TIL a collector told me my bag-and-board method was ruining my Silver Age books

I always slid the comic into the bag with the spine on the left, but a guy at a con in St. Louis last spring said that traps moisture along the spine and causes foxing over time, so now I flip it spine-right but have to ask you all does that actually help or is he full of it?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy_coleman2114d ago

Buddy of mine tried the spine-left method for years and ended up with weird ripple damage on a Hulk 181. He switched to spine-right after that and says his books lay way flatter now.

-1

veraj5314d ago

I remember reading a post on a collector's blog where someone tested both methods on a stack of Bronze Age books. They found the spine-right approach actually reduced the stress on the staples over time, especially for thicker issues like annuals. The ripple damage your buddy saw makes total sense to me, the spine-left position can really torque the cover in a weird way if the book isn't perfectly flat. It's one of those things where a small change makes a big difference, I guess.

the_faith14d ago

@amy_coleman21 but spine-left has worked perfect for me on older books for like ten years now, no damage at all lol.