Hi.

I currently store all of my discs on a shelf, upright (vertical). Most discs are in a 2mm Polyethylene sleeve; I just bought a pack of 100 3mms.
The shelf isn't completely full; Still some open space. However, in said space, I have some junk VHS films to prop up the LDs from falling/being slanted.

Is there anything MORE I could do? Some questions:

1. Is my current method accurate?
2. Is it harmful to stack LDs? (horizontal)
3. Is it harmful to have LDs tilted? Causes warping?
4. Is it bad that a prop up my LDs with VHS? Safe?
5. Why does everyone hate the 'plastic' LD sleeves inside the jackets? (Elephant condoms) - I thought fibers, from paper, were terrible for all optical media?
6. Warping prevention? What's the main cause?

Additional info:

My shelf is very smooth wood and my home is always 68-70 degrees; Fans are always on.
Absolutely NO sunlight are on my LDs. Directly, anyways. (but the XMas tree is currently obfuscating all light from the window, LD location wise)

Thank you.

Make sure not to overload your shelf, especially if it isn't wood but particle board as most shook furniture is. You'd very likely catch it before any trouble but since you're taking every precaution.
I suppose you could fabricate dewshoes for the corners of the LDs out of pulpboard, cardstock etc. Just a more solid corner cut from some more solid material to fit over each corner of the LD sleeve. That might protect against edgewear and compression.

I would definitely not leave them tilted much.

I just prop my discs against the rotters.

I think you are worrying more than you need over 60 dollars worth of stuff.

1 ?
2 yes
3 sometimes, yes
4 unless you really care get a bookend.
5 I don't, I didn't like them in the past but when replacing them I always used plastic inside the paper.
6 above what you asked.

60 dollars? I've invested a little over 1,000 USD in my library, not including the price of players and external equipment.

OK misspoke on the value.
Anyway even if the collection is over 10G pretty much as above.

Hope all of the rest of my comments helped, may have upset you with value assumption but as a great author once said, So It Goes.

And according to your 1G collection, you are pretty much daft to be using VHS tapes to hold them up and should never let
anybody know that you paid that much for stuff and used VHS tapes to protect them.

It appears to me you have most obvious bases covered !

I like the concept of shoes for the corners.

Strong floors, strong shelves, and mitigate side pressure by not over loading shelves is academic.

Nice thread, hope others chime in.

I am planning a new home construction and am specifically designing the basement t for LD storage/display.
Any suggestions from the membership would be most welcome.......

Cheers mates

You’re fine, already overthinking things.

Wait until you’ve owned a few discs for a few years and they play exactly the same as when you bought them, maybe then you’ll be able to relax.

Storage is essentially the same as LPs or books or whatever. Keep them vertical, packed somewhat tight but not very. Environmental conditions are important but you don’t need to build a walk-in humidor or anything. Quality bags will make stuff last almost forever.

People hate the plastic inner liners because they get spindled pretty bad. They are the best thing overall though so don’t replace them.

If you are concerned with warping then the trick is to not die. When you die someone else has to store your LDs until they can sell them and that takes years. They might sit in 6 foot stacks in some frozen garage until they can be eBayed off to the next guy and by then they will be warped if not rotted and warped. Don’t ever die!

As for the “investment”. I’ve been collecting for decades and I can’t even guess what I’ve spent but I’m sure in real money it’s all now worth about...$60. I don’t let myself get hung up on any aspect of it except what will affect my LD watching. I’ll never ever ever ever get even %10 of my money back and I’m totally cool with it. The enjoyment I’ve had with my LDs is invaluable.

EDIT: your Collection, which is private, has 20 discs in it. Are you just behind updating or did you seriously spend $1000 on 20 discs? If so, I’m not sure you’re doing this right. You may want to slow down and think about stuff.

I also noticed it says you live down on the bayou. Weather in the more swampy tropical regions has been thought to be detrimental to LD survival. I don’t think there is any proof, but it’s probably true. If you have AC for you collection there won’t be an issue. Otherwise 100F with 89% humidity is to be avoided.

Elevate the shelves in case of flooding. This is more a household disaster concern, not one for natural disasters. Best to make the stilts out of something waterproof--metal or plastic.
If the room has an unfinished floor, especially if your laundry is also in the basement, installing an emergency drain in the floor shouldn't be difficult.
Insulation against the cold, if you can afford it, is the last that comes to mind without infringing on display potential.

There’s a not-difficult way to add a drain to a basement? I think you need an impact hammer and a permit and breathing apparatus and stuff, that’s before you lay the pipe and poor the concrete.

I’ve never had a house that didn’t already have a drain in it so maybe there’s some other way of doing it?

When I made my account, I never added my collection manually. Everything in my collection, I added after purchasing on LDDB. No, I was just being straight forward with how much i've relatively spent on my library; I have more than 140 discs but less than 300, lost count. The enjoyment is invaluable, yes. Majority of my library is obscure releases but I own some more valued ones. (ones that i care to watch, or want to watch, anyways); I don't buy a disc unless i want it for sure.

And no, Rein-o.. I'm not upset. Just made me spit out my water.

Yeah, i'm in the 'bayou', haha. Yes, i've got AC; My home is very well air conditioned.

Good, I hope you didn't get it on your computer or anything around

Look for something better than VHS tapes as ends, even smaller bookends aren't going to be strong enough.
Look into cast iron or better just get some type of box/crate that you can turn on its side or thick wood to have on the ends.
The thinner the more chance of the weight pushing and that last end disc will bend like the thinner piece holding it up.

Like

After reading this thread I started to get worried. With 40 deg c days pretty common this summer I didn't want to risk any LDs being on an angle and warping. I got some library grade metal book ends and with a combo of those and box sets to prop up ends I got all my LDs upright. As you can see I still got plenty of room left to grow the collection. Gettting it organised inspires me to fill gaps. More classic anime box sets, music discs and military documentaries on the menu..!

I also got some time on Xmas to actually organise my media shelf properly and setup my room properly too. CDs, DVDs and LDs. VHS, Tapes, MDs and more DVDs are in other units. Spent most of my time recasing old CDs, and bagging those with obis so I can disply the obi. Something I always wanted to do.






Now the media viewing station is complete...except for a genlock that should be coming tomorrow. Got 10 more days off and nothing else to do, time to get drunk and watch LDs

Forper you legitimately have the nicest looking setup I've seen, it just looks so cozy.

Thanks, yeah it feels good. Taken me so many years to build it at a cost I can afford. At this point I'm happy, just need my genlock, a few more backup LD players and more LDs! I bet there are guys here who have spent more on the HLD-XO and Lumigen scaler than I have on my entire setup, furniture included.

Nice looking, I remember when I had my setup all setup to enjoy daily.

Get some more players and keep these discs spinning.

you gotta get your stuff setup again Rein-O! Whatever it takes you gotta start working towards that goal. No one lives forever