Treasuring and safekeeping your collection

It is safe to say that I am, in general, a newbie when it comes to the comic book world having begun my fascination for comic books a few months ago. And as time has passed on and my collection of comic books has grown, slowly it must be said, I have begun to wonder what is the best way to safe-keep my comic books and maintain them as in a mint condition as possible.

It is fair to point out now that all my comic books are in their respective bags and boarded, however they are all currently being kept inside shoe-boxes (safe to say I am a proper comic book newbie). I plan to read my comics occasionally, although I do plan on also getting the trade paperbacks for them so I don't have to risk opening them as often. I was wondering how some of you, more experienced, comic book fans maintain your prized comic book collections safe and whether you could share your secrets with a fellow comic book (newbie) fan :P

@alforeigner: Hey, I'm pretty new too, and I found these videos to be very helpful. http://www.monkeysee.com/play/13079-comic-book-collecting

It covers how to store them, how not to store them, the safest way to bag them... and a whole lot more. everything you'll need to know just starting out! I hope it helps you as much as it did me. :)

Oh, question for the experts: Do I really need to change the bags and boards every few years? It seems like a huge hassle. especially if you have a big collection like I plan on having a few years from now.

I also have a question, how do I get my hands on more bag and boards? Since I don't live near a store it's better if I could buy them online somewhere, I only own two comic books at the moment due to the fact I just mentioned, but I have ordered many more. I was stupid enough to throw away the bags and boards for the comics I bought.

It really depends on the bags and boards you use. I use mostly polypropylene bags and acid-free boards from BCW, and I haven't had to change them ever. If you notice yellowing on the bags/boards, change them. Most stuff you get from comic shops these days is archival quality and acid free. To be really safe, I use mylar bags and coated boards for all of my silver age and some of my more valuable modern comics. Mylar will last absolutely forever, but they're more expensive and my comic shop doesn't have them as readily. I use mylar and coated boards for the silver age comics because sometimes the paper they used back in the day was more acidic and of a lower quality than today, and they potentially need more protection. As far as modern comics though, I haven't noticed any difference between mylar and polypropylene in the 10+ years I've been seriously collecting.

The way you store is really the more important part. Don't store them in humid places, and keep them upright in a nice box where they won't get damaged and creased. I keep mine in short boxes on shelves in my house and I always make sure my hands are clean before I start handling my books (I essentially ruined a relatively valuable book because I had a little oil on my hand that I'd forgotten about. Smeared the cover and wrecked my day.)

As for the shoe box, I'd ditch that and get a few actual comic boxes. Again, short boxes are what I use because of space issues, but you can get long boxes as well. They're about $5 a piece and are pretty sturdy cardboard. You can get all of this stuff off of Amazon or from the BCW website.

The links takes you to comic vine home page.

Try this:

BCW Comic Supplies: http://www.bcwsupplies.com/products/comic-book-supplies/

You can find what you need there, and Amazon has some deals sometimes, especially on boxes.

Thanks for the input, all my comics have been bagged and boarded since the day I bought them and I always wash my hands before handling comic books, it's a force of habit more than anything else when it involves things I care about. For the moment being shoe-boxes will have to do as I'm currently skint but I'm definitely open to the idea of getting a comic book storage box as soon as I can, my local comic book shop sells them so that's a bonus.

@thegwailo: Was just wondering though, why do the comics need to be upright? I naturally though it would be better for them to be laying down so no pressure is applied to the corners and edges of the comic books, as well as the spine of the comic book too. I do apologise if I'm asking what seems to be a silly question, I am a newbie at this stuff

@alforeigner: If you have a number of comics lying flat they can start to bend the spines of other comics in the pile. You might want to take them out of the shoe boxes as I'm not sure if those are acid free. Here's another "native" link about general comic book care but it seems you have the basics covered. :-) Videos are also much more easier to process than text. :/

Basically what TheManInTheShoe said. To be truthful, I only change boards when they start to look dingy, but I am changing all my bags to mylites so I'll never have to change them again assuming everything else goes in favor of my collecting them. To be honest, the idea of having to change even a few hundred bags, let alone a few thousand makes me want to curl up in a ball. The thing is, they're expensive compared to the normal bags you get and can definitely be prohibitively expensive at the outset of comic collecting, but if you can afford them I'd head off future headaches. If you can't, you can also hire some family and friends to help you change bags when they start getting old. :-)

What he said. The mylar bags are great, but that can be really expensive and for me, changing my entire collection over would be ridiculous. My regular polypropylene bags haven't yellowed or degraded any of the comics I have had for 15+ years, but I think the real deal is to buy what you can reasonably afford. Good luck!

Thanks for all the help guys! Much appreciated.

I'll try and get a comic book storage box as soon as I can and store them vertically! But for now, I think that they will have to stay in the shoe-boxes as I have no other was of storing them, especially vertically.

@alforeigner:

No problem, dude. :)