For you old-time collector's, how did you store your comics?

[lizards2]

Was wondering for any old timer's who were purchasing in the 50's, 60's or early 70's, how did you store your comic books back then before comic boxes and bags became available? Did you put them in drawers, chests, maybe just some paper bags, or possibly Edgar Church style and stack them from the floor to the ceiling in your closet?

 

I bought comic bags from Avery B Klein (Investors Corporation of America) and stacked them on shelves in the clothes closet in my bedroom, which were built courtesy of my dad (RIP)..., because he believed in me...,

[marvelmaniac]

When I got back into collecting in 79 I used cardboard shoe organizers that had 9 compartments each to separate each title, then it happened...

 

There was a Bright Light, the Sea's Parted, the Angels began Singing and Lo and Behold...

A store that sold nothing but comics books, I was in HEAVEN.

[makeminemarvel]

When I started in 1977 I would get the vegetable / fruit bags from the local Tom Boy grocery store up the street. Would put about 30 books in each bag and then put them in boxes. Would stack about 4-5 bags of 30 on top of each other. Still have some that way and they have held up just fine save for a few spine rolls. Just started converting to bags and boards in the last month.

[makeminemarvel]

We kind of had to sneak around to get the vegetable bags from the grocery store. I remember one of my friends grabbing the top bag and spinning the roller as hard as he could to get as many bags as he could. The meat dept. manager saw him and gave him a tongue lashing. After we got out of there we rode our bikes home laughing hysterically the whole time.

[makeminemarvel]

Yep, I was that guy in the grocery store who'd take 10 extra clear plastic fruit/veggie bags with me out the door. Then I'd put my comics in them, one per bag.

 

The comics were far too small, so I'd fold the bag and tape it so it would fit the comic book perfectly.

 

One act of love for each book I owned.

 

It took, like, forever!

 

Just saw this, too funny. Sounds like you've been there too!

[towards2112]

Back in the dark ages, paper sacks at the supermarkets were larger.

If you don't know what a paper sack is, google it.

I would double sack two stacks of comics, counter stacking every 10

or so and keeping each stack at about 100. Then I kept that bag in

a Del Monte banana box . The supermarket we shopped at kept boxes

up at the front where the sackers and stock boys would load them full

of groceries and wheel them to your station wagon for a quarter. Since it

was a very small town, I knew everyone of the stock boys, and they would

keep a few banana boxes for me clean and tidy off to the side. I picked

this box, because it had holes in the side that made carrying easier. The

early ones had lids that were full height, but later went to a conventional

fold top which ruined things from that angle..

[Dick Pontoon]

Before I got any longboxes, just a regular cardboard box. See bottom left corner:

 

[Michelangelo]

Before I got any longboxes, just a regular cardboard box. See bottom left corner:

 

 

whoa - blast from the past

love the wallpaper

[comicjack]

Stored them in stacks in a high closet away from mom who hated a mess.Still have most of them today and i'm lucky that i do.

[JazzMan]

I stacked them in a cardboard box for most of the time. In the 80s I found out about mylars and bagged most of them but still kept them in the cardboard box.

[mosconi]

Wow, didn't think I'd get so many interesting responses! Great diversity of storage techniques, enjoy hearing about them

[bababooey]

Raw unbagged on bookcases when I was a kid, a buddy used an empty ten gallon fish tank. It looked pretty cool.

 

[Gaard]

Dresser drawer. But not the underwear drawer, I hid other stuff in that drawer.

[ttfitz]

Early to mid-70s here, and I don't remember many specifics, in a box of some sort. I do remember there was an ad where someone was selling comic bags and would send you a "free sample" upon request. I did so, and soon had ONE comic bag for my huge collection of a few hundred comics.

 

So which one to bag? If Overstreet existed, I was unaware of it, so I finally decided on my only #1 issue - Human Torch #1 (which I later found out was a reprint of a Strange Tales issue).

[lizards2]

Before I got any longboxes, just a regular cardboard box. See bottom left corner:

 

 

whoa - blast from the past

love the wallpaper

 

I've still got that IM poster

[Boba]

Robert Bell bags, oaktag backing boards (hand cut by me) and then into lidded storage boxes that resembled the ones they sell for comics today - stored in my dry basement on steel shelves.

[jools&jim]

 

1972 - 1977: on the floor in my closet, stacked in United Van Lines moving boxes (my family moved a lot back then).

 

I didn't discover bags/boards and "real" comic book boxes (the kind held together with wide strips of "water activated" brown carton tape) until 1978 when we moved to a town with a "real" comic book store (the kind found in a 2nd story walk-up with dim lighting and owned by a balding, 40-something guy who cooked frozen hamburgers on a hot plate in the back room where he lived).

 

Still...good times...

 

 

[AmazingSaul]

My parents got me a nice big storage box? I didn't do much of anything but put them in there....

[Dormian]

In the 70's I used the bags newspapers are delivered in, very similar to how they are now. From my paper route you could buy a thousand for just a few bucks. These were stored in what ever appropriate sized boxes I could find.

[Inhuman Fiend]

Wow, didn't think I'd get so many interesting responses! Great diversity of storage techniques, enjoy hearing about them

 

Great question. I often wonder whenever I see a high-grade Silver Age or earlier book how in the heck it survived in such pristine condition for so long without any specialized safe storage options. Somehow the original and subsequent owners were able to not only find relatively ideal storage conditions, but surely couldn't have handled them or moved them much if at all over the decades. I started collecting in 1978 and didn't discover bags or boxes for about 2 years. I stacked them on a bookshelf like many others, but never thought to bag them in anything until I heard about comic bags.

I no longer own any of the books I purchased myself from the racks, but I can't imagine very many were above VF by the time I sold them in the mid-80's simply from handling and moving them around as a teenager. I was very careful, but still...it's so easy to knock a book from NM to VF or below with just minor handling.

So it's just amazing to me that so many obviously MUCH more conscientious collectors were able to keep so many of their books in such beautiful shape.