Comic Book Supplies, Necessities Of The Serious Collector
By Dave Gieber, Fri Dec 9th
If you want to keep your comic book collection in tiptop shape,comic book supplies will become part of your collecting life. Assoon as a magazine is printed there are natural environmentalforces going to work to try and destroy the ink and the paper.You have put in a lot of time, effort and enjoyment in acquiringall your comics. You don’t want them to turn back to the dustand elements from which they came do you? Elements such as humidity, temperature, pollutants, human skinoils and even the chemicals of the printed materials themselves,will start to deteriorate and discolor your comic books from dayone. Tools that have been developed over the years to help uscombat these natural forces are de-acidification paper, polymertype storage bags, stiff backing material, storage boxes anddesiccants (dehumidification materials). Not only will thesecomic book supplies protect your comics for your own enjoyment,they will add to reinforce the future value of each comic book. Most all of these supplies can typically be located down at yourlocal comic book shop. But as I have discovered lately, therecan be a world of difference in preservation abilities dependingon what materials are used in the manufacture of comic booksupplies. Quite typically what you may find downtown will be ofsufficient protective quality to protect your comics for quite awhile. Although, polybags, to put your comics into, are quitecommon and fairly cheap, Mylar bags are definitely the way togo. They will protect for 100 years (that may be a littleoverboard) as opposed to 2 or 3 years for poly.
There has been a lot of elaborate science, particularlychemistry, which has gone into preservation materialmanufacturing the last several years. MicroChamber material hasbeen developed that will increase preservation fromde-acidification and environmental breakdown for a vastlysuperior time period as opposed to typical materials availabletoday. Beware though, comic book supplies manufactured with thisnew material can become quite costly. But if you have someserious collector’s items, which you feel are worth asignificant amount of cash, isn’t the investment worth it? It isalso no secret that CGC uses these materials in every comic bookthey grade. I have created a page at my comic book site, which incorporateslinks to some rather technical scientific articles onpreservation and using MicroChamber materials. You can read anin-depth discussion atwww.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com/comic-book-supplies.html. Be forewarned though, You may need a moderate understanding ofchemistry and
physics to completely follow some of thediscussions. But the articles will open your eyes to what isavailable in the comic book industry for preservation suppliesthese days. Now if you have a rather rare back issue that may well have ahigh dollar value, here is a process worth considering.De-acidification products are usually used to neutralize acidsin the paper prior to storage of most paper products of a pulpnature. This is not to be taken lightly, as it is considered bymost to be an extensive form of restoration. The currentunderstanding of the process is that the staples are removed andthe sheets are submerged, film developer style, in a bath ofde-acidification material. Then the entire book is rebuilt withnew staples. This process can cost around $50 per comic book,when done by a professional, but will restore and increase thelife expectancy of your comic book by many years. This process,in my opinion, should only be considered for alreadydeteriorated comics that may have a considerable future worth ifrestored. One final item to consider, especially if you live in a highhumidity area is the use of descants within your storage boxes.A desiccant is a chemical sieve for water, and is available forindustry use in small packets or in buckets. For our purposes an8 oz can (that looks like you'd keep a grasshopper in) can besimply put inside the box to absorb moisture and indicates whenit is full by changing from crystal colored to pink. These samecans can then be reused by baking them for 3-4 hours in an ovenat about 350 F. Each canister can cost around $9-$10 from onesupplier called GAYLORDMART. 1 canister per short box and 2 perlong box should be sufficient. Another consideration is thelittle packets typically found in a box of shoes. These are evenmore inexpensive, but would require further research to insureno harm would come to each comic book. So as you build your valuable comic book collection, you willwant to put some serious consideration into the comic booksupplies that you will need. Materials and supplier source willbecome important variables in your overall decisions. I willhave more interesting topics and sources from time to time at mysite, so come on over and visit. You may even want to bookmarkit. About the author:Dave Gieber, a former rocket engineer, has decided to take upresidency on the Internet. He is the owner and editor of severalwebsites, one of which was built around one of his childhoodpassions; www.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com . You canvisit here to keep up to date on the world of comic books andcomic book collecting. Feel free to sign up for his comic bookezine atwww.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com/comic-book-ezine.html |
