Bagging Question

[chrisfuccione]

This must sound like a dumb question but I am going to use Ultra Pro Comic Boards. Do you put Shinny side against the board or plain side against them? CHRIS

[THE_BEYONDER]

Put shiny side against the comic.....

[joe_collector]

This must sound like a dumb question but I am going to use Ultra Pro Comic Boards. Do you put Shinny side against the board or plain side against them? CHRIS

 

There's the question of the decade, and expect a ton of different answers. I use the shiny side for logical reasons, but after hearing some alternate uses for the dull side, I polled some comic shop owners.

 

Their pick was the shiny side 100%, and they followed up with a take on the following:

 

"Why would they specially-treat the shiny side if you were supposed to use the plain cardboard?"

 

I also know some saps who bought ultra-cheap boards (you know, the ones that are black/brown on one side) and used that instead do the white/shiny side; let's just say that after a few years, their bone-white back covers are not quite as bone-white as before....

[fantastic_four]

Wood products are naturally acidic unless you add something else to them to neutralize the acidity. The Ultra Pro boards you're talking about don't have anything added to them during formation, so they spray that non-acidic stuff on them to prevent the board's acidity from coming into contact with the comic, which itself is a wood product and becomes acidic for the ones made before the 90s. However, the board's acidity does get released into the bag's environment...that's why you're supposed to change them every 3-5 years.

 

The boards Cole and Gerber sell have "calcium carbonate," which I assume is some kind of coal-type rocky substance, added to the wood mix during the formation of the board, which is supposed to absorb the acidity of the wood pulp. These guys stole this idea from the Library of Congress...they say this on their web sites, and I found at least one article on the LoC web site that backed up their recommendation that "buffered" boards are better than non-buffered boards. I did my poking on the LoC web site a few years ago...I'll look around and see if I can find it, although web documents seem to have a half-life of only a year or so!

 

The good thing about the "buffered" boards is that they're marginally more expensive than the unbuffered ones out there. The controversial thing about them is that nobody I've talked to seems to know how much longer they're supposed to last than the unbuffered ones. I asked Cole, and he said they're supposed to last forever...I asked the current manager of Gerber and he said he had heard two stories--forever and 10 years--and that he wasn't sure which was right.

[fantastic_four]

Found an article on the Library of Congress's web site...oddly it uses the chemical formula for calcium carbonate, CaCO₃, and not the name itself. Here's a link for the geeks out there:

 

http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/supply/specs/300-300.html

 

Only problem with the link is that it just sorta presents the specs and doesn't make much in the way of recommendations...I'll give it a few more minutes of hunting before I give up.

[fantastic_four]

Ah, didn't take long, here's an article that specifically recommends "alkaline" buffered boards:

 

http://www.loc.gov/preserv/care/paper.html

 

Note that this article says nothing about exposure to air...I know that oxidation is the primary cause of paper degradation, but I don't see much there to say one way or the other whether sealing paper in an airtight environment can actually prevent it.

 

And just to take this all the way...below is a link to Gerber's prices on half-back buffered boards. They're only $8 for 100, or $6 per 100 if you buy a lot of 2000:

 

http://www.egerber.com/items/halfback.htm

[tb]

Thanks for the very interesting link, FF. I am somewhat surprised

to see calcium carbonate used for this purpose? As far as I remember,

calcium carbonate forms gypsum as a byproduct when it reacts with

sulfur and moisture - this is the process that causes acid rain to destroy

limestone buildings and monuments. I did part of my Ph.D. work on this

subject and have dozens of books about it (far more research has gone into

stone deterioration compared to the decay of paper pulp). What I do remember

is that these reactions are highly complex and depend on the distribution of

salts and pollutants (especially sulfur and carbon) in the air. I would be very

interested in any references that has led Library of Congress to make this

recommendation - it seems far from obvious to me that calcium

carbonate would do more good than harm on cheap paper pulp, especially

in urban environments or near coastal areas? Any chemists on the board?

 

[Rickdogg]

Bagging Question

 

Ask bugaboo about this one....ohhh nevermind

[Bugaboo-migration]

Bagging Question

 

Ask bugaboo about this one....ohhh nevermind

 

When I first saw the thread title, I thought it was going to be about the other kind of bagging too.

[chrisfuccione]

Thanks for all the help everyone! CHRIS

[Darthdiesel]

Bagging Question

 

Ask bugaboo about this one....ohhh nevermind

 

When I first saw the thread title, I thought it was going to be about the other kind of bagging too.

 

 

you've got to "double-bag" when "dealing' with greggy....

[greggy]

Bagging Question

 

Ask bugaboo about this one....ohhh nevermind

 

When I first saw the thread title, I thought it was going to be about the other kind of bagging too.

 

 

you've got to "double-bag" when "dealing' with greggy....

[ninanina]

Bagging Question

 

Ask bugaboo about this one....ohhh nevermind

 

When I first saw the thread title, I thought it was going to be about the other kind of bagging too.

 

 

you've got to "double-bag" when "dealing' with greggy....

 

You just can't rattle this guy anymore.

[ninanina]

Well....I suppose there's always bug.