Basement X

I've seen some of your collections in photos. I was wondering if you guys had tips on how best to store everything.

Here are some of my thoughts on things. Some of you guys seem much more knowledgeable than me on this stuff, so I'd love to hear your imput!

Box size selection

I've got a combination of a few long boxes and medium sized boxes. To be honest with you, I prefer the medium sized boxes. If you're comparing two sizes boxes made from the same card and company, the medium ones will be stronger and obviously easier to carry. The drawback is not being able to fit as many comics in as you could in the long one, but I think ease of lifting and material strength are better bonuses here than size.




Comic bagging and boarding

I'm poor at organising my comics as soon as I get them. Most are bagged, but few are bagged and boarded.
I heard atleast one of you mention putting two books in one bag. Presumably each book on the reverse side of the board, cover facing outwards? I guess this means that in the box, all your books have an equal amount of spines on the left of the box as you have on the right.
I like the idea of saving on bags and boards, but I'd like to flick through the comics with all the covers facing towards me, so eventually, when I find the time and inclination, I think I'll have each comic bagged and boarded separately.

Any preference on board?
I've seen different prices. There also appears to be slightly different sizes? Any preferences?


Any preference in bag?
This one I always find weird. I've got some bags that barely would fit two comics in. They seem the best to me. They seem like you could put a comic and a board snugly in the plastic. Most of my bags (which the shop provides) are slightly wider than they need to be. Easily accommodating five or six comics , if you're being 'quick' about organising your books.
Is one type of bag fitting better than another?




Dust

I've kept the lid off of my boxes. Most of my books are bagged, but not taped down. This does make it awkward to browse the boxes, but I've noticed something annoying. The books are fine, but whilst the outer plastic of the bag used to feel smooth, they now sometimes feel dusty. You can feel this extra something, this residue on the fingers. Also feels like the bag is a bit thicker. I assume this is dust.
Any recommendations on this? Re-bag the whole lot? Motherfucker please no!




Older books

I don't have many old books. I've bought some books from the 70s/80s. I have a few Miracle Mans, a few Infinite Crisis and some older Uncanny X.Men.
Theses books are noticeably a bit yellow. I was looking at some of my 90s X books a while ago and noticed that their pages have gone yellow. Apart from, presumably a room with low humidity and no light, is there any big recommendation for preventing page yellow?


Come on dudes. Help me out here. Post any of your own questions here too!

I have a shut load of info I'll post tonight.
It answers everything

Look forward to it.

Also, do any of you get into the habit of stacking comics on top of each other? As in, not upright like you would have them in traditional long boxes, but like a stack of paper?
I've gotten into this habit with books I've yet to read and books that I've read, but haven't boxed, so have left in a different flat pile.
Presumably, the bigger the pile, the less good this is for the issues? It must at the very least keep everything smooth and not floppy like when you stack things upright, but without any board?
Is there a maximum weight/height stack?
Obviously, if you stack one on top of the other, with the spine always on the same side, you get a stack, which will slant in the opposite direction to the spine, so I sometimes flip every 10 books over. Do you guys end up doing this?

This is really minutiae shit, I know. But, it does feel important to bear in mind.

For myself;

I store my comic mostly in long boxes stacked 4 high, with boards in between each level to distribute the weight.

In Calgary, I use a legal size filing cabinet with a divider in the middle. Each drawer holds 200-250 comics. This is a fantastic way to store comics.

I bag and board every comic when I get it, leaving them untaped. I tape them after reading it. All my comic are stored either in boxes, or a spinner rack. It should only be 1 comic in a bag and board to prevent spin roll.

I use standard silver age bags and boards for all my comics. They fit better, and are better for current comics. Mostly Ultrapro brand. I find currents can be too small for some comics.

For high value stuff, I use mylites and fullbacks. More expensive, but the only true acid free option. No matter what you use it needs to be replaced every 7 years or so.

Un-taped books will cause yellowing, as the tops get exposed. Old and lower quality bags and boards also cause yellowing. Having the lid off the boxes also causes this. Keep the lid on and you should be good. However, there isn't much you can do about dust, other than actually dusting them every once and a while, and keep the lids on.

The only way to get rid of the dust is to re-bag, sorry. Dusting won't cut it, only a damp cloth and that is risky as well.

I break my book storage down into two areas: old books and current books. All my old books are stored in regular long boxes in plastic bags, 2 per bag and sit beneath a staircase. 2 comics per bag let’s you fit more comics in a bag. My current books, meaning the titles I am currently reading sit in a small white bookshelf for easy access to read and re-read.

I’m not familiar with different box companies. When I buy comic boxes, they just give me a flat box and top. I assemble the box together when I get home but as far as I can tell they all seem the same to me. I’ve gotten boxes & tops from various different stores and when I assemble them, I don’t really see any difference in the size, strength or quality of the box.

For bagging and boarding, I used to bag and board all my comics. Ideally, I’d like to fit 2 comics comfortably in a bag with a board between them without straining the bag. But, that got frustrating for 2 reasons. 1) I never really paid attention to the types of comic bags and boards I’d get so sometimes the comic bags and board sizes would be mismatched; I’d get comic bags that could barely fit 2 comics, let alone 2 comics and a board. Other times the board would be too big for the bag. 2) Bagging and boarding ALL my comics seemed excessive. I didn’t see the need to bag & board Mr. Terrific #2-7 or Daredevil 56-90 or any of those random X-men or Batman minis. I’ll B&B the first issue of a new series or the variant/anniversary issues but beyond that, I’m content to only place 2 comics in a bag (covers facing outwards and seal them. Now that I think about it, it also saves on space – which is a big factor. I can fit more comics in a long box if I’ve got 2 comics per bag without a board. That’s also the reason I’d never B&B just one comic. The exception to this rule is if the comic is an oversized book or prestige format. Than its one comic per bag and I’ll board it If I’m feeling whimsical enough.

Also, I leave a small amount of space in my boxes for easy perusal. I never pack boxes to capacity.

I currently have 15 long boxes. I stack them onto of each other in a crisscross manner. Meaning I have 3 boxes on the ground laid out horizontally, then I’ll place 3 more comic boxes on top of them vertically. This way the weight of the comic boxes on top is evenly distributed across all 3 boxes on the bottom so no one box has to bear all the weight of another box; thus they don’t get crushed.

I also don’t bag my comics immediately after I get them (a bad habit I’m trying to break). I just stack them up horizontally and in a few cases its bitten me in the ass because the ones on the bottom sometimes get folded over or crushed or what have you. It happened to me very recently, the last issue of Buffy I got, got a little bit of water damage because it on the ground on a wet area. So this one’ll be getting replaced.
The dust thing was another old bad habit of mine. After I’d get comics, I’d just throw em in a bag and leave em. But eventually the dust id get on my fingers from flipping through them disgusted me enough to tape them down.

I didn’t know that not sealing bags caused yellowing. I learned something new today!

I store comics upright in boxes Diamond uses to ship the books to store. I get them from my local. They cost me nothing and hold quite a bit of comics. The drawback is there is no lid.

As for bagging and boarding : I fit from 1 to 6 comics in a bag, I try to keep story arcs together. The only comics I bag&board individually are the signed ones.

I don't have any old valuable comics but if I did, I'd probably bad and board them tightly.