My entire longbox of 90s X-Men comics got soaked when a pipe burst in my garage last Tuesday.

I spent 4 hours trying to salvage them with a hairdryer and silica gel packs, but the damage is done, so has anyone else had to deal with a major comic collection disaster and what did you do?

3 comments

3 Comments

wells.karen1mo ago

A buddy of mine had this happen with his baseball card collection back in the day. He panicked and tried to dry them out in the sun on a blanket, but the wind blew half of them into a puddle and the rest curled up like potato chips. We spent an afternoon trying to flatten them under heavy books, but most of the corners were wrecked and the ink was smudged beyond saving. He ended up keeping them in a shoebox as a reminder of what not to do, I guess. The only thing that really worked was he found a few cards that were still in decent shape and slipped them into fresh sleeves right away, while the soggy ones were a total loss. So yeah, hopefully you pulled them apart quick and didn't let them sit in a clump, because once that paper gets that wet, it's pretty much over.

williamb2929d ago

Did you peel any of them apart while they were still wet? That's basically the only hope you got once paper gets soaked like that. The ink bleeds fast if you let it sit, and trying to dry them in a pile turns the whole thing into a brick. Your buddy's story is pretty much what happens to everyone who tries to save waterlogged cards.

milessmith1mo ago

Did you pull them apart page by page while they were still wet or just leave them stacked? That makes a huge difference with the ink bleeding.