problem of dust or other air-contaminants entering the cab through the vent. While there are some solutions to this problem, I don't think it will be a problem for CGC slabs sealed and stored in Mylar bags with archival tape.

 

* * * * *

 

Next up...should I store my slabs flat, upright, or spine-down? Get the real low-down, coming soon...

Now that I've discussed the proper storage environment, I'd like to provide some information in regards to storage methods.

 

Should I store my slabs flat, upright, or spine-down?

 

The CGC started encapsulating comics after the turn of the millennium, so the very oldest "slabs" are now around 14 years-old. The truth is that we have little to no true empirical data on the subject. In short, we still don't have enough evidence to suggest that one method is better than another. However, we do know quite a bit about what happens to raw comics overtime and can make guesses based on these observations.

 

Most of our raw collections are probably bagged and boarded and stored vertically in cardboard boxes or filing cabinets. I've personally never witnesses a bagged and boarded comic suffer direct damage from being stored upright, as long as the comics were packed snugly enough to prevent them from falling over inside of the box.

 

So is it safe to assume that our slabs are safe from damage if they are stored vertically and upright?

 

The jury is still out on this one. I don't seek to make a definitive declaration on the matter; as I stated earlier, it's just too early to really tell. Instead, I hope to offer information from various sources.

 

Some sources claim that long-term upright storage will allow gravity to exert downward pressure on the staples of a comic. Other experts, like Joey at CFP Comics and Services, believe that comics covers with an overhang are especially susceptible to the long-term effects of gravity. As a result, some people suggest storing slabs flat. Others recommend stashing them away with the spine of the comic facing the floor.

 

So what does the CGC say about the matter?

 

In short, they support the traditional vertical storage method:

 

"We suggest that all graded comics be stored as you would any other comic, standing upright in an archival safe comic box in a cool dry place."

 

- Wm. Eric Downton, CGC Receiving Manager

 

What do professional book conservationists, libraries, and museums say about it?

 

Well, it depends on the size of the book you are storing.

 

To avoid damaging bindings, books need to be shelved upright and supported. House very large or heavy volumes lying flat, because upright storage can result in heavy books pulling away from their bindings.

 

- Northeast Document Conservation Center

 

They also point out that storing books with the spine-down is far, far preferable to storing them with the spine-up, although they seem to suggest spine-down storage is preferable only if "moving or rearranging the books is not possible."

 

...store volumes with the spine down (storing a book with the spine up may cause the text to pull out of the binding due to its weight).

 

- Northeast Document Conservation Center

 

The expert consensus seems to be that it's perfectly acceptable to vertically store comics and slabs in the upright position. It's also okay to store slabs flat, because the hard outer well, in concert with the inner well, prevents the type of spine-roll that can sometimes occur when comics are stored flat and in vertical stacks. The following summary from panelology.com is so well-written that I've decided to quote it below verbatim:

 

The Northeast Document Conservation Center (a non-profit regional conservation center in the United States, founded in 1973 and counting amongst its clients the Boston Public Library and Harvard University) advised that although vertical storage in office files or in upright flip-top archival document storage boxes is acceptable for legal-sized or smaller documents, any objects larger than 15" x 9" should be stored flat.

 

This is due to the pull forces which documents stored in an upright position are subject to, and it is safe to assume that what is best practice for larger size documents works out well for comic books as well.

 

So what's the final word?

 

During my research, I discovered that most sources, including the CGC itself, recommend the traditional method of storing comics, and slabs, upright. I found nothing to suggest that a slab would be harmed by storing them flat, although I'd be careful about how high I piled my stacks. It's important to keep in mind that the slabs towards the bottom of the stack will bear a majority of the loaded weight. I've also discovered nothing wrong with storing slabs spine-down, although I still struggle with the logic used by proponents of this method. Yes, the spine is the strongest part of the book and could probably do a better job at resisting the effects of gravity over-time. But isn't it still susceptible to "gravitational" damage, assuming that such a thing really happens in the first place? I think it's too early to tell.

 

Bottom line? There is probably nothing wrong with storing the slabs upright, flat, or spine-down. Whichever method you choose, I think it's more important to handle and store them carefully. The idea is to handle them as little as possible and to protect them from jostling or any sort of vibration.

 

* * * * *

 

Coming up next, I will offer a few final words on storage mediums and methods.

 

 

Thanks for the information Newshane, very interesting. The cedar I used was called rough sawn cedar and a funny thing, even though I thought it was beneficial for my books, I still laid mylites down as a liner so my unbagged comics did not touch the wood. I was a bit cautious about my books coming in contact with the wood back then too. 

Like a few others here, I have had and still have a whole lot of books stored in Mylar - since the 1980's, and they look just like they did when I first put them in bags. I also have the bagged comics stored right along with the non-bagged ones in cedar boxes that I built in the 80's.

