Ultra-Pro Comic Bag Problems

[Guest]

Just opened up a new bag of Ultra-Pro Modern Age comic bags that I had purchased from the comicspriceguide.com store, and over 30 of the 100 were ripped. This was not damage from shipping as the outer bag was fine, this looked more like some kind of manufacturing defect on the assembly line. Some bags had 3-4in tears in them while other had indentations where some mechanical process screwed them up.

 

Is this something new or have anyone else ever had problmes with Ultra-Pro? Can someone recommend a good source of good (but cheap) modern age bags?

 

 

[murph0]

www.bcemylar.com

www.bagsunlimited.com

www.jefhindscomics.com?

www.egerber.com

 

Brian

[Guest]

Do you ever sleep?

Every time I ask a question you are in the top of the list of responses! Thanks!

If I ever see ya out and about sometime I'll buy you a beer!

 

Jeremy

 

[Bonds25]

Those bags are pure sheot. I re-bagged a bunch of my comics with them, and a month later (literally) the bags had creases and lines in them that probably transferred over to the comics themselves.

[murph0]

Yeh, I bump into many a person on this forum in the bussling Metropolis that is Iowa.

 

Brian

[Tomega]

I recommend Hotflips.com. They have very good prices on non mylar bags that are resealable. I found the quality to be very good and you cannot beat the prices - $21 for 1000 bags ( 10 packs). Also, the resealable bags are more user friendly and save time when bagging a lot of issues. Their prices on backing boards and boxes are good as well. They also have standard bags for $16 per thousand bags. There is a $25 minumum charge and the shipping is reasonable. I have not had any problems with any of their products. Here is the link

 

Hotflips Comic storage page

 

Tom

[hammer-migration]

Isn't Iowa actually Heaven? (As has been scientifically proven in "Field of Dreams")

[murph0]

You're supposed to say "Is this Heaven?" and then I'm supposed to say "No, it's Iowa".. but I've found that most of the people who use that line anymore are nuts.

 

Brian

[hammer-migration]

Even if I don't hear voices in the cornfields?

[murph0]

Can't say I've ever been to Dyersville or whatever..Field of Dreams..sounds like a Field of Bores to me.. (hohohoahhaha).. They occasionally have some old HoF baseball players go there and play a game but that's about all you hear of it anymore..

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

Why would you buy polybags? They're more expensive for long-term collectors. Polybags, in effect, are for the average collector who burns out within 5 years.

 

Polybags need to be changed every 2-5 years. Mylites/Arklites/Mylar don't need to be changed. E. Gerber's Mylite2s are about $16 per hundred; polybags are, what, $5 per hundred? If you have to change polybags 4 times over a 15 year period, then you've paid more for the bags, you've subjected your comics to increased acid from the decay of the bag, and you've spent hours and hours depending on the size of your collection swapping bags out.

 

Mylar is cheaper and MUCH easier over the long term.

[chrisco37]

FF is right. Pay more up front to save yourself the hassel of changing out bags. I just changed the bags on my collection right before Thanksgiving. Pain in the @$$. Took me weeks just to stuff new backboards into bags preparing for the switch.

 

Got Mylite2's for the "good comics", but, eventually, I'll get all my books into them so I don't have the hassel. Yeah, they're more expensive, but they protect the book so much better and the "display" factor is much nicer in a Mylite2 than a polybag, IMO.

 

Chris

[Guest]

Why would you buy polybags? They're more expensive for long-term collectors. Polybags, in effect, are for the average collector who burns out within 5 years.

 

I knew there was a flaw in my logic somewhere.... Since it will probably be a rather long time before I can get 500-600 comics slabbed by CGC I think I will switch to the Mylar.

 

Thanks guys!

 

 

[Ariamus]

Do you swap out all your boards when you redo your bags?

 

I have a large collection and I've been giving some thought to switching to Mylites, but I realize that I have to do it over an extended period of time because of the size of my collection and the fact that my comic-buying is budgeted. It will be much more prohibitive to switch now if I have to switch all my boards as well. I appreciate anyone's feedback on the question of boards.

 

Also, with regards to the original post in this thread, I actually switched to Ultra-pro bags because the comic shop I buy my stuff from had me tearing my hair out with current bags that were too small for current boards.

