How do you prefer to store your records? Albums or Sleeves? Combo?

[Dischoard]

I'm finally getting on to the daunting task of cataloging, cleaning and organizing the thousands of 78s that I have. I'm going label by label (started with Decca, it was the only box I could get to without climbing over the others).

As I'm going through these I think about how I'm going to organize them; alphabetically? catalog number? perhaps a combination?

In all that I wonder what folks do to protect their records. I like the idea of albums, you can put "like" collections together but it seems if a record is going to break it's because it gets caught in the spine of the albums. So then I think sleeves but with sleeves everything looks the same up on those shelves. I figured this would be a great time to poll the audience and see what y'all have figured out for your collections.

Perhaps this topic has been done to death, I did do a search but if you search Albums vs Sleeves there are pages and pages of stuff that come up... none if which I was looking for. So any tips or tricks would be appreciated!

[Roaring20s]

Here are a few thread from this forum...
viewtopic.php?t=21490
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7521&hilit=vertical+horizontal
viewtopic.php?t=21490&sid=8895aa6ae77d5 ... 0bcf003075
There may be others.

James.

[Dischoard]

Here are a few thread from this forum...
viewtopic.php?t=21490
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7521&hilit=vertical+horizontal
viewtopic.php?t=21490&sid=8895aa6ae77d5 ... 0bcf003075
There may be others.

James.

Thanks James, I actually was able to find those threads but I'm more specifically looking to pick people's brains about their preferences as it pertains to Albums vs Sleeves, those threads were mostly about shelving, crates, etc. Though I did notice an absence of record albums in many of those photos so that says something!

[Wolfe]

Mostly sleeves. Some albums are used to round up records by certain people I have a lot of records by.

Albums set upright on a table and opened out are safer for records than leafing through like a book.

[Dischoard]

Mostly sleeves. Some albums are used to round up records by certain people I have a lot of records by.

Albums set upright on a table and opened out are safer for records than leafing through like a book.

Do you mark the outside of the albums or do you just know what's what? I think I'm going to do the same. The person I got this latest collection from had an album of Glen Miller Bluebirds, an album of Tommy Dorsey Bluebirds and an album of Artie Shaw on Bluebird. I hate the thought of breaking up his collection though I might organize it a little differently.

[Frisco The Beagle]

I use a combination of both, but the majority are in sleeves. As far as sleeves, I use mostly newer ones, but will use the old original sleeves if they are in good shape (I really like the artwork on them). I have ended up with new sleeves in white, gold/yellow, green and brown, and have thought about using them as a color coding system but haven't figured that out yet.

Generally, I store them alphabetically by artist/band, but that gets screwed up sometimes when there is a different artist on each side of a record (this seems to happen mostly on older discs) or two artists collaborating on a song (such as Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters).

[Wolfe]

Mostly sleeves. Some albums are used to round up records by certain people I have a lot of records by.

Albums set upright on a table and opened out are safer for records than leafing through like a book.

Do you mark the outside of the albums or do you just know what's what? I think I'm going to do the same. The person I got this latest collection from had an album of Glen Miller Bluebirds, an album of Tommy Dorsey Bluebirds and an album of Artie Shaw on Bluebird. I hate the thought of breaking up his collection though I might organize it a little differently.

Records are organized and stored by genre. Opera over here, dance band records over there, etc.

I can usually remember what's what by where it should be located and the appearance of the album. If I don't remember, I simply pull the album and peek inside. Maybe I could mark the albums, it's just not been a pressing matter.

[gramophone-georg]

I use albums exclusively and I mark the albums. I like to hunt for the correct albums for their labels whenever possible- e.g., Victors in Victor albums, Columbia in Columbia albums, Brunswick in Brunswick, etc., wherever possible. If they are just misc Victor records in Victor albums I don't bother marking.

I've never broken a record in an album after nearly 40 years of doing it this way, but I am careful.

[gramophone-georg]

Mostly sleeves. Some albums are used to round up records by certain people I have a lot of records by.

Albums set upright on a table and opened out are safer for records than leafing through like a book.

Do you mark the outside of the albums or do you just know what's what? I think I'm going to do the same. The person I got this latest collection from had an album of Glen Miller Bluebirds, an album of Tommy Dorsey Bluebirds and an album of Artie Shaw on Bluebird. I hate the thought of breaking up his collection though I might organize it a little differently.

Hmmm. I know of maybe 6 or 7 TD Bluebirds, but that's "it". You have a full albums' worth? I'd like to know titles and label numbers so I can see what I am missing.

[Dischoard]

Hmmm. I know of maybe 6 or 7 TD Bluebirds, but that's "it". You have a full albums' worth? I'd like to know titles and label numbers so I can see what I am missing.

Ha! No, that was just typing too much too late. Of course they're on Victor