The Right Way to Store Your Comic Book Collection

You have spent a lot of money building your comic book collection and depending on what you’ve collected, your collection might be worth even more money now. But whether the value of your collection has appreciated depends on something else as well: the present condition of the comics. Consider the following suggestions about the right way (and the wrong way) to store your comic book collection, keeping it as close to mint condition as possible, as well as making it easier to transport and manage.

Things to Do

1. Place your comic books in smaller boxes, as books tend to pack densely, making for a very heavy box if it’s too large.
2. When handling your comics, keep your hands clean. Even if your hands look clean, they might be sweaty or oily, so if you want your comics to stay in great condition, it’s good practice to wash your hands before reading or touching them.
3. Make sure you include a plastic sleeve and a backing board for every comic you wish to protect! If you don’t know what this looks like, go to a local comic book store; most of their old comics are bound to have a plastic cover and a board within.

Things Not to Do

1. Never assume that, as long as you’ve followed the above steps, you can keep your comics just anywhere. Climate control, including humidity, temperature, and exposure to light, is essential to keep your comics in great shape. There are many ideal environments for comics and also non-ideal environments for storing comics.
2. Don’t just leave them be once you’ve stored them. You should check on the quality of your comics regularly so that you know whether a particular comic book is starting to deteriorate. Click here for insight about how to handle this problem.
3. It’s easy to be over-eager about showing off your impressive collection but don’t fall for this trap. Make sure that with every comic you take out, you put it back just the way you need to so as to keep its condition intact, and above all, don’t hand out your comics to people who don’t take care of them properly.

Following these steps to preserve the delicate paper and printing will help you maintain a comic book collection that stays valuable and that you can be proud of.

For more great comic articles check out SciFi Monkeys comic section!

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Jason DuBal

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