Album storage

[Song4uman]

So I have a lot of Carpenters albums, and I also collect records and have a very eclectic mix.

Any time I have purchased new albums/or gotten old albums at a thrift store or whatever, I clean them, put a new inner sleeve in and put a new plastic sleeve on the outer jacket.

For my Carpenters albums I wanted to keep them really nice, so I got the heavier weight clear jackets. Now I’ve seen people posting things on Facebook sites that those are made of PVC and can damage the jacket and eventually damage the final.

Do you all have thoughts on that? Should I throw away the heavier vinyl covers and just go ahead and replace with the thinner less expensive ones that get a little cloudy?


Jonathan

 

[Nemily]

This is a great question.I have replaced the inner sleeves on all of my LP’s, from my own collection and recent acquisitions, in heavy weight and acid free inner sleeves. Of course, I do keep the original sleeve, I just don’t let it touch the vinyl any more. For no particular reason, I tend not to use plastic covers over my jackets.

I make sure they are stored standing up, not too crowded, in a dust free but breathable environment. They are always kept in a temperate friendly climate, i.e. no humidity and no excessive heat. My album jackets are in the same condition as when I acquired them over many years.

I have a few precious ones in outer jacket covers but that is just to remind myself not to play that them because they are in better condition or are a better quality or better pressing and I have duplicates if I want to listen. After seeing your post, I am curious also now myself to see what everyone else does and why.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I never kept records in outer sleeves because they didn't get used all that much after I started buying CDs. If your albums get a lot of handling, I would suggest getting sleeves that are made for collectible-storage purposes. The site I've always used for collectible storage related stuff is www.bagsunlimited.com - they have almost any kind of collectible storage system you might want.