The comic collector's dilema

[PovertyRow]

I think just common sense is all you really need. Keep away from light, water, humidity and heat and handle with care and you should be ok

 

Yep - but, as I have mentioned a few times in the past - what if you live in Boston or NY etc where the winters can hit below zero with humidity so low it makes your skin scale when you scratch your arm? Or so high that the 98F temperature is matched by the humidity?

 

Undwer these conditions you need a special (and hopefully vey samll) room where you can control the heat and humidity year round. And I will tell you from early experience - it does not take a long time for a true NM/M book that was bought new and never read to have the page quality go from white to cream or even tan under these conditions.

 

So yes, it is simple logic but also it means altering the environment by mechanical means.

 

OK jerkweed?

[Bugaboo-migration]

OK! This is all I was trying to say to bug.

Saying "OK" doesn't help me store my collection either.

[PovertyRow]

I wasn't saying your post wasn't accurate or insightful, I was just saying that its subject was temperature control, which is probably

 

Well, actually temperature humidity and light control.

 

But you have to understand. I have recently discovered I am NOBODY becuase certasin folk here have not insulted me. SO I am being more negative than usual so maybe I will be insulted and become a SOMEBODY.

 

Now isn't THAT pitiful?

 

[COI]

"Sorry.....but that's just more helpful to me than the old "store in mylar and don't touch advice". "

 

For the last time, I wasn't offering this as advice!! I was just illustrating my personal practices to make a point, and that point was that there's NO REAL WAY TO HANDLE YOUR BOOKS WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF WEAR.

 

I realize you're not stupid, so why would I offer "store in mylar and don't touch" as advice. Believe it or not, I respect your intelligence.

[FlComicFan]

ok I'm going to resaerch the effects of Bugaboos taking a on my collection. Soon as he shows up will let you all know. Glad we've put our heads together and destroyed yet another thread with stupid BS Good night have to poop proof my books (would they have brown pages?)

[COI]

"SO I am being more negative than usual so maybe I will be insulted and become a SOMEBODY. "

 

I can't help you there. The only person I feel the need to insult is Greggy.

 

 

[PovertyRow]

I can't help you there. The only person I feel the need to insult is Greggy.

 

Dammit! INSULT me.

 

OK -I will go first - you are a...errr....ahhh...a hammer! Yah! That's it. Or a pair of pliers. Hah! Gotcha! Take this! A phillps screwdriver! Ya ya!

[Bugaboo-migration]

For the last time........I was just illustrating my personal practices to make a point........so why would I offer "store in mylar and don't touch" as advice

I don't know.......so why did you offer "store in mylar and don't touch" as your advice?

[PovertyRow]

NO REAL WAY TO HANDLE YOUR BOOKS WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF WEAR.

 

OK - you sound like one of my managers who say "we" - as in "Well, I think we have to do this..." without specifiying who WE is and hoping some volunteerer looking for a raise will volunteer!

 

The keyword that makes me think of this is POSSIBILITY. Yes, there is ALWAYS a possibility of damaging a book - even in simply taking the mylar/cgc-encased book out of a storage box.

 

But simple care when handling the book will assure it can be read and re-read amny times without ill effect!

[COI]

" But simple care when handling the book will assure it can be read and re-read amny times without ill effect! "

 

And I already said that. And then I said that if you can't do that, keep the book in mylar. I meant it as sarcasm, as if to say: If you can't handle your books carefully, keep them in their mylars and SHUT UP!!!!

 

But this was taken by bug as advice. And no matter how many times I try to explain to bug that this was not meant as advice, he keeps responding by saying "so why did you offer it as advice"? So how in the name of Christ am I supposed to respond to that?

[Bugaboo-migration]

......I'm just yanking your chain now Andrew.......I understand what you were trying to say

 

I figured that last post I made would get to you..............Sorry about that.

[COI]

"LOL......I'm just yanking your chain now Andrew.......I understand what you were trying to say."

 

Thank God! Otherwise that would have made you one stubborn SOB.

 

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not someone is joking, or if they're just a complete @sshole.

[Zonker]

Chuck R's recollection from last year.

 

It was in the basement stacked to the ceiling + in a closet.

 

Regards,

Z.

[blowout]

Thanks for all the responses, Bug, Andrew, Pov, James etc

I realised when I posted this thread that there were no easy answers to it.

 

All the optimum storage conditions have been expressed in the posts, and most of the famous pedigree collections (and other pristine books) have been stored in such environments (mylar is obviously a fairly recent addition to the equation).

The reason the post title was 'the comic collectors dilema' is because it is incredibly difficult for most of us collectors to store our books in the optimum environment, but yet still enjoy our books.

We may spend years sometimes, and no small amount of money, locating those books we want, only then to put them away in the dark, to rarely look at again, in order to keep them in that 'like new' preserved state.

The fact of the matter remains that every intervention on our part, to either admire/display/peruse our books is in some small way damaging them, no matter how carefull we are.

I guess the trick is, to minimise this damage as much as possible.

 

Enjoy and yet preserve.............tough one, I am glad to see I'm not the only one strugling with this problem. It seems that no one so far has hit on the ideal blance.

[Joanna]

It seems that no one so far has hit on the ideal blance.

 

I've got the answer: buy thrashed copies! Then you don't have to worry about condition, can read them over and over again, and if they fall apart, buy a new thrashed copy. End of problem.

[blowout]

But Joanna, if no-one bought high grade copies anymore that would lead to a market crash........

Oh no, I said the 'C' word.

[COI]

But then if everyone went after low grades, their prices would rise instead. So maybe we should all just pack it in and burn the hobby down.............there's your solution blowout!

 

 

[blowout]

A bit extreme my friend.

I was looking for something a bit simpler.

[COI]

Alright bro, I give up. I'll just stick to my current method of handling my books twice, then storing them away and forgetting I own them. This must be why I own so many HG duplicates.

[Bugaboo-migration]

Just don't say "store in mylar and don't touch" again or I'm gonna start breaking sh*t.