There are many sins one can commit against LDs but these are some of the most common I've encountered to date:

Sticky inserts inside jacket

The owner of some second hand laserdiscs I had purchased from South America had inserted self adhesive plastic inserts about 1.5 inches wide inside the jackets at the opening. This reduced the friction when inserting/removing the disc at the expense of permanently damaging the sleeve! Who invented these evil devices?

Taped OBI's

I must confess I really don't like it when someone tapes the OBI to the cover. If they use ordinary sellotape it ages very badly leaving stains on the cover and the tape also disintegrates within a few years flaking off and leaving a brown stain.

Jackets covered in sellophane

Another cardinal sin that I have seen is for someone to actually put sellophane over the entire jacket to protect it. I've a few like that. Why not use a proper polythene sleeve? If you have ever tried to put sellophane on something it is no easy task to do without getting air bubbles trapped! To give them their fair credit it had been done so expertly I didn't spot a single blemish or bubble and it had also not discoloured even after 26 years old. I do still prefer them to arrive in original unscathed condition though!

Discs with no inner sleeves

I've also received some laserdiscs with no inner sleeves, or placed in paper LP sleeves which obviously scratch the discs. Thankfully this isn't common and most people who owned LDs were genuinely were careful with them - I wish I could say the same about second hand compact discs which often look like they have been used as floor mats!!

Smoke damage

Anyone with a large collection will likely have a few covers that smell like they came from the local tobacco factory. Smoking is still so popular in Japan I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Overall it is still fairly rare and it would not put me off a really valuable title.

Water Damage

It is hard to have collected thousands of LDs without encountering the odd water logged sample! The jacket is usually rippled with the paper often separating from the card jacket. In extreme cases the paper may have completely disintegrated and the jacket fallen apart. In less severe cases such as droplets of water you may end up with discolouration or that ugly beer mug circle on the front cover!

Fire damage

A burned or charred cover for sale is extremely rare but if it is a valuable title there is still a collector market particularly if the disc itself is fine. Don't expect top dollar for such a specimen though!

Graffiti on sleeve

Children are usually responsible for any supplementary artwork on covers! Thankfully the trend where people used to write the name of the person who bought them an LP or single on the inside of the sleeve isn't common in the laserdisc world!

Pet damage

Nothing really prepares you for the shock of a cover that has been nibbled to bits by a rabbit or hamster. Those creatures could destroy an entire collection in a matter of minutes given half a chance. Always store your most valuable LDs out of reach of pets and young children!!

Light faded covers

The clasic tell tale signs of fading are usually observed by examining the spine of the jacket which will be far lighter in colour. In extreme cases the front may also be faded if they came from a shop that had them on display in direct sunlight. Don't forget to look under the OBI as well as often that part shows the true colour of the cover before it got faded!

Spine splits

Many collectors blame the inner LD bags for leading to spine splits when shipping as they don't offer much protection. They could be right, however there is one simple way to avoid such damage - ship the LDs outside their jacket or place them in light replacement LP card jacket which will not matter if they split during transit.

Ringwear

Does anyone who collects LDs store them without outer protective sleeves?....I doubt if anyone on this forum would do so, but someone certainly is, if the number of worn out jackets I've received over the years is anything to go by! I think most of us know that the value of an item is directly proportional to the condition and there is no way a serious collector would pay as much for an old worn out jacket as one in pristine condition.

Cheap and nasty packaging

You'd be surprised the number of people who think it is perfectly normal to ship a LD inside a large jiffy bag with absolutely no other protection!
If you are lucky all four corners of the jacket with be totally scrunched to pieces but the disc will be ok. If you are unlucky the disc will also be cracked!
Of all the forms of damage I personally find this the most frustrating as it could easily have been avoided with some modest packaging. A clean empty pizza box provides excellent protection for shipping LDs as does a few sheets of thick card cut larger than the sleeve and stuck together. I've always regarded the packaging in Japan to be the best in the world. They seem to get the balance just right between weight and protection.

The felt tip touchup job

Ever been to a record fair and thought how good the LPs look in the racks only to arrive home and find someone has actually been doing a little touch up job with a felt tip pen on the edges to cover up all the wear marks!! This is common practice in the record world but isn't so common on LDs. It does occur though and if badly done would devalue a jacket.

Have I missed any?
Which do you mind the most as a fellow collector?

Personally, I store my library without covering up the jackets, because I want rapid access. On the other hand, they are in very little danger of shelf wear. While I do store them on open shelves, I separate them using "four sort dividers" which were originally made for dinner plates. This reduces the degree of side pressure considerably. On the other hand, I'm not very concerned about resale value. I consider my library a permanent thing. The odd extra disc, picked up in a group transaction or whatnot, which I plan to sell, I of course keep in oversleeves, typically the thin Japanese cellophane kind with the self-adhesive flap. I don't much like the heavy vinyl ones.

When I do sell a spare disc, I prefer to give the buyer a choice of leaving it in the jacket, in the plastic-lined paper inner sleeve I always use, or separating it from the jacket. In the latter case I multiple-bag the platter using my enormous surplus of those flimsy U-sleeves, which I always replace. The trick to reducing or avoiding spine splits, I find, is wrapping the LDs carefully in something which applies pressure. A combination of the thin-gage type of oversleeve & bubble-wrap works well.

As far as writing notes, I find the outer paper of the inner sleeves to be a perfect place for that. After all, they can always be replaced. I also use them to stick the stickers which sometimes are found on the shrink-wrap, because I certainly don't want to keep that around, but I don't want to lose the stickers either.

