The best comic advice you'll get this month -- no kidding

[shadroch]

Never store comics in a closet that backs onto a bathroom. There are pipes in the wall inches from your books just waiting until no one is home to have a good laugh at your expense.

Never store comics in a closet that has a trapdoor leading to an attic. Heat is supposed to rise, but seems attracted to expensive comics the way tornados are attracted to trailer parks.

Never store books on the floor of anything. Even a few childs wooden blocks laid flat under them is usually enough to prevent this sort of tragedy.

I''ve learned the hard way over thirty plus years.

[Comics-n-ERB]

+1

 

Had around 85 long boxes on the floor of the basement. House shifted, ruptured the main water line coming into the house. Basement was flooded, books ruined.

 

On the plus side, home owners insurance paid for ALL the books.

 

Now, I use Gorilla shelves from Sams Club in the basement.

[VintageComics]

Never store comics in a closet that backs onto a bathroom. There are pipes in the wall inches from your books just waiting until no one is home to have a good laugh at your expense.

Never store comics in a closet that has a trapdoor leading to an attic. Heat is supposed to rise, but seems attracted to expensive comics the way tornados are attracted to trailer parks.

Never store books on the floor of anything. Even a few childs wooden blocks laid flat under them is usually enough to prevent this sort of tragedy.

I''ve learned the hard way over thirty plus years.

 

All good advice.

 

For long term storage, keeping them from an outside wall is also a plus to prevent constant temperature change (although it would take years to see any effects).

[whisp]

I was a few feet away from losing my cgc books when I lived in a basement apartment and the city pipe coming into the house burst.

 

 

 

So Lucky!

[comicalgems]

Never store comics in a closet that backs onto a bathroom. There are pipes in the wall inches from your books just waiting until no one is home to have a good laugh at your expense.

Never store comics in a closet that has a trapdoor leading to an attic. Heat is supposed to rise, but seems attracted to expensive comics the way tornados are attracted to trailer parks.

Never store books on the floor of anything. Even a few childs wooden blocks laid flat under them is usually enough to prevent this sort of tragedy.

I''ve learned the hard way over thirty plus years.

 

Brilliant advice right there.

[Old Fashion PB and J]

I was waiting to find a slab pro spam. I dont know why... Sorry to hear about your books.

[gradejunky]

Super sucky!!!!!! Poly bags have a very short water repelling property, I know that people have done testing on this and poly bags hold out for maybe a few hours at best until the h2o finds its way to the books. CGC slabs are "Tight but not airtight" as quoted in their ads as to let the air inside the well to periodically exchange out. Water has no problem getting inside. The best way to protect books as you may know is Mylar, albeit it's expensive to Mylar every book you own. The edges are heat welded very well and the product has very high moisture/chemical/air/heat repelling properties. I feel for ya

[Ken Aldred]

For long term storage, keeping them from an outside wall is also a plus to prevent constant temperature change (although it would take years to see any effects).

 

A classic mistake that I made once. Three boxes up against an outside-facing wall, and left there for about 18 months or so. Unfortunately, England is a very rainy and damp country, and many bagged 9.4+ candidates were quickly transformed into rusty-stapled drek. Luckily nothing valuable but, of course, a very disheartening exercise in learning the hard way.

[catrick339]

Keep your eyes peeled when traveling around factory areas, you can scrounge pallets for free all the time. That 4 inches or so lift from the bare concrete or finished floor will save you from all but the most severe flooding...a piece or two of cardboard over the top of the pallets will keep the worst of the bottom folding on the boxes from taking place.

 

This is a fast and cheap way to get a temporary lift from that dreaded basement floor, permanent shelves on an inside wall away from hidden plumbing pipes is a better solution if you can afford it...

[bronze_rules]

Sorry to hear about it. I had roughly the exact same thing happen a few years ago.

We were sitting in bed, and I kept wondering what that sound was in the pipes.

Turned out it was just a ruptured three dollar water line under the sink. Kitchen wooden floors were in about 1 foot of water, which leaked into adjacent rooms.

 

Ever since then, my ears have been a radar with regards to water running.

Also, when I leave anywhere for a few days, I turn off the main water line just in case.

 

Well, now that I put a lot of comic boxes on shelves, the next disaster will probably be a 7.0 quake.. .you just can't win. I'm sure everyone has their shelves secured, right?

[shadroch]

Or you can just put the DC boxes on the floor and the better stuff on top of them.

[SilverRich]

DO NOT KEEP THEM ON THE FLOOR !! I mean it - do whatever it takes.

 

I got a call at work from a neighbor who heard a funny sound

from my condo -- the flexible hose had come off the bottom

of the toilet tank and my bathroom had an inch of water in it.

Which had seeped into (and soaked) the carpet and padding of the attached

closet. Where I had some slabbed books in a cardboard box.

 

On the floor.

 

Turns out CGC cases are not waterproof (duh!).

 

The cardboard box was soaked. Water "wicks" into whatever it can.

The box had about 1/8 inch of water in the bottom -- didn't seem

too bad ... at first.

 

Three books were OK, no visible water. Twelve books had water

somewhere past the outer case. Ten of those were ok, but in two

books, water had penetrated the inner well and gotten to the paper.

 

Dozens of Mad magazines (bagged and boarded, in another cardboard box)

also had fairly severe water damage -- I had thought bags offered more

protection than they did.

 

I've learned a few things today -- don't let this happen to you.

 

gozer

 

 

Sorry to hear about that. Water (and humidity) are a comic collector's worst enemy. Closely followed by direct sunlight and marriage.

 

 

[silverweb]

Sorry to hear that bud, and thanks for the warning. My comic closet is near a bathroom. I should move my SSOC 1-100 box off the floor and just have the least valuable undercopy books down at the bottom.

[Jeffro.]

When I moved into my current house, I had no choice but to store my comics in the basement. I put some on wooden pallets (works really well) but some were on the floor.

I had a cat at that time that stopped piddling in her litter box. Long story short, some boxes got pee soaked. Nothing really valuable fortunately. I, at least, had the foresight to put the boxes I cared the least about on the floor. The ones stacked on top were fine.

[passion4comics]

+1

 

Had around 85 long boxes on the floor of the basement. House shifted, ruptured the main water line coming into the house. Basement was flooded, books ruined.

 

On the plus side, home owners insurance paid for ALL the books.

 

Now, I use Gorilla shelves from Sams Club in the basement.

 

Didn't they cap you like they would with jewelry? I have a firearms collection and they say I'm only insured up to $2000.

 

 

[JediTrix]

+1

 

Had around 85 long boxes on the floor of the basement. House shifted, ruptured the main water line coming into the house. Basement was flooded, books ruined.

 

On the plus side, home owners insurance paid for ALL the books.

 

Now, I use Gorilla shelves from Sams Club in the basement.

 

Didn't they cap you like they would with jewelry? I have a firearms collection and they say I'm only insured up to $2000.

 

 

You have to pay for the additional insurance on anything outside of the standard capping prices they have set. It'll show as a different line item than standard home owners... at least that's how it works with my insurance company.