Warning to all record collectors!!! (outer bag/inner sleeve concerns)*

Shipping outside of the USA is a problem, SleeveCity's rate for shipping is really expensive, even to Canada.
The Amazon.com store is supposed to ship outside the USA, but i also found it won't ship here either.
I don't know if that's a mistake they can or will fix. I'm lucky that i travel to the USA at least once a year
and place an order to ship there, it costs like $7.00. Sleeve City have 15% off sales during many holiday
weekends.

 

Clean your vinyl , and use paper. Plastic is death. Cool top 4 tho.

 

Does this mean inner sleeves only or are outer sleeves bad too?

 

And then clean your vinyl each and every single time you play it with a vacuum cleaning machine because of the debris left on your lp from the paper sleeve, not to mention the scuffing/scratching/static that is much more likely with paper sleeves. Polyethylene/polypropylene are inert and do not off gas or react with vinyl. I'm not a scientist myself, but please seek out your closest scientist friend, or the internet, or even earlier in this thread to confirm. Now if you get something cheap that has other potentially toxic ingredients, then anything is possible. But if they're pure, you are perfectly safe, and so is your vinyl.

And when I see spores/mold issues on old records, it is always on the cardboard jacket and paper inner sleeves. Paper is just waiting to absorb that moisture for you and ruin your lps. To each his own, but I personally don't like anything in paper sleeves. Mold issues haven't happened to me because I live in a non humid area, and keep the house air conditioned in the upper 70's, so I'm lucky that way I guess.

 

Don't take it from me though, direct from the Library of Congress:

Packaging and Storage Containers

• Grooved Discs: When possible, replace record sleeves with a high density polyethylene sleeve (e.g., DiscWasher V.R.P., Mobile Fidelity Original Master Sleeve, Nagaoka No. 102 Anti-Static Record Sleeve); the Nagaoka sleeves can fit inside paper sleeves when an original paper sleeve needs to be retained

Here's the full page:

Care, Handling, and Storage of Audio Visual Materials - Collections Care - (Preservation, Library of Congress)

 

I respectfully disagree. I've seen no evidence that poly inner or outer sleeves cause a chemical reaction to the vinyl in albums.

 

I disagree also.

 

Yeah, that's an OTT statement. Polyethylene is fine up to 80 degrees and considered archivally safe.

 

Perhaps it would be helpful if you showed us the details behind that claim since years of use hasn't really shown that to be the case?

 

Anecdotal,sure,but I recently found a few Columbia 6 eye Doris Day monos with,I'm assuming,the original inner bags. 1962 date taped to back,which possibly may be the date these were put to reel-to-reel tape. Cardboard outer super clean-the whites are still vibrant. The LPs appear pristine,and,though I'm not allowed to comment on sound,seem very nice some 55+ years on. These must have been stored in a place with no smoking,never seemed to be sent to the attic or basement,no odors and rarely,if ever brought out.

 

Those bags are fine. Never had a problem with one

 

Today, I received a new album, amo, by Bring Me the Horizon. The album was released in January, and the vinyl comes on clear vinyl, packaged in a thick PVC sleeve, no cardboard jacket. Sleeve is already wavy and vinyl is clouding. Haven’t played it or tried to clean it yet, but it doesn’t look good.

 

Sometimes clear vinyl looks like that anyway, that's not necessarily from the sleeve, I have plenty of clear vinyl that wasn't in PVC that looks like that and plays perfect. Fingers crossed, but definitely remove it from that sleeve!

 

I suspect catching the haze on a clear(ish) record in a photo is not real easy. With the wrinkles in that sleeve tho, I’ll bet this record is worse than we can see in this photo.

 

Nice find. I need some Doris Day records. Her album with Andre Previn really should be re-issued.

 

It wasn’t bad. There is some noise, like a low level hiss, but that might just be the pressing. I replaced the PVC sleeve with a nice Mylar sleeve.

 

Careful with the use of “poly”. Polyethylene appears to be fine. The most serious problems are being caused by polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, outer sleeves.

 

Collectables(oldies.com) had it in their lineup-doing lots of Columbia's dirty work with the MOR catalog. Earlier in the CD era,through Sony's special products division. Seems to be missing on Oldies' site,but someone has a pricy one on Amazon. Physical reissue or repress? That ship sailed some time ago,

 

Sadly I noticed that HMV in the UK offer those thick PVC outer sleeves for something like 10p each when you buy LPs - I've already warned a few friends to steer clear of those 'thick' outer sleeves - I just show them my copy of Goodbye Cream that was ruined by one.

 

Same in FOPP. Think they cost £1 each though.

 

I can't remember exactly - all I know is they were pushing those sleeves as a great way to protect your new vinyl purchase when the more enlightened of us know that those type of sleeves in time, will do the exact opposite.

 

Yes, my heart sinks every time I see it in Fopp.

 

Has anyone here tried this method with Meguiars PlastX to remove the residue with PVC outer?

 

Be careful with using plastic polishes.. you are also affecting the groove structure of what was pressed into the vinyl. If you are keeping a play record and not intending to sell it, go for it. But we can't have the used vinyl market flooded with shiny new looking buffed records. that would be wrong .. I think a few big online sellers do this already.

 

I hear you, I'm not much of a reseller and am only trying to salvage the dozen or so from my collection that show misting. Improvement over a originally released package with a PVC outer is better than the alternative. Sadly most of the records that I'm concerned about were ONLY packaged with the PVC sleeve so the likelihood of upgrading to an unaffected copy seem slim.