Mylar Sleeves nad more.

[guatoman-migration]

I'm looking for info on sleeves and bags for comic books.

I'm an average collector from Italy and I'd like to get some sleeves for my Avengers collection.

where should I start? what (and where) should I buy?

thanks!

[tth2]

Do a search for "mylar" or "comic supplies". This topic has been covered many times on these boards.

[Hobgoblin]

Do a search for "mylar" or "comic supplies". This topic has been covered many times on these boards.

 

If you're lazy like me and don't want to mess with the search function (because half the time it really does nothing for me), try www.comicsupply.com or some other similar website. There, you can see many types of mylars/bags available and read a little description about each one. It really just depends how much protection you want, not from the outside air, but thickness in case a book is dropped or something.

[sterlingcomics]

I also recommend comicsupply.com. If you PM ComicSupply (the board member who runs that site) he is more than willing to answer any specific questions you may have.

[Ogami]

Well at the risk of looking like a noob, and I don't care, I had the same questions and have been waiting to ask.

 

I did all the searches, found nothing, and then saw this guy sincerely ask. And of course, he got shot down, because he should know better.

 

And the link wasn't very helpful to me.

 

Well, I'm too stupid to know when to quit, so here's my questions.

 

Mylites 2 do a good job? Anybody happy with the protection level and stiffness? I know they're archival, so I'm not worried about that.

 

Would you use full backs or halfbacks? I had heard that a lot of guys use the Mylites2 because of the flap (which I like) and the fullbacks to make up for the more flimsy feel than the 4 mil.

 

Finally, is microchamber paper a waste or a good investment on G+/VF books, SA, 1963-early bronze? I mean, if the paper is already off white-tan, will it do much good?

 

I'm seriously wanting to purchase 1000 of each, (mylites, fullbacks) from Gerber in about two months, so I would appreciate real answers.

[october]

I use Mylites 2 because they offer the best protection while still being relatively cheap. I do like the flap, but there is excess material at the top, which creates a kind of bubble which I don't like (the board does not go all the way to the top).

 

I sometimes use halfbacks and fullbacks, but the more money eaten up by supplies, the less I have to spend on comics. I think Mylites 2 and halfbacks are a good way to go unless you are looking at seriously valuable books.

 

To tell you the truth, I still use regular bags and boards for a lot of my stuff and I never have problems with that. Some books are still in the same bag and board they were in five years ago, with no real change except a slight wrinkling to the bag.

 

Honestly, if I had a lot to spend on supplies, I would go with BCE Time-Loks and fullbacks. Way too expensive right now though.

 

Hope this helped...

[jimm94]

Mylites 2 do a good job? Anybody happy with the protection level and stiffness? I know they're archival, so I'm not worried about that.

 

Mylites 2 are a nice thickness and present the book well. I use them mostly for bronze age books. I would recommend Gerber Mylar Archives for your more valuable books, as they are wider and provide, IMO, better protection to the bottom of the comic. I use Archives for my silver age books. Mylites are just like polybags in that they do not provide a "frame of protection" around the book the way Archives do. They are just big enough for the comic and provide little additional width on the sides of the book, and as I said, none at the bottom edge.

 

In some cases, I will put a book in a Mylites 2/Fullback combination, then place that inside a larger size Archive/Fullback for maximum obsessive compulsive protection.

 

 

Would you use full backs or halfbacks? I had heard that a lot of guys use the Mylites2 because of the flap (which I like) and the fullbacks to make up for the more flimsy feel than the 4 mil.

 

I recommend Fullbacks all the way. Halfbacks seem too flimsy to me. If you're going to go through all the effort and expense of investing in archivally safe protection for your comics, you might as well go all the way.

 

 

Finally, is microchamber paper a waste or a good investment on G+/VF books, SA, 1963-early bronze? I mean, if the paper is already off white-tan, will it do much good?

 

I personally have not bought any yet, but several of my close friends have and are quite pleased. It's certainly not going to the hurt books that are already deteriorating in terms of page quality. Anything that can help slow the process is a good thing.

 

I have actually experienced fairly remarkable results in reducing the overall acidity of books after switching them to buffered backing boards such as Fullbacks. Microchamber paper can take that absorption to another level.

 

Good luck in your collecting endeavors!!!

 

-Jim

[jimm94]

 

To tell you the truth, I still use regular bags and boards for a lot of my stuff and I never have problems with that. Some books are still in the same bag and board they were in five years ago, with no real change except a slight wrinkling to the bag.

 

One thing that I have recently discussed with several collecting friends (who are also forumites) is that use of non-archival backing boards seem to be more harmful to comics than polybags. That is, the non-archival boards tend contribute to the deterioration of page quality, whereas polybags seem to not hurt the book. In my case, I've had books in bags without boards in storage for over 15 years that have maintained very nice page quality. However, the books in bags with non-archival boards (same storage conditions) are much more acidic, and exhibit inferior page quality.

