How to Take Care of Comic Books

Once you get into the world of comic book collecting you have to care for your comic books if you expect them to keep their pristine look or if you want them to be at all valuable in the future. Unfortunately, with comic books, unlike most other collectibles, the mere acts of reading them and hanging out in the natural elements of the world diminish their value. As soon as you read a book, you have the ability to destroy the spine and cause what are called "spider cracks" to appear throughout the edge of the book. Your natural oils from your fingers cause the pages to break down. Finally, the air, the moisture in the air and the natural breakdown of elements in the books will break down because of being exposed to the air. With all of these things destroying your investment, you have to take care of them.

The first thing you'll need is comic book bags. These are clear bags that are the exact size of the comic book and securely hold the comic book. Do not skimp and buy generic bags, this is not a time to be cheap. In addition, the price difference between the cheap and the great is maybe a couple cents. These bags are going to keep every potentially harmful element away from your comic book. You don't want a bag that will only keep most of them out. These bags come in stacks of 20, 50, or 100 and cost all of maybe $10 for the 100. This is a very high end range, and the price varies among companies and regions. You're going to want to put every singe comic into one of these bags.

In addition to the comic that is going in this bag, you're also going to want to put in a backer board. These boards will keep all harmful items from touching or even wanting to touch your comic. These board collect and neutralize all in born acids, contaminants, and even moisture that get into the bag. This actually pulls all harmful items away from your comic. It also keeps your comic rigid and solid. You don't want your comic to bend or crack on its own accord. You want it to stay pristine and new as when you first bought it. The best backer boards are virgin white double side glossy cardboard backers. These are guaranteed to never ever wear down and never to allow your comics to come to harm. These will cost you about 15 cents a piece. The cheaper ones, and they are only glossy on one side will cost you about a dime. It's up to you what you want to do with your prized collection.

Finally we come to the idea of storage. How do you store your comic books. The best way is to by what are called long boxes. They are boxes that are the exact width and height of a comic book and will hold them standing up read to be pulled out and read. The optimum way to store comic books is smooshed together and standing up. There are 4 sizes of long boxes: 20, 50, 100, 1000. These number indicate how many comics will happily stand in them. These numbers are slightly off since you can fit a lot more comics in these boxes then what they state you can. The prices of these boxes vary so much through out the industry, the best idea is to shop around and find a box that is best for you.

Take care of your comics and in the future they will have a value that is insurmountable. Whether it is just to pass down tot a family member or a child, or the big money that they are promised to have in the future. Just remember, Amazing Spider-man number 1 was sold for 15 cents, and is now sold on auction for $195,000.