Should I Keep Records in Original Albums?

[oldphonographsteve]

I have recently acquired several original 17 sleeve brass pull ring albums for my Victrola XVI. They are a little fragile but I filled them with my favorite records. I am now worried this may have been a bad idea. They are a little dirty so I am concerned that the debris might scuff the records and I am likewise concerned that regularly pulling out the albums might cause cosmetic damage to them as well. Is this a reasonable fear or should I continue keeping records in the albums?

-Steve

[CarlosV]

I avoid albums for two main reasons, the first your concern of passing back the dirt from the album to the record (there is no practical way to clean the paer envelopes), but mostly for the risk of breaking the record. Unless you open the albums having them on a table in vertical position, i.e., pulling the discs up, if you open the album unfolding horizontally like pages of a book chances are you will end up cracking a disc. I only maintain discs in albums when they are in a disc set with its own specific album, but I put the discs first in a plastic-lined paper sleeve and then slip them in the album envelope. This way I keep the discs clean.

[phono-smitten]

Here is another nice topic discussing the issues CarlosV mentions:
http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... &view=next

-Dee

[Pathe Logical]

Hi Steve,

Aside from the inherent risk of breaking edges of records when opening albums, those early, high-record-capacity Victor albums containing 16 or 17 sleeves (they came both ways) with brass or nickel pull rings can be very heavy when full of records --- especially the 12" albums! I have had the unfortunate experience of trying to pull one of those big, thick, heavy, full albums out of a machine only to have the round disc behind the ring tear out of the spine !!! The weight of 16 or 17 records in one of those century-old albums is a recipe for disaster IMHO! I have found many damaged and unserviceable albums of this sort over the years with pull rings ripped out of their spines, or sleeves detached from the spine's interior, etc. It is no wonder Victor adopted the 10-page album later on --- they are so much lighter!

I personally do not store records in any of the original albums I own --- mainly out of respect for the roughly 100-year-old albums. They are too easily damaged! It has taken me some time, effort and money to get complete album sets for each of my machines --- Victor Queen Anne X, three different XVIs, XVII, XVIII, 410, 7-11, 8-30, 8-35X, 10-50X, Borgia II, etc. Why risk damage to records or albums when there are better alternatives???

Just my two cents worth,
Bob

[Victrola-Monkey]

It's more about the machines to me than the albums but I do like to display the special sets, such as my group of 5 Pathé albums below. None the less, I always remove all the records from the albums that comes with machines I've accumulated, then remove the records from the albums, put them into new sleeves and separate them by label. I do this for the best of each thing. The albums can't be left as is, they need and get a ⅛" thick sheet of foam in the place of each record. I usually keep the albums stored in an appropriate machine but for now, the red rooster has got these Pathé albums on display.

[Lucius1958]

I have been thinking, ever since I got my VV-XVI, that it might be a nice idea to produce sets of record boxes, as in the early VTLA, with the same faces as the early albums. That way, you could avoid the breakage problem, while still maintaining an authentic appearance.

Bill

[welshfield]

I have copied photos of original albums --either from eBay or this forum-- and enlarged them and enhanced them with Photo Shop. Then I printed them off onto adhesive-backed paper and applied them to the ends of 10 x 10 x 3 white boxes I purchased from Uline for storing records.