[ninanina]

Regards to Boards:

Never use them. As a matter of fact, when I get comics with boards in them, I remove them. I started buying comics about 23 years ago. Many of the books I read once, put in a POLY bag and there they sat - in a pile. What I now do is put 2 comics in a bag back to back because the piles stay straight. I started doing this about 3 years ago when I finally re-bagged them. Up until then, I alternated every 20 - 30 comics so the piles stayed straight. It should be mentioned, I suppose, that I rarely handle my collection, maybe that's why they're in such good shape.

Having a lot of trouble understanding all this "hub-bub" with boards, mylar bags et all. I am speaking from personal experience and I tell you this. Many of the comics were 9.4 when I bought them, and there still 9.4 today. Certainly not all, but a lot of them are. I certainly welcome your thoughts, as I very much feel I'm in the minority here.

[fantastic_four]

How old are the current bags on your comics? You've been collecting 23 years; how long ago did you start bagging?

[Joanna]

Every comic I sell I put into a brand new bag with a fresh backing board. I don't know if you have to change boards, but I don't want to take a chance with a customer, and I want everything to look nice. Can't afford mylites (my stuff is too inexpensive, for the most part) but at least I can give them new bags and boards. I also made sure to buy different sizes, i.e., golden age, silver age, and regular, and then bag accordingly. I never buy 'modern' because I find they're a little tight and I don't want to put pressure on the spine and edges.

 

-- Joanna

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

I started buying comics about 23 years ago. Many of the books I read once, put in a POLY bag and there they sat - in a pile.

 

How long have you kept your books in poly bags, before changing? The problem with poly bags is that they are more acidic, and within a relatively short period of time the bags turn yellow. What kind of ENVIRONMENT do you store your books?

 

Having a lot of trouble understanding all this "hub-bub" with boards, mylar bags et all. I am speaking from personal experience and I tell you this. Many of the comics were 9.4 when I bought them, and there still 9.4 today.

 

How long were your books stored in the same poly bag? It true that the outer cover can still appear to be 9.4, but how about the inside page quality? Have those white pages turned yellowish? I've also noticed that if you leave a book in a poly bag with the typical backer board (non acid-free) over a period of time that the cover gloss from the back of the book can transfer from the comic book to the board. How about taking that book that has been a poly bag for 23 years out of the bag and hold the bag up to light. Does it look clear?

 

 

[ninanina]

I started bagging them 23 years ago when I bought them brand new. I kept them pretty much in the same bag for most of I don't know, 18 years or so? Because I purchased a major Silver Age collection about 2 years ago, I decided to re-bag everything. The condition of some of the bags was awfull. Because I taped the bags, a lot of the tape turned to "mush". But, the comics inside were ok. A lot of the bags, actually were stuck together. The bags also had a "clouded" look to them. Again, because I didn't handle my collection all that much, I had no idea what was happening to the lower comics in a pile.

So, in answer to your second question, the bags I bought 5 or 6 years ago are still on the comics I put them on. I didn't change them, because they either looked ok during the re-bagging process or the tape hadn't deteriorated to the extent it was sticking onto the poly-bag underneath it.

I looked at a pile of Star Wars comics yesterday and took them out of the bag. They were issues 15 - 60 and these were some of the books that I re-bagged a couple years ago, and they are still in the 9.4 range.

 

[ninanina]

When I changed the bags a couple years ago, many of them did yellow and as mentioned in my previous post, the scotch tape I used to seal them was almost a sticky soup. One batch of comics I particularly remember being like this were Incredible Hulks 230 and up. I quickly ran down before writing this thread to check on the condition and it's still a very nice 9.2 - 9.4. As bad as the condition of the bags were, it did not affect the comic inside. These comics were in the bags for about 19 or 20 years. I did not know at the time, the bags needed to be changed. Nobody told me. I would periodically look at the comics inside and because they looked ok, I didn't worry about it. And, pages are still white, or almost white. I noticed no significant deterioration in the color.

ENVIRONMENT?

10 years ago I piled them against an outside wall in my unfinished basement because I didn't have anywhere else to put them. They stayed there for 6 years. Now, they are in a cool room downstairs in a finished basement. The room has 2 small windows with the curtains down - permanently. There is no heating vent going directly into the room, any heat it does get it gets from the rest of the rec-room when I leave the door open. All this time they were piled one on top of each other.

As far as your third question, no significant yellowing on the pages and again, I never used backer boards of any kind. That Incredible Hulk that I just looked at was in the same bag for 18 years. Ever since the day i bought it to the day I changed to a new bag a couple years ago.