You've made some interesting points - especially writing on the inner sleeve. I always wanted to record some info with each laserdisc I acquired, particularly the purchase price, date acquired, seller etc but never got round to doing it. I do however have records of this information for every single disc ever purchased so could do this at any point given enough time. I always made a point of accurately recording this in a log at the time of purchase - old habits die hard!

I guess another advantage of not using outer jackets is the ability to store many more discs on shelves. For me I'd rather take the hit though. I've probably spent more on storage (solid oak shelving custom built for thousands of laserdiscs) than most other collectors but again it is to keep everything in pristine condition. Items in my possesion have not deteriorated at all over time even though I play discs almost every day. It also allows me to find the disc I want to play in a matter of seconds rather than spending ages searching through cumbersome piles or boxes in vain. There is nothing more frustrating than knowing you have a particular laserdisc but not being able to actually find it!

I'd be the first to admit I'm a fussy collector so jacket condition is important to me. I would always pay a premium for an item in mint condition over getting a cheaper copy with some wear etc.

Most of the items in my library are the only copy I've ever seen of that title, so I'm not in a position to worry too much about that if I wanted to. Comes with being a Japanese animation fan. The US releases were very small batches because of the market size, & the Japanese ones are in many cases quite obscure.

AMEN BROTHER ......AMEN !!!!

i hate it when u find a rare piece of media; ld lp or otherwise, i see that at thrift stores, ill find a really rare record and it has someons name on it! AHH!!! a little piece of you dies when u see that and have to pass it up....

If you're in that situation, and playback won't be a problem, I'd pull the trigger. Always better to at least have the title/album with someone's name written on it than not at all, if it's that rare. Then at least you'll have it. And, it's always easy to find a better copy of that title (often cheaper) again once you've already bought it, I've learned.

You can take a lot of marker off with the mr clean eraser thingies. They work pretty good but you do need to practice. Ink I think is forever. You can ship things and make it so they can not be damaged. As to spine splits in shipping. Exactly how hard does that LD have to hit the spine in order to split?

Oh, another rule, dont use LDs as frisbees, unless it is a copy of Jurassic Park, Aliens or Close Encounters, or Blade Runner. Every collection I have ever bought has had those in them.

I will add......as to spine splits, from all the LD I have got through mail, I've had both ways shipped, disc outside jacket and inside jacket. Outside the jacket does prevent split seams, but belive it or not I've had 2 discs now where something very narrow and sharp during post transit went through the side of the cardboard mailer and by luck hit the edge of the LD cracking it. If the disc was inside the jacket maybe that would have prevented it, I don't know.

Not sure if this qualifies, but you get a perfect LD and jacket but the disc label has ring wear near the center hole. That's a pretty much sign your getting disc slippage in your player. Maybe that doesn't bother some people though.

i once had a copy of rg veda come in nothing but 1 layer of bubble wrap, it didnt get damaged but i still wasnt happy with the guy

That is certainly true. Prior to collecting laserdiscs I don't think I had ever purchased multiple copies of the same item. With laserdiscs it became almost essential if you were searching for a mint copy as it was so common to acquire a trashed cover and a perfect disc or vice versa! The difficulty is that it is far slower selling off spares than it is acquiring them!

That is a good point and I'd prefer a disc without this sort of wear ideally.
I've seen discs with labels ripped off, scribbled on, promo stickers slapped on and of course dirty fingerprints - the infamous pizza eater strikes again!

I would always try to note any such imperfections when selling laserdiscs as I know there are other collectors just a fussy as myself!

Two words... Price tags.

Bugs me when I receive some discs with stickers all over the cover. I have found that WD40 works pretty well to get them off along with the residue. However, you need to be careful not to let the WD40 spread into open or worn areas of the cover, because it seeps in and stains.

I use the aptly named 'sticky stuff remover' to get residue off and it dries without staining:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sticky-Stuff-Li ... 0188558406

Thanks for the heads up LD_fan. I have so many discs that still have the price tag/residue on. VERY annoying (damn you junk shop!).
I have order some 'sticky stuff remover' on your recommendation. Thanks again. You the man!

Do you know if you can use this on plastic? The reason being one I got once must have been a library or rental disc, and had a sticky barcode sticker on the disc label.

After using goo gone on a cd case sticker, which melted the cd case, I would want to be sure anything I use is plastic safe using it on a LD disc label.

It uses natural Citrus cleaning power to do the removal - one of the reasons why it smells so nice.
It also claims to remove messes left by chewing gum, tar, oil and adhesives from virtually any surface - although it does not recommend being used on suede, leather or silk.

I've also used it with CD cases and it worked great not leaving any marks or discolouration at all so I cannot see any problem using on plastic.

What works well for me is the use of 3" x 5" index cards. Each one has release info on the front, such as title, year of release, publisher, number of discs, standard (NTSC or PAL), format (CLV, CAV, CAA), the manufacturer of the discs, country of release, etc. On the reverse side I write the date every time I view a disc, and on some I indicate what I paid for it, the date it was added to my collection, etc.

For years I would insert them inside the jackets, but had a problem with the cards working their way between the paper inner sleeve and the poly lining of the inner sleeve. Now I keep them in a card file. I still insert the receipts into the jackets.

STAY AWESOME!

This still happens a lot in eBay, I've received two cracked discs during last year or so because sellers decided to snatch some of the charged shipping costs to their own pockets and ship discs in plain jiffy bags overseas instead of boxing them properly...