TPB and Hardcover storing

Wolverine2216

I just bought a ton of TPB and HCs over the last few months and I was just curious how you make sure they stay in mint condition. Im also re bagging and boarding my collection in the next few months and was wondering how I could bag and board my TPB and HC to preserve them best? Any help would be Great!!!! Thank you!

RickM

I know there are bags created for magazines (since Mad and Playboy and other mags are collectible). Don't the trades and hardcovers fit in those?

One of our local comic shops puts almost everything in a storage bag, even current trades.

CaptShazam

Bagging may help protect covers and pages but I am not sure how you can keep the spine of a tpb mint unless you never read it.

I collect pretty much everything in trade, and have hundreds. I think just keeping them on a nice book case will keep them in excellance shape. The paper quality on most trades is pretty good now so I would not worry too much about fading/yellowing.

Unless there was a short production run of a volume of something that has not been reprinted elsewhere, most normal tbp and hardcovers do not increase in volume (although some do - like out of print omnibuses). I got dozens of $50 cover price DC archives for 15 or 20 dollars each in great conditon.

Wolverine2216

I shouldnt have said mint. I meant more like how to keep them in best shape possible. I just want to be able to prevent anything from happening to them I have a young child and I dont like risking part of my collection saying "oh he wont accidentally do something to them" its more of a protection in case of a worst case scenario situation I dont want to look back like well maybe I should have stored them better. As far as bags and boards for magazines is there a certain size I should be looking for? THanks Shazam and Rick for your help/input I appreciate it.

CaptShazam

The safest thing I can think of to protect trades is to bag and box but that is time and space consuming.

Depending on how much work you want to put into this, if you have a spare closet, you could install some shelves out of reach of the little one.
Before I had a comic book room, I had a comic book walk in closet. The closet door and the high shelves made great protection and still allowed for things to be on display.

Wolverine2216

I have been teaching him about comics because hes the reason I got into them Id always loved comic related stuff but never had got into comics so one day Ill pass all this to him and I just want to have them in the best shape possible for when hes ready to inherit them. Ive been pounding careful handiling and taking care of them into his little 4 year old brain lol. Do you recommend the magazine bags or what? (Not meant to be rude no matter how rude sounding that may look/sound! sorry lol)

CaptShazam

I have never used the magazine bags myself so I cannot say is they are worth it or not.

If you go that direction, some shops sell bags individually. Maybe you could buy a couple and test them out first before you invest in a bunch of them.

mphil

I don't have kids so take this with a grain of salt, but I have to imagine kids are either too young to be able to reach the bookshelf where your hardcovers, trades are stored OR they are old enough to know that damaging daddy's collection comes with severe consequences.

Personally I wouldn't even buy hardcovers if I were that worried about damaging them. To me the whole point of hardcovers is that they look nice on the shelf, are resistant to wear and tear, and make it easy to read without having to pull out that right long box.

My current collecting strategy is simple; everything (eventually) gets bound or (eventually) gets sold. With the one exception being old books that have actual value as a floppy, those are bagged and boarded and boxed away.

bralinator

mphil said:

the whole point of hardcovers is that they look nice on the shelf, are resistant to wear and tear, and make it easy to read without having to pull out that right long box.

That's why I like them.

mphil

Yeah, exactly. Who actually re-reads floppies stored in boxes? Boxes are where comics go to die.

hauberk

mphil said:

Yeah, exactly. Who actually re-reads floppies stored in boxes? Boxes are where comics go to die.

I do. Also, my kids actually pull books from my boxes to read.

Chuck_Melville

hauberk said:

mphil said:

Yeah, exactly. Who actually re-reads floppies stored in boxes? Boxes are where comics go to die.

I do. Also, my kids actually pull books from my boxes to read.

Same here. I'll pull out entire story arcs or an entire run of a particular writer or artist to read. Even stuff that's collected in trades, because the trades don't always include everything.

batlaw

Most of my trades and HC are in some kind of bag and on a book shelf, but I'm not fanatical about it. I've actually been debated on ditching the bags on these for appearance / presentation purposes. They're pretty sturdy and aren't handled often so they really don't need the bags unless they travel imo. I'm just a creature of habit.

Wolverine2216

So really its not all that important to protect TPB and HC is what Im understanding here. Its more of a preference thing. If thats the case then Im going to store them on a bookshelf which was my original plan but I figured you needed to protect them. Thanks everyone for the input I appreciate it!!!!