Storage solutions for vinyl record hounds

Goldmine presents its

guide to keeping your

records in tip-top shape

By Todd Whitesel

How much is your record collection worth? It’s a question that demands some thought.

For most of us, our collections have two different values. There is the market value and then the personal value. And I’m guessing that for most of us, the personal value of our collections exceeds what the market can or is willing to pay. In reality, some of my most “valuable” records aren’t worth more than $10, but that doesn’t make them less important.

Sure, I could purchase a mint copy of Rush’s All The World’s A Stage from any number of record dealers, but it wouldn’t be the copy that I purchased at a record store/head shop in Dayton, Ohio, when I was a 10-year-old kid just getting into the hobby. It wouldn’t be the copy that first sent me over the edge to want to play drums like

Neil Peart. And it wouldn’t be the same copy that resides in my collection today, more than 30 years later, and is stored proudly next to the many hundreds more albums that I’ve accumulated since that time.

Whether your collection is worth $100 or $100,000, its value is ultimately determined by its condition. And if you find value in your collection, which I’m assuming you do, it only makes sense to protect it. Properly storing and preserving that dear vinyl is paramount to maintaining its value. Let’s look at three simple steps to help preserve your vinyl collection for years to come.

Organize It

Like so many other tasks, the best first step to storing a record collection is to get organized.

Before storing your records, it’s best to organize them so it’s actually possible to find a given LP, 45 or 78. Many collectors, like myself, organize alphabetically by artist. Others may divide their records into genres — blues, jazz, country, rock, R&B. Collectors of 45s or a specific genre may want to go further, organizing them by record label. It’s not important how you organize, as

Courtesy of Bags Unlimited/Kris Kandler

LP dividers like the ones above can help you organize your collection after putting your vinyl records in boxes, which is one of the best ways to store your albums.

Courtesy Indy Discount Boxes/Fingerpop/Kris Kandler

White Diamond (bottle in the middle) cleaner can help keep your vinyl records looking pristine, while sleeves such as these can help protect them from getting damaged.

 

long as you do organize.

It may not seem like a big deal if all you have are a few dozen LPs tucked away by a turntable; however, when your collection starts rising into the hundreds or thousands of items, it’s time to do something, for sanity’s sake.

Even the best organizational efforts are only as good as our memories. I’d like to think that I can remember every album in my collection, but that’s probably wishful thinking. So I took the time to enter all my records into a simple spreadsheet, which I update as I add new items to the collection. Maintaining such a list really helps keep tabs on my inventory.

As well, there are several computer programs written specifically for record collectors, such as Kix Software’s Music Catalogue Master ( http://kixsoftware.com/index.html), which automatically enters CDs and vinyl LP records (including track information) from four different online databases with no typing required. Other information and extras, including album art, band URLs, band member info, song titles and track times, are also shown making for handy reference. The program can generate reports in several common formats such as PDF, Word, Excel and HTML, making it easy to keep tabs on your collection, share with friends or upload to a Web site or blog.

While organizing a collection isn’t nearly as fun as collecting itself, it’s an undeniable

pleasure to find an item or verify that you own it without tearing the house apart. The better organized you are, the more records you can buy and organize and enjoy!

Protect It

We’ve all seen them — the records that have been abused badly by owners, damaged by actions such as leaving multiple albums stacked on one another, leaving records lying around on a couch so the kids or dog could easily grab them, or just stuffing an album back in the jacket without a protective sleeve.

Over time, these little indiscretions really take a toll. Soon, that shiny 12-inch music maker is reduced to a scratchy remnant doomed for a thrift-store donation, where it then lingers in oblivion. Don’t let this happen to your records!

After getting a collection organized, it’s time to take protective measures to ensure that each item remains in the best possible condition. Vinyl album sleeves are the first line of protection to keep covers from getting dinged, scratched or damaged in any number of ways. Bags Unlimited ( www.bagsunlimited.com) has an excellent selection of record sleeves, ranging from a basic polyethylene sleeve to a museum-grade archival Mylar (polyester) sleeve with resealable flap. Sleeves are sold in different thicknesses, from 1.5 millimeters to 6 millimeters, to cover single-, double- and triple-album sets.