[78-L] 78-L Digest, Vol 10, Issue 16

[JD]

> Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 21:35:54 -0700
> From: pete ault <graffen47 at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [78-L] Ok Folks here it is, the 1 "dumb" question of the day
> To: <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Message-ID: <BAY142-W281B102990292B3968E56BB32B0 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
> There always has to be someone that comes along with a real winner so it 
> might as well be me this time. An older friend of mine recently gave me 
> his collection of records, mostly 33 12 inch LP's. My question involves 
> the covers, some of these are so fragile, just taking the record out of 
> the jacket causes them to break,then start tearing down the seams, either 
> the back or top and bottoms also. My question is what can be done about 
> this, and should i attempt a repair myself or is it better to just leave 
> them alone. I'm looking at this from the point of view of wanting to sell 
> eventually. I've noticed on a couple of the older album covers people 
> tried to repair with tape and of course the tape yellowed and left marks 
> on the cover itself, but leaving those awful tears only seems to make them 
> worse everytime the record is handled. Is there an acceptable way to 
> repair torn edges without further denigrating the value? Thanks for any 
> help, and sorry for the dumb question. I just wan
> t to make sure I do everything right before attempting to sell them.
>
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Pete, this hardly qualifies as a dumb question.
A few years ago I was contacted by a record dealer (since passed) who was 
given my name by one of our (former??) members, himself  then a brick & 
mortar dealer whose shop I'd frequented a number of times. He offered me 
some surprisingly high prices for some of my LPs.  Prior to his visit I'd 
been repairing my split sleeves with Scotch 600 tape in 3/4" width long ago 
having graduated from the deteriorating horrors of  masking tape and similar 
stuff. I thought I was doing the right thing. (When carefully repaired with 
600 the results can look almost professional or original. It's a clear tape 
that I find is an excellent solution to this problem.  I learned of my 
mistake when this chap informed me that  collectible LPs had greater value 
when not repaired. He gave me $300. for a rare jazz album I'd very carefully 
repaired but informed me that he would have given  $500. had I left it 
untouched.  He also gave me  generous price on another jazz LP (original 
condition) that I'd been about to throw out. The sleeve looked like a 
Goodwill reject. On a subsequent visit to the record shop mentioned above I 
noticed many old and pricey LPs with split sleeves that opened like a 
gatefold album...no repairs. Needless to say I have given up repairing 
anything I feel might  have eventual value. Those I store in the clear vinyl 
sleeves mentioned by David Lennick. (available from 
http://www.bagsunlimited.com/  and others)  Good luck!
Jack
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