Whats on your turntable tonight?

@puffball08 " The take away is, take the outer shrink wrap off your records as soon as you can. Spend the money to buy proper outer jacket sleeves."

I usually leave the shrink wrap on the outer sleeve, especially if it has some kind of "hype" sticker on it.  I put the vinyl into an acid free poly lined sleeve and then put the newly sleeved record and the outer sleeve into a poly outer jacket, with the record outside of and behind the outer sleeve. 

My main goal is to protect the vinyl, but my secondary goal is to preserve the value of the record, so that if at some point I decide to sell the record it will be NM/NM. 

I know opinions differ about the best way to do this and the best type of inner/outer sleeves to use.  I hope I don't start this thread's first controversy!

I've been thinking more and more about getting an Orb machine to flatten records.  I know they work.

@spiritofradio Cool beans!

@ mammothguy54 +1 Phoebe Snow

i think @slaw has a pretty sure fire flattening process…also try an enzyme cleaner for a couple of cycles…the enzyme takes time to “ eat “ the goop, so give it time WET. i have had good results w both Nitty Gritty and Walker enzymes.

i deleted a post seeking a free or nearly free Decca London so i can properly culturally indoctrinate the Croft phono pre…..

just kidding…who knows…?

@tomic601 thanks for the tips. I’ll check with @slaw about flattening. I’ll look into Nitty Gritty and Walker to try and rescue my termite terrorized records.


@big_greg Understand about leaving the shrink wrap in place if it is stickered up. However, nearly all what I listen to lacks anything other than a price sticker. And that has been an experience seeing $5.99 records from 1975 ($29.97 adjusted for inflation) and $7.99 from 1979 ($29.63 adjusted for inflation). Not to mention all the record stores that have gone away like Aron’s, Licorice Pizza, Moby Disc, Zed, Play it Again, Tower, etc. etc.

Considering what I’ve been paying for 12" lately, seems vinyl prices corrected for inflation haven’t changed much over the decades.

Many records I’ve received lately from Bleep and Rough Trade UK have been sent without shrink wrap with the record outside the jacket in a thick (3 mil) anti-static inner sleeve. Both the sleeved vinyl and jacket are placed in a thick (5 mil) outer jacket.

My crystal ball says there’s an Orb in my future.