Converting to Analog

I don't want to argue. I've sold over $20 million dollars of collectables, and I stand by my assertation that Windex will damage a jacket in the long term and is only done by unknowledgable or deceitful sellers. Let's just agree to disagree on this.

In no particular order:
Cleaning jackets and sleeves is not something I do, but I have done some Professional Comic Book repair. On the cheap is a cleaning pad available at an art supply store. The pad is filled with a powder. You shake the bag, rub in the powder, and dust it off. You can use a drafting brush if you like.

I have some rice paper sleeves, but don't consider them essential. I have gone thru several thousand of the 7 cent sleeves. The reason is that I really enjoy listening to inexpensive vinyl. I have over 9000 albums now, and have spent a buck or less on all but 1000 of them. Yes, they call me The Cheapskate. Most albums I have cleaned for me by one of my employees at $10/hr. Thats much cheaper than my time, and it's not rocket science.

I use a SAE 5000a and Burwen TNE 7000a. Both are tick and pop removers, and available for about $150 each, but there are many out there that don't work properly. You should pay $300 each if you are confident as to quality. I would be nice if I could buy 8000 albums for less than a buck each, and never have a tick or pop, but I've assembled a collection of several hundred Living Stereo LP's this way, and have bit the bullet on the ones I HAD to have a great copy of.

Most albums I listen to only once. New albums, and expensive albums I'll use Last Vinyl Protectant.

I don't consider the Analogue equipment to have any real cost versus Digital equipment because of the source material price break. You do the math with your figures, but for me 8000 LP's at $1 versus 8000 cd's at $9 equals a $64,000 savings that can be applied to analogue eqipment before the break even point is reached!
Heck, for $10-20 grand you can buy EVERY SACD and DVD audio disk ever made and have plenty left over for Class A players!
I like listening to great music I havent heard before. There is no way to do that in the High End on the cheap except thru vinyl.

The Cheapskate

I don't like the idea of using Windex. Most glass cleaners are a combination of water, isopropyl alcohol, ammonia, and lemon extract. Assuming the water doesn't damage anything, ammonia and lemon will have serious consequenses long term. The cardinal rules of restoration are to do no harm, and make sure all work is reversable. I strongly suspect that 10-30 years down the line, these album covers will be noticably browner, and more brittle. The arts supply store cleaning pad is suitable for archival purposes. If your only concern is making things look better temorarily so you can off the item on eBay, then maybe you also want to try Armor-all on your vinyl. It will make it so pretty!

The Cheapskate