500 albums in a basement flood--worth saving?

@dekay --thanks for the Groovemaster link and other stuff@bigkidz --know Michael.  Was going to call him about another subject soon, but good idea to discuss this personal "rekkid" problem@lewm - good points, debating that save vs. toss right now due to time constraints. Just don't want to regret it later on when I get a TT down the road@oldhvymec--helpful cleaning tips. The outside water was mixed with the house water and I'm not seeing too much, if any, apparent silt or dirt on them so far, just some moisture@millercarbon--see above about water mix@stereo5 --all staying flat so far@pjr801--the plan is to save, but best laid plans can go astray@gary7--hope the big wind never hits.  Think about separate rider on your policy covering them if not already, and if your insurance company would accept. Do you need flood insurance in your area?@jjs49-- thanks for the thought
@three_easy_payments-- mine sound best when I hold them up to my ears at a 45 degree angle.

@terry9 --sorry missed you. Will check out those vinyl Stack and ElmaSonicproducts. Thanks for the good thoughts.  Could use some positive energy right about now.

ElmaSonic is pretty much a Mercedes product, so you might find it to be overkill. But it is among the best and easiest to use. The 80KHz option gives better cleaning and quieter operation - at a price. Tell the wife that you bought it to clean her jewelry, oh, and to use it yourself when she didn't need it.

Tt1man,

I live in Lafayette LA, so I feel for ya brotha. We barely dodged that evil thing. 
I don’t have advice for your records, but I hope the rest of your life gets put back together soon. 

Back in 1977 I went into the Service and was stationed in Germany. I had maybe 750 records at the time which I was going to put into storage, along with a bunch of antiques and other belongings. My sister insisted I store the stuff down her basement, a no cost option, so I did. While I was away for three years, unbeknownst to me, a hose on their washer burst and flooded their basement, soaking about two hundred of the records in the bottom two stacked orange crates.

Nothing was done to inform me, dry the record jackets out, or remove the vinyl from the jackets. So you can imagine what these records looked like a year or two after the fact, when I got home after finishing my tour of duty. The antique furniture was a complete loss and he jackets and their inner sleeves were moldy and disgusting to say the least.

But miraculously, as a fledgling audiophile, as I purchased each record new, I had replaced almost all the original paper jackets with vinyl lined paper inner sleeves . So most of the records themselves within the sleeve's plastic liner were dry and okay, although the jackets and paper portion of the sleeves were goners. Only one record was a complete loss, the old Buddy Holly "Reminiscing" LP which was in it’s original paper inner jacket.

For years, whenever shopping at antique stores, flea markets, garage sales or wherever, I always scoured the used record bins to find original replacement jackets. Drove my late wife crazy. Forty- seven years later, this past Winter I finally gave up and purchased eighty plain white jackets to finally get the remaining records back on the shelves where they belonged.

So my advice to you is try to save your records. It’s greatly satisfying to do so, even almost half a century later. The white outer jackets can be found relatively inexpensively in bulk online if you look around. I’ve about twenty left over you can have if you live anywhere near Roanoke, VA. An ultrasonic or any good cleaner would be a great thing to have in any event. Wish I had one. Take it easy.

Mike