Am I OCD or does anyone else save their album liner sleeves?

I think they "protect" them fine, but do have some issues with paper lint, dust, and static. Only my best records get the MoFi (or similar) sleeves, but the others do at least get upgraded inners.

 

I find that once blown out, they don't have much dust left in them, and I never have static problems which I could attribute to the sleeves or jackets. But I give all of the records a quick wet wipe with a Discwasher before each play, so that mitigates both static and dust accumulation. I always thought I was a little too proud of my record collection, but the more I hear of how meticulously well others treat theirs, the more relaxed and normal I feel, and the better my wife feels.

-Bill

 

After I clean a record, I don't store it in the jacket but in a "sandwich" between the jacket and an outer jacket cover made from HDPE (clear like Mylar). This not only minimizes wear and tear on the jacket, but tends to reduce static in the process of removing and reinserting the record.
To protect the record in the fresh aftermarket inner sleeve, I will often use the inner that came with the record as an outer layer in my "sandwich." Some paper inners are junk and I toss them. Any vintage inners with promotional info, etc. are kept as an artifact.
With double record sets, I pack the clean, resleeved records around a generic cardboard jacket, using the same method with a jacket sleeve and "sandwiching." Takes up more space, but I think the records get treated more gently in the process.

 

For new records with plain paper inner sleeves, I upgrade to poly lined and save the paper ones for the inevitable time I need to replace some horrid, yellowed plain inners from thrift store or other used purchases and I’m out if the poly lined.

I trash all the old plain paper sleeves except for the occasional import which might be marked as “Made in the UK” for example. I always save any printed inners even if they’re yellowed.

 

I will say the best used records I have bought were found in plastic anti static sleeves. Usually those records are also ones rarely played. Paper sleeves will have more friction when pulled in and out from them. You can tell by the spindle hole on record use from my experience. When I clean the records used I usually get a bunch of paper bits off of them from the sleeves as well.
Good point but when I use paper sleeves I have not had good experience with them. You can call it my preference and what I do.

 

Never understood the automatic switch to plastic, especially on albums not on high rotation.

 

I trash 'em for 4 reasons. 1) I have a buttload of new sleeves that I'll never run out of. 2) My collection is not huge and I don't have anything that is not in rotation that I don't care about. 3) I don't like handling old sleeves and... 4) I'm a snob.

 

I did downgrade a long time ago. After CD became firmly established, I decided to sell off a large amount of my vinyl. I only kept albums that had sentimental value (like my Carpenters collection), albums that hadn't been released on CD, and rare albums. I did keep all of my 45s, including a box set of 45s called If I Were A Carpenter (alternative bands cover the Carpenters' songs) that I also purchased on CD.

 

I save them as well I have them all in a binder just to have, but all my records inner sleeves have been replaced with mofi inner and out sleeves

 

I only toss the blank white ones. Everything else gets put back in the cover (which reside in a MoFi outer sleeve while the LP itself resides in an inner sleeve placed in the outer sleeve, not the album cover).

 

I leave the original liner sleeve in the album cover as it helps to avoid the anti static sleeve catching on the glued cover joint (..you know the one that eventually comes unstuck)