spintheblackestcircles.org

shrinkwrap can also buckle your sleeves too! quite easily if its tight.

my tip is always put your records away straight after playing them. Trashed so many records in my youth just leaving them laying around out of their sleeve.

Also keep storage away from possible places of spillage. beer/coffee and records dont mix well

Ta Dollarhyde, for the ones I take out of shrinkwrap is there any poly bags you recommend here in blighty?

Not sure, the polys I have, have predomimantly come with records. I think someone on STBC has previously recommended some.

I try to put my vintage 'rare' or fancy packaging stuff in a poly sleeve but alot of my records are stored without. All depends how precious the sleeve is to you.

A good sturdy shelf is important though

@vapour

I know you didn't ask me, but I've used the 'vinyl guru' sleeves and like them a lot. They're thick enough, and there also seems to be a bit of extra room, so gatefolds and some of the thicker Death Waltz covers still fit in without a squeeze.

You can get them direct, or off amazon/eBay.

Last time I bought Panmer ones. They were a bit cheaper. They're good, but a little less clear, and also a bit smaller, so a bit tight for gatefold or thicker sleeves.

Thankyou for that. I have heard of Vinyl Guru before so off the back of your kind advice i'll be sure to check them out.

FYI, there is a thread (or two?) devoted to sleeve/bag sources:

http://www.spintheblackestcircles.com/f ... s-sleeves/

There was some mention of the shrink wrap causing damage over time, but I'm wondering in general what people do with it? Leave it on, take it off and keep it, or just throw it away? I usually slide it off the gatefold records to admire them when i first get them or first listen, but then attempt to put them back on and seldom take it off again. Thsi seems like a waste. I put all of my records in poly bags, so other than resale value, and i have no intention of selling, not sure there's a reason to keep it on except extra dust protection.

I cannot stand shrink wrap and remove it right away, whether it's a brand new vinyl or a decades-old sealed copy. I disregard any potential loss of resale value, as I prioritize the LP appearance and my own enjoyment of it in the collection.

I will only leave it on if I end up with an extra copy of something to pass along.

I am with @deafmetal - I always toss it. I especially relish tossing shrink from old LPs I buy - gives me kind of a sick pleasure to undo someone else's careful habit.

With that said, If there is a sticker on it, I do cut that out and save that.

Not sure if shrink really has much bearing on resale value - I tend to think of 'still in shrink' merely as an indicator that the record has been kept well enough that the shrink hasn't been ripped - but not that the shrink implies it is worth any more.

As far as the damage goes, it is my understanding that over time shrink will continue to, um, shrink - and would occasionally result in warping of records as the shrink bends the outer cover. No idea how relevant it is for today's new releases - probably not very - at least not compared to some thin recycled vinyl 70s' LP in a flimsy sleeve.

I have a different sort of vinyl storage question... load-bearing concerns on a 2nd story. Any structural engineers on the board?

I currently have records spread around the house but might consolidate. What I'm thinking about is putting two 4x4 Kallax shelves next to each other along an exterior wall in an upstairs room.

The two Kallax shelves together are 294 cm x 39 cm. The combined weight of the shelves alone is 118.2 kg. I estimate each of the 32 cubes will average 18kg. So that would be 694.2 kg sitting on an area of 1.147 m2.

Is this excessive? I am concerned with deterioration of the framing, loss of structural integrity and collapse.

In Freedom Units(TM) that is 1530.45 pounds sitting on an area of 12.34 sq ft.

The home is wood frame construction. Zoning calls for a minimum uniformly distributed live load of 30 pounds per square foot. Does that mean in theory a 10 foot x 10 foot room would have a minimum load capacity of 3,000 pounds, or does the fact that the weight is localized on just 12 sq ft mean my side-by-side setup would be structurally unwise?

I'm sorry, I know this is sort of weird and off-topic. I sucked at physics.

Figured I'd throw out a fishing line here before dropping a couple hundred bucks on a structural engineering report. Mostly I don't want to get killed by a couple thousand records and a 2nd floor crashing down on me while I eat dinner.

"In Freedom Units(TM) that is 1530.45 pounds"

Isn't that basically the weight of an average American?

@texas: Since I believe that you will not stop buying records I suggest you to invest few bucks in a structural test of your second floor. The test it's quite simple, they are using these great mattresses filled with water (in some step) while the lower floor is measured deflection. It isn't an invasive test and you also ensures insurance coverage in case of damage. Think about it!

Hello all,

Finally decided to buy some protection for my records 
I have been going through this thread back and forth again to get inspiration. Also the other thread dedicated about sleeves.
I think I’m going for these as inner sleeve:

http://www.vinylvinyl.nl/nagaoka-inner- ... no102.html

But not sure about the outer sleeve.
I read a post from Phil who said: I’ve tried to love them but I can’t even live with them. And the reaction of texasvinyl: Phil, too funny, that is blasphemy to me! I love poly outer sleeves, I have about my entire collection in outer sleeves at this point.
I do understand Phil’s point of view. I love the view of the cardboard spines and have the feeling that most outer sleeves obstruct the view of the lettering on the spine. Is this true?
For the moment I’m just going to try these: http://www.vinylvinyl.nl/vinylvinyl-out ... 50pcs.html
They are cheap and shipping is combined with the Nagaoka inners.

I have an expedit unit to put the 12” records in. But how do you store the 7”? I have a lot of them in a small box at the moment, but prefer to see them next to the LPs in a way that I can easily flick through them. Any ideas?

@Bez, great choice on the Nagaoka inner sleeves - I use them for all my records that don't already have an inner. Can I recommend that you check whether it's cheaper to use cdjapan? Before postage, it's less than EUR 9 per pack. I order from them - it maybe takes a couple of weeks to reach the UK but I can pretty much get double the number of sleeves for the same money:

CDJapan

I'm about to buy a couple of packs myself.

Thanks for the link. I'll check this out this evening. I need them shipped to the Netherlands, so postage probably is the same as to UK. It is a big price difference!

@Bez, I just ordered 2 packs of 50 for about £19 (EUR 27?), if that gives you an idea of whether it's better or worse. That's using the cheapest delivery option - as I say, it probably takes about a fortnight for delivery. Hope it works out for you.

I was about to purchase a pack of 50 from Amazon UK, glad I popped in here first! 2packs for less than the price of 1 delivered! thanks for the heads up @chiefbrody

Almost finished with my vinyl shelf project..turned out pretty nice!

That is quite nice!

Switching gears from sleeves to furniture...

I´ve been looking for new vinyl storage furniture for a while now since I´ve tired of the Expedit/Kallax-look. The other day I came across Zomo VS Box on the internet and wonder if there is anyone who has seen these IRL or maybe even own them and could tell me if they are any good.

http://www.zomo.de/images/product_image ... /449_0.jpg

http://www.zomo.de/en/Products/Furnitur ... brano.html

The reviews for these on amazon are not very positive so I´m guessing they´re not all they look to be.

Palmat

Don't know about those, Palmat, but I have been wondering why stocubo aren't mentioned more often. I have been very satisfied with their modular expedit/kallax alternative.

https://www.stocubo.de/regalarten/lp-regale/

Thanks for the tip. I´ll give it a look.

...another key to storing vinyl.

I found these at a Target store recently:

$10, stackable, and they hold about 40 LP's, so roughly 35-40 pounds when loaded up. Pretty good totes to move vinyl around the house, and they are easy to flip/sort through.

Edit: no good for storage with the rounded corners, bummer.