Proper Comic Box Storage Techniques

John Cohen: Hi! I am John Cohen from Beyond Comics, Maryland's largest comic bookstore. I am here to show you how to start a comic book collection. Now, that you've put your comic books into the boxes, and pick the box style you want to use, you need to be careful how you stack them.

Traditionally, we stack them in a length of the comic book box, and we go up. This is not a problem. However, with the weight of the comic books inside, most of your manufacturers recommend you don't go any higher than four, because the weight of the comic books and the boxes begin to crush that bottom box. Drawer boxes tend to be a little bit more side strong than the regular comic book boxes, but it still can't go much higher than that. It also gets a displacement of strength and balance, so one other thing I often recommend the comics that you are not going to get to very often is to use a technique we do called crossing. Usually, it works real well in threes, and it also distributes your weight a little better, sometimes it's too much on the side, the boxes need to be the same kind. Usually get another roll out of this. The next thing, I also recommend is to take a board and put that across the boxes like a shelf, you lay it across and then when you put your comic boxes on top of it you've created this shelf that adds support. You can often go two to three rows higher without damaging the boxes on the bottom, accessibility becomes an issue but when you are dealing with the drawer boxes you can pull the comics out. Now another problem we often have is you store comics in the basement or an attic. Don't recommend the attic, basements are okay, if they are not humid they don't get flooded. One problem you have though are bugs. Bugs such as earwigs, cockroaches, silverfish like to eat cardboard, moths as well. They don't like cedar. I use cedar board cut the size, stuck underneath my boxes at home instead of that board. Even strips like that can deter those bugs for getting anywhere in your comics. That is the best way to stack your comic boxes. Now, that I have shown you the proper way to stack your boxes, I am going to show you different ways that you can store them and ways you shouldn't.