500 albums in a basement flood--worth saving?


Hi--just had 6' high (relatively clean) water fill basement during recent hurricane/tropical storm. Lost everything down there including 500 albums: some late 60's rock, 70's & early 80's rock, some jazz and a few classical, most in pretty good shape prior to this. Couple of Original Master Recordings. No turntable at the moment. Insurance not covering.  Question: is it worth peeling/discarding album covers, buying 500 new sleeves, buying record cleaning machine (lots of time & labor), or just toss the lot?  Are they worth anything without the covers, just inner sleeves (what type are best, paper or plastic?)?  What is average value?  TIA.
 
tt1man
I would @ a minimum remove them from the jackets/sleeves ASAP and then decide their fate later on.

If you don't they will most likely grow mold.

Not certain how to store them to dry, but perhaps someone else will come up with something feasible.

DeKay
No such thing as relatively clean flood water. What you will find, huge amount of grit got in there. No record cleaners on the market are designed to clean records that have fine grit caked on from being soaked in sludge. The problem is being covered with incredibly fine grit abrasive particles that will be hard if not impossible to clean off without scratching the vinyl in the process. If you have a few treasures it might be worth a try and who knows you might get lucky, might be only a ten minute multi-step process to do each one, and they might even come out fairly quiet. But odds are, complete loss.
None of mine warped. Took about 4 days in the garage, with fans after a couple days of dripping. It was 80-90 degree weather here. I didn’t have flood water though, I never did get any molds. There were a few that were pretty dirty too. Bubbler tank, just like an aquarium, until they look good,hand wash UNDERWATER with mild dish soap, inspect, then ultrasound, test and label.. Work pretty good, Actually real good.. Some of those records, were NEVER used, maybe twice in there whole life.
Polka music, native Irish, and Highland music..

Regards