I used cedar for my boxes back then because it was mentioned, I think in Overstreet, as the ideal storage box material for comics. I think at the time that acid free cardboard boxes were just coming into the comic market. Anyways I have not kept my boxes in ideal conditions until a couple of years ago. I had them sitting in my enclosed non-climate controlled  front room for probably 15 years or so. The books do not appear to have suffered because of that, not that I can see anyways. Even the raw books look like they did when I bought them at my LCS 30+ years ago.

My LCS owner back then told me not to use Mylar as it would damage the comics because they would get stuck to it he said. I told him that all the research I did was contrary to that. I went ahead and mail ordered a few sample Mylars including something called a  Timelok I think, along with a couple of thousand mylites. I think the mylites were going for around a hundred bucks for a thousand of them at the time. I'll have to check and see what they are in today's market. Anyways the cheap mylites have been good all these years, they still look the same.

As for the other types of bags that are not Mylar, any time I bought comics in those I would then use those bags to go on top of my boxes to keep the dust off as my boxes all have open tops.

When I eventually have some of my books slabbed, I'll just use cedar boxes like I already have, but I'll router out notches so that the slabs slide in and stay in place.

But as I get older I think the next boxes I make will be shorter than the 36" lengths I made back 30 or so years ago. Darn things are a bit too heavy nowadays (after I scanned and tallied a bit of my Disney books I counted 425 in one cedar long box). Most books are protected by mylar but even those without - I do not see any difference after 35 years of touching cedar. So I do not think that slabs in cedar will do too bad, at least for me anyways.

It's a bummer they cannot digitize the pre-2002 issues. I guess I could always scan mine, but that will be after I get my comic collection scanned. As for the Buyer's Guide. I pretty much have every issue from 1984 until they ceased publication, maybe missing two or three issues. I just need to locate them all and get them organized as I have some in a spare room, the attic, and the garage..etc..

Wow, I knew you all would have the answers before I sat down for lunch - coolness.

Anyways I had watched this on a FB site called "The Vintage News" and they are out of Alexandria VA if you want to check them out. I didn't dig any deeper into the video on their FB page but I would guess it came from Youtube.

Hey All,

I was watching a vintage 1943 short film called Troop Train and when they showed the soldiers on the train, there were a couple of them reading comics. The first one was reading a Tarzan story and the second one a Disney comic. I just did a couple of screen shots and am curious if anyone here can id these two books.. I bet that these two books are of issues owned by a few people here.

Okay, that looks like a nice book and I had to blow up the picture to try an figure out why they would say the cover is married. The picture is not the sharpest to me, but it does appear that there are staple holes below each staple. So extra unused staple holes = married cover. I would imagine the only way to not have it detected is to be lucky enough with both the holes and original factory trim matching up.

So sorry to hear of your mother's passing.

I'll play again: $1,044.50

Thanks for doing this again, Dr. X

This thread is weird.. Or maybe this thread is normal and I am weird...

I also would not want to give up my collection for just one comic. There are just too many stories that I am going to revisit and to trade all of them for one comic is just unthinkable to me. Sure, my whole collection probably could not buy an AF15 or any other rarity, but to me it is worth more than any one comic.

In regards to model kit collecting, I used to build quite a few different plastic model kits in the late 60's and early 70's. Before I got a little older and got into WWII kits, I built model dinosaurs and some horror show models.

Let's see if any of you remember these. The kits I am thinking of, are based on the classic movie monsters like Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein, etc. The Mummy and Dracula were in sarcophagus or coffins and they used rubberbands so that when you opened the coffin you would get one view and after closing it and opening it again it would show the reverse side of the character. So with the Mummy, he was a normal looking mummy and when you reopened his sarcophagus he was awake and ready to grab you! Same with Dracula, you opened the coffin first and he was sleeping, then when reopened he would have his eyes open and be ready to pounce., I think I had all of the kits for this horror show theme but as I am going from memories of over 45 years ago I am not sure. I do not know which model company made these.

Ah, the childhood memories...

My current Avatar is from an Archie Comics pinup that my sister got me. She  knew Dan DeCarlo a little bit and he was tickled when she told him that I named my daughter Veronica, so he signed the pinup page artwork to her and I.

My forum name, which I also use for all but the metal detecting forums I go to, is from my main three things I collect, my three C's, Comics, Coins, and Cars. In trying to remember I think I collected comics first, then coins. Cars I did not get into until my adult life. Nowadays I don't know if I really qualify as a car collector as I do not have that many, just my 1969 Camaro, and I still have my dad's 1931 Ford sitting in the barn.

Time to "sale" my investment? Maybe he meant to say "time to sail" as anyone who pays that price will give him a reason to sail away with their money...

24 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

a pawn shop should have proper records for who sold them anything - and I think they are liable if they buy something stolen and don't have those records.

Yep, true here in Michigan for sure. As I posted on another thread here a while back. My dad had to pay the pawn shop what they paid the thief, to get his property back. But the cops/detective with my dad also got the name of the thief, who happened to be our formally trusted neighbor.

