Best Way to Care for your Collection?

[RJK1981]

Thanks for the warnings in case I am ever in the market for what they sell. Have seen plenty and thought they looked great, but gonna bother if the customer service is shit. Won't but from someone on eBay because of the experience of a member or two here, which is a shame because he has some stuff I'd like, but I'm not willing to risk a bad experience.

[Tommy]

it's a shame too because the guy running it seems really nice but it has become something of a black hole for orders, he sells on ebay and you might get better responses from him on there, I really like the slipcase he did for Just After Sunset and I love the Chadbourne dust jackets they have for some of King's books but I am hesitant about ordering from him again as well because of a not so great transaction or two, I hope he can pull it together because he does have some great items

[slayn666]

Yeah, I meant Overlook, don't know why I typed Overland.

I'll probably just avoid ordering from them if that's how they treat customers. Even if the product is superb, I don't want to give any business to folks that treat their customers like crap.

I guess I'll look into custom stuff for my King hardcovers...

[Teriw]

Do you mean overlook connection? Their customer service is absolutely terrible. Have been trying to get my money back on an order I placed with them for months now. They won't even respond to my emails. Apparently they had a delay on their Shining/Doc sleep bundle but they won't give any updates or an approximate realease. I think this is completely unacceptable. My last email demanded my money back with no response at all. I definitely wouldn't preorder from them. That being said though, I have no idea what their slipcases are like. I just despise their lack of customer service

[slayn666]

Has anyone purchased a slipcase from the Overland Connection bookstore? I'm trying to get slipcases for as many of my King books as possible, and they have a few that look nice, but I was hoping to get some feedback from folks around here.

[RJK1981]

Ha! All the more reason to open for me as I would definitely get a refund or replacement from the publisher. Also wouldn't buy a book in shrinkwrap from a source other than the publisher. I have actually had no bad experiences with shrinkwrapped books, but I won't be terribly surprised if it happens one day.

[Br!an]

The books you unwrap are guaranteed to have more problems than the books you leave in shrinkwrap.

I have removed shrinkwrap and found: Mold/mildew, printing errors, binding errors, missing signatures, wrong/missing limitations, wrong editions, adhesive residue, stuck pages, warped (moisture damaged?) pages, missing text pages, missing art pages, folded pages, etc..

The books I haven't unwrapped have none of those problems.

If you don't remove the shrinkwrap then you don't know what you own.

[divemaster]

I bought a S/L book and upon removing the shrinkwrap discovered that one of the two-page art inserts was stuck together. When opening the pages, they actually ripped apart. Another book was missing pages 1-13.

If you don't take off the shrinkwrap, you can't be sure that your book is without a production error.

If a book is offered on eBay "still in shrinkwrap," I won't even bid. I am not confident on what I'll get.

[RJK1981]

You're welcome. I have never had a bad experience with shrinkwrap, but after hearing all the recommendations I removed it from my copy of the 1st edition of CD's Blockade Billy with the baseball card to avoid any chance of damage down the road due to the wrap. It took me a little while to make that decision though

[bugen]

If it's unanimously recommended here, on this forum, then by Jove it's the right thing to do. Just finished a novel so there's a quick review to be written, then I'm off to remove the shrinkwrap.

So awesome to have access to this community. Thank you all for your responses, they are much appreciated!

*edit
They're beautiful, and had some super-stiff spines that required a slow, patient break-in. Shannara had been sealed since '99! As the solid text block and the creaking spine could attest. Doing this has probably prolonged their lives decades based on what I saw after unwrapping, so thanks again everyone.

[Joe315]

And if you want the book protected since it doesn't have a dust jacket you could always place it in a large comic book bag.

[RJK1981]

Yep, heard more of the "remove the shrink-wrap" than anything. I was also going to say it is a good idea to do so you can make sure any signature that is supposed to be there is actually there. I have only had one signed book shrink-wrapped (Easton Press edition of American Gods), but I remove it from them all, including ones I won't read

[Tommy]

I am bad about this but I am getting better, If the book is more than a few years old, the shrinkwrap can actually be a liability, it can damage dust jackets and even cause warping to the boards if it is super tight, some collectors absolutely will not take anything out of shrinkwrap and I use to be this but after reading about peoples bad experiences with shrinkwrap, I definitely remove it, eventually, maybe not on the first day I get it but I do eventually remove it, I read one collectors comments on tdt.org who said they removed the shrinkwrap and then fold it up and put it in an envelope placing it beside the book it came off, this is hilarious to me, also inspecting your book is a must because the sig sheet could be missing or printed incorrectly or other things may be wrong with the book

[jhanic]

I would strongly suggest removing the shrink wrap. Some varieties of shrink wrap are harmful to the books themselves. (They can stick to the covers, etc.) If Easton recommends removing it, do it!

John

[bugen]

Could I please get the opinions of some collectors on this?

Easton Press recommends that all of their books be removed from shrinkwrap upon reception. Most of mine have been unwrapped, but I have a 2 of the more collectible that are still in the wrap I received them in - my signed Ender's Game and Sword of Shannara.

Is there any protection offered by the wrap, or only harm from a lack of oxygen to the book?

I do not plan to sell either volume, but they were so expensive I probably won't read them either. Right now I'm starting to think the ONLY reason to keep them in wrap would be for resale value, and even that's debateable if actual harm is coming to the book from being more or less sealed up.

Does anyone have any strong feelings or experience with this? I'm really leaning towards opening them up, but the cost is giving me pause.