The debate about bag and board vs just mylar got real after talking to a guy from the 80s

I was at a local comic shop in Portland last month and this older collector told me he never uses bags and boards for his silver age books, just mylar sleeves. He said the cardboard can trap acid over time and warp the spine, and he's got 30 year old books that look mint without them. On the flip side, I know a lot of people swear by the support boards give to prevent bending. So which is it? Has anyone here switched to just mylar and regretted it, or seen damage from boards after a decade?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jana13h agoMost Upvoted

That older guy's not wrong about acid but he's missing the bigger picture with humidity. Portland's climate is different than somewhere like Arizona where I am, and boards actually wick moisture away from the book in dry areas while mylar traps it inside. Had a buddy who went pure mylar on some early 70s ASM issues, moved from Phoenix to Florida without changing his system, and the inside covers got that wavy water damage from trapped condensation. You gotta match your storage to your local weather, not just copy what some guy did in the 80s.

the_rowan7h ago

100% agree. I ruined a stack of silver age Flash books doing the same thing, switched to full mylar before I moved from Colorado to Louisiana and those covers looked like a washboard within six months.