My old comic shop guy showed me a bagging trick I still use today

Back in 2012 at Cosmic Comics in Portland, the owner told me to slide the backing board in from the top instead of the side. I thought he was just being picky but after jamming three Silver Age issues into crooked bags I gave it a shot. Now I bag about 60 books a month for my personal collection and I haven't had a single bent corner since. Anyone else pick up weird little habits from their local shop?

3 comments

3 Comments

bailey.jennifer1d ago

Oh man, that top-loading trick changed my whole setup. But here's something nobody talks about - how you store the bags AFTER you bag them. Most folks just stack them flat in a box. I learned the hard way that stacking too many bags on top of each other, even in a short box, can crease the bottom books over time. Now I stand my bagged books upright like files in a filing cabinet. Keeps the pressure even across all of them. Been doing it that way since 2015 after I ruined a really clean copy of New Mutants 98.

evan_davis21h ago

Wait, do you actually stand them upright in short boxes though? Because @keith274 that's the one thing nobody warns you about - those short boxes are designed for that exact purpose but people still stack them flat. I learned that lesson the hard way too, except it was a 90s X-Men that got ruined, not a New Mutants 98. The pressure thing is real though, I've seen dudes with whole short boxes of bagged books stacked five high and the bottom ones are all bent at the spine after a year.

keith2741d ago

Honestly, that's just like life in general, everything needs the right kind of support to not get crushed.