Page 1 of 1

shrink wrapped books

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 10:28 am
by allasorte
I'm bored and wanted to state something about shrink wrapped books. First though, I think it is rather grueling to attempt to sign up for the darktower.org thread. Policed too well as if it is an amazing secret society? lol

There was a thread there talking about shrink wrapped books and it's as if people don't realize that shrink wrapped books are really bad for the book and dust jacket. Does anyone realize what the word shrink means?! It means to make smaller. Over time, something that is shrink wrapped will shrink. It is evident from the word itself, but also evident from personal experiences.

For example. I purchased several years ago a shrink wrapped Gunslinger 2nd edition. It looked great, but you could tell the shrink wrap was crushing the book and wearing the dust jacket's colors off a tiny bit and rounding out the corners of the book. You could feel the plastic was not acid free and yellowing as well, so it had to be removed to save the book. That's what today's mylar wraps, slipcases, bookcases, and window blinds are for. Another example is Wastelands. The wrapping kills the navy blue jackets and wears them white as evident all the time on listings shown with picks.

My point. Why do they shrink wrap books when they are ruining their value? If they were in a slipcase like Cemetery Dance's books it would help preserve them wrapped in plastic, but not over an extended time frame. Older King books and other books are not in protective slipcases. Just something I wanted to say based on factual information and not some rant of an opinion.

Re: shrink wrapped books

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 7:59 am
by TheCollector
I'm pretty sure they shrinkwrap the books so the DJ's don't get damaged in transit. Saves the edges of the DJ from getting nicked, ripped, etc in transit. I'm sure you've gotten those Amazon deliveries of books where the DJ has some minor flaws in it as it moved around in the box.

There have been documented cases of the shrinkwrap damaging the DJ on older books, mainly on early DT books from Grant I believe. I don't know if that's because the shrinkwrap material was different, or because it's 30+ years old at this point, etc.

At any rate, after you remove the shrinkwrap you should get the DJ into an archival quality brodart cover and you'll be all set.

Re: shrink wrapped books

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 8:44 am
by davem
I always take the shrinkwrap off as its not an archival product, just a short term packaging solution. I then put the book in Brodart. The other thing is that you don't know if you have a perfect book until you look into it and double check. I like to know that in 20 years time if I sell up that I wont have to make refunds on books when the new owner opens them and finds the print is upside down or shy a few pages or worse.

Re: shrink wrapped books

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 12:06 pm
by amd013
Just wanted to comment that based on recent comments in this and other threads, I went ahead and removed the shrink wrap from a 1st edition of The Wastelands. I just bought it off of ebay about 2 weeks ago. I did not detect any flaws or issues caused by leaving the wrap on for nearly 25 years. Maybe the first owner(s) took special care of it. I have removed the shrink wrap for most of my books. I still have 2 or 3 that are not unwrapped, but they are all in slipcases, and very recently published. (less then 2 years)

Even after removing the wrap, I only do a cursory check (maybe to look at the pages with drawings etc). I wouldn't go to the trouble of checking that every page is accounted for, since I can't think of an instance of ever encountering a book that was missing pages or misbound or whatever (other then through damage to the book by too many readings).

I'm not advocating leaving the wrap on, just saying no need to panic. Just giving one data point to consider.

On the other hand as a 2nd hand buyer, in some cases I might prefer that the seller remove the shrink wrap from a numbered edition to confirm the number on the inside matches the number they claim it is.

Re: shrink wrapped books

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 1:51 pm
by jhanic
When I get a shrink wrapped book that's in a slipcase, I slit the shrink wrap carefully along one side of the opening so that I can get the book out but keep the shrink wrap more-or-less intact. Some of the UK King limiteds are like this, where the shrink wrap has information on it that would be lost if the shrink wrap were thrown away.

John

Re: shrink wrapped books

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:52 pm
by allasorte
I noticed the wear from the Gunslinger, so that's why I mentioned it.
But yes, I wrap everything in brodart wraps and love the slipcases from SKcollector!!!
I also figured out something I wanted to share since the Cemetery Dance's slipcases are too tight. I always use the Brodart wraps that are 1.5mil clear plastic. They are the ones that are 2 pieces attached of plastic and paper, but you can't use them with CD slipcases because they are too big. I went to brodart and found a solution. Brodart also has mylar wraps that are a sheet of plastic.....but at the bottom there is like a 2-3 inch attached piece of plastic like a small sleeve. You can take you CD jackets, wrap them in these, and then use their slipcases no problem. I did this for all the CD books that have their own slipcases like Secretary of Dreams, the new Carrie, the new Shining, etc. Now everything can be protected with brodart with out without slipcases. If anyone wants to know the actual sleeves I buy, I can look that up for you. thanks for the responses.

Re: shrink wrapped books

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 6:15 pm
by jhanic
allasorte wrote:I noticed the wear from the Gunslinger, so that's why I mentioned it.
But yes, I wrap everything in brodart wraps and love the slipcases from SKcollector!!!
I also figured out something I wanted to share since the Cemetery Dance's slipcases are too tight. I always use the Brodart wraps that are 1.5mil clear plastic. They are the ones that are 2 pieces attached of plastic and paper, but you can't use them with CD slipcases because they are too big. I went to brodart and found a solution. Brodart also has mylar wraps that are a sheet of plastic.....but at the bottom there is like a 2-3 inch attached piece of plastic like a small sleeve. You can take you CD jackets, wrap them in these, and then use their slipcases no problem. I did this for all the CD books that have their own slipcases like Secretary of Dreams, the new Carrie, the new Shining, etc. Now everything can be protected with brodart with out without slipcases. If anyone wants to know the actual sleeves I buy, I can look that up for you. thanks for the responses.
Good information. Thanks!

John