Thanks, Thanks a lot, now I only have two minutes left of my lunch hour because I was reading this and the other thread. Missing out on all of the other forums I usually read during this time... But it was worth it

So sorry to hear of this as it is horrible to lose your house and your comic collection and other items. I am glad that your family is okay, like others had mentioned, that is what counts. Hopefully you will find a new place soon and then start to rebuild your lives and eventually your collection.

I guess the possibility of losing a comic collection through a disaster is something we all think about at one time or another.  I may be more paranoid then some when it comes to a disaster happening as I always keep an electronic copy of my comics list with me just in case. I've figured that, with my list showing what I've had, if something happens that I could eventually rebuild my collection. Good Luck to you and your family, from one eggman to another. (I've raised chickens since '73 and have had some form of eggman as my various email addresses since forever ago)

I may have to look into this Instagram thing. Besides what is posted here, I know nothing about it except for its name.

1 hour ago, Silver Ager said:

I'd say ditch it entirely and never go back. But I'm eccentric, I guess.

I've been tempted, but I like reading the posts of others too much.

2 hours ago, Terrapin said:

#4

Facebook does have this option. You can choose to have only members of that group see those posts.

I've done a bit of searching and have read stories about people being in supposedly closed groups, only to have their posts still show up in their friend's news feeds, even though the friends were not part of the closed group.

After coming back here and then seeing the reply by Terrapin above (thanks), I did some more searching and I think I have found it, under the privacy settings.

It states "Who can see your future posts?  You can manage the privacy of things you share by using the audience selector right where you post. This control remembers your selection so future posts from this tool will be shared with the same audience unless you change it."

Okay, now if I am understanding this thing correctly, I can select any friends from my list that can see what I post and the rest cannot. It also sounds like I have to click on this setting every time I make a post, if I do not want all of my friends to see what I write.  Now I've got to find where this tool is. Looking at the FB post reply window I did not see it. Maybe it only shows once I've typed something and am ready to post. I'll have to poke around and see.

Hi All,

I am curious as to your thoughts on being involved and posting on public forums, like Facebook, where there is not much anonymity. I have 128 friends on my FB account, but I do not really care to share any of my hobbies with a majority of them. My fault I guess for accepting friend requests from old acquaintances, etc.

When I do post here at the CGC site, I am reasonably sure that like-minded people (i.e. those that love comics) are the ones that read and share their opinions. On FB, out of everyone in my friend’s list, only my sister is into comics.

I would really like to be involved and post comments more often on the various comic book groups that I belong to, but the idea that whatever I post will show up in the feed of all on my friends list just scares me. A few of my friends know I like comics and that is cool, but there are a few of my other “friends” that I do not wish to share comics or any of my hobbies with. I mean I am okay speaking with them about other subjects; we just do not talk about comics.

I guess my mindset is maybe stuck in the 70’s where anyone beyond grade school was looked down upon if they liked comics…I need to get rid of this way of thinking.

Also when I was a kid my grandmother told me the story once of how a friend of hers had a nice coin collection (this was back in the 30’s) and he used to like to show it to everyone, that is until he was robbed. The lesson I learned from that is to not brag about what you have or you may lose it. I guess that I am not really concerned about my friends, but maybe the public at large that can also see the various pages/groups.

So, I am thinking of the different options I have.

I can:

1) Say the heck with it, just start posting away on the various groups and not care what shows up in other’s pages.

2) Pare down my friends list and get rid of all but a handful of them. I mean really, why have so many on the list?

3) Create a new FB account that I would dedicate to my comics hobby, while keeping my main FB account for other non-comics activities.... Nah, I don’t like this option.

4) Maybe figure out if FB has an option so certain people in my friend’s list do not see my posts – see if it is possible to not have my posts show up in their news feeds.

I am kind of leaning toward the “1) just start posting anyways” option. Maybe my non-comics friends will get so tired of seeing my comics related posts that they will turn off their notifications of my “news”. I’ve done the “stay friends, but hide their posts” option a couple of times myself. I mean, how many times do I need to see what someone is having for dinner?

I’m just wondering how the rest of you handle social media.

Thanks for posting again Senormac.

Alan had (or still has?) a good outlook on life - hate no one, and enjoy life and your job, even if it doesn't pay what you wish it would. That is what I got from reading this article about him.  I view life along the same lines. I had a professor 30 years ago that once said "Life is too short to hate someone" and that kind of stuck with me. I am not giving up my time by wasting it on hate or anger. 

It is too bad that Alan is still not a part of the comic society today, at least as far as I know. 

8 hours ago, Senormac said:

There's lots more but I'm getting tired.  I'll post more tomorrow if there's interest  

Please do. I like reading about the history of our hobby. Thanks for posting this. I didn't discover the Comics Buyers Guide until 1984 and I think I have almost every issue from then until it ceased publication. I'd just wish that I had known about it in the 70's. Prior to the CBG the only way I knew of to get back issues back then was through ads in Overstreet.