[october]

 

To tell you the truth, I still use regular bags and boards for a lot of my stuff and I never have problems with that. Some books are still in the same bag and board they were in five years ago, with no real change except a slight wrinkling to the bag.

 

One thing that I have recently discussed with several collecting friends (who are also forumites) is that use of non-archival backing boards seem to be more harmful to comics than polybags. That is, the non-archival boards tend contribute to the deterioration of page quality, whereas polybags seem to not hurt the book. In my case, I've had books in bags without boards in storage for over 15 years that have maintained very nice page quality. However, the books in bags with non-archival boards (same storage conditions) are much more acidic, and exhibit inferior page quality.

 

That's interesting. I will have to take a closer look at my comics with and without boards in polybags.

[OldGuy]

Mylites 2 do a good job? Anybody happy with the protection level and stiffness? I know they're archival, so I'm not worried about that.

 

Would you use full backs or halfbacks? I had heard that a lot of guys use the Mylites2 because of the flap (which I like) and the fullbacks to make up for the more flimsy feel than the 4 mil.

 

You pretty much described the storage method I use. M2 w/fullback.

 

I'm seriously wanting to purchase 1000 of each, (mylites, fullbacks) from Gerber in about two months, so I would appreciate real answers.

 

Go for it, you'll be happy. I would also recommend ordering one size larger M2 then you think you need because with the fullback you'll have a hard time fitting some books into the bags made for that era. Example: order Silver Age size for Bronze Age books.

[Ogami]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

The 4 mil Archives are just out of my price range in big numbers.

 

See, I'm a collector of runs in low/midgrade. So, I have a complete run of DD 1-current, missing 13 issues of Amazing 1-current, and a big run of FF, Avengers and Strange Tales, etc.

 

Most books are VG-VF; no real dogs, no real HG's. And they get better as they get newer, so bronze is mostly FN/VF and Modern is mostly NM.

 

Poly bags and boards end up costing me about 10 cents per book. I figured up Gerber Mylites 2 and fullbacks would be about 25 cents to 50 cents per book. Can't remember. But one of the problems has been, I have not changed my bags and boards like I should have. I have noticed a bid difference even in my McFarlane books that are now almost 20 years old. Page color is not what I thought it would/should be.

 

So what I'm looking for is nice quality/good price point, so that I can start shifting my entire colelction over and not have to keep changing out bags, something I've been real lax in.

 

1000 of each would do 1/2 of four runs.

[Ogami]

Oh, and I was planning on just getting the Silver age size for all my books, but with the fullback, they'll still fit my 63-forwards, right?

[OldGuy]

Oh, and I was planning on just getting the Silver age size for all my books, but with the fullback, they'll still fit my 63-forwards, right?

 

It's going to be a tight fit on some of them.

[Ogami]

Oh, and I was planning on just getting the Silver age size for all my books, but with the fullback, they'll still fit my 63-forwards, right?

 

It's going to be a tight fit on some of them.

 

So what would you do to put runs 63-into the 80's in nice protection? Would you ues Golden Age bags, a different method?

 

I'm thinking about placing a small order to Gerber so that I can make honest to goodness comparisons.

[OldGuy]

Oh, and I was planning on just getting the Silver age size for all my books, but with the fullback, they'll still fit my 63-forwards, right?

 

It's going to be a tight fit on some of them.

 

So what would you do to put runs 63-into the 80's in nice protection? Would you ues Golden Age bags, a different method?

 

I'm thinking about placing a small order to Gerber so that I can make honest to goodness comparisons.

 

Call Gerber and ask them to send you samples of their SA size M2's and boards as well as the GA size. They will send samples for free (although you may need to pay shipping, I'm not sure) but that would be the best way for you to figure it out.

 

Some of the "fat" older SA books are just a tight fit in SA M2's with full backs. You could try half backs or better yet just get GA size M2's with full backs for some of the larger SA books.

[Ogami]

Thanks, old guy. That's going to be my first step.

[OldGuy]

Thanks, old guy. That's going to be my first step.

 

[guatoman-migration]

hi again.

thank you for your answer but they weren't very helpful.

as I said I'm no professional collector. most of my bookks are G/VG. I keep them in boxes and I don't want them to be torn when I take them out. I don't care about aging or changing them every now and then. I just need about 500 of them and don't want to spend very much (like someone said, the more I spend on this, the less I spend on comics). I don't even need cardboards, I can make those.

I only know BCE Mylar, advertised on Overstreet. is it a good store?

which is the cheapest sleeve type?

thanks again

[OldGuy]

I only know BCE Mylar, advertised on Overstreet. is it a good store?

which is the cheapest sleeve type?

thanks again

 

BCE Mylar = most exspensive

E. Gerber = less exspensive

 

Both sell the same thing.

[guatoman-migration]

thank you, oldguy! this is help :-)

I found on their site the Mylites 2 I heard about here. what's the difference between the 1 and 2 version? are the Siver Age types good even for recent issues too?