Outer Vinyl Sleeves, is it a good idea?


I’m replacing all my “inner” sleeves, but am unsure if I should add outer sleeves also.  With outer sleeves, it’s harder to see titles from the edges but may offer wear protection?

What’s your opinion?

kennyc

Showing 2 responses by billstevenson

Years ago I was schooled to remove outer coverings of any kind because they can result in mold on the vinyl.  So I just have always removed them.  Some people think this is silly, but recently I acquired an estate collection of about 8,000 records, all ostensibly housed in an AC storage facility.  Somewhere around 40+% of these records are moldy.  So even though not having outer sleeves does result in ring wear damage, for me the vinyl itself is far more important, therefore, I argue to not use outer sleeves.

@bigtwin I can't tell you where the mold came from on these records.  I can tell you that outer sleeves are present in every case.  Locale is South Florida and mold is a problem here if you're not careful.  I have records I bought dating back to the early 1960s with no mold, but then I've never used outer sleeves either.