What happens a lot of times
is a collector will get a large tube…. and just stick
the poster it in. When you get another one, you just unroll
it and stick it in also.
Yes, I admit it, I'm guilty
of doing this. But I have an excuse:) At one time we had
over 100,000 posters in stock. We would pull out the ones
that we wanted while we were sorting any incoming posters
and put them in a tube and put them in the back of a closet,
out of sight.
Having a retail store, if
someone asked for a certain piece..... if you could find
it.... it was sold. So the only way we kept any was to basically
hide them. OK maybe that's not your situation but it's another
very inexpensive way to store your poster if done properly.
Let's look at YOUR situation...
The first thing that you need to consider.... is... how
often will you be looking at this poster? Are you going
to be pulling it out every day or so, occasionally or are
you storing it away for investment protection and NOT pulling
it out often.
No matter WHICH way you
want to store your poster or how often you will be pulling
it out.... you need to first make sure that it's protected.
Normally the best way is with a good quality plastic tube.
This is the immediate protection of the poster.
Let's say that you will
be showing your poster fairly often. Then you
DON'T want to make a large roll, tape them all down and
put them in the back of the closet!! You'll do more damage
getting them in and out each time. Instead you would do
better to keep them individually tubed so you are handling
only the poster that you want instead of a large roll each
time. BEWARE: There are definite problems when individually
tubing your poster and leaving it close for short term handling.
Short term storage
Once
they are individually tubed, then you want them out of the
way, BUT easy to get to; they can be stored flat or standing
on end. BEWARE: If you are going to store them standing
on end, DON'T just drop them into the box. Yes, the ends
of the poster are stronger when rolled into a tube BUT IT
WILL STILL GET DAMAGED.....
AND DON'T LET ANYONE PLAY
WITH YOUR TUBED POSTER LIKE IT WAS A SWORD!!! Every kid
that picks up your tubed poster will IMMEDIATELY want to
sword fight with it!! Tell them to get a broom handle and
leave your poster alone!! It leaves little creases and wrinkles
ALL OVER YOUR POSTER!!.... Boy!!! I HATE THAT!! I want to
@#$%!(and let me whack you with this!!)%&*#.........well,
never mind... back to the subject...
This is also good for dealers
for shows. I've found that the best way to keep up with
which poster is which in the individual tubes is to write
the title on an address label and stick toward the top OF
THE TUBE (NOT the poster!!) around the tube. If you stick
it vertical, then you have to look sideways to see the title
AND it comes off easy. Then when you look in the box, you
can see all the titles and pick the one you want.
Long Term Storage
Picking Your Container
For long term storage, you
normally don't want to keep them wrapped individually. You
will normally roll a group together. This does create some
different areas for you to consider.
Before you start on the
posters, you should pick out what kind of storage are you
going to use..... Is it flat?.. is it round?? Are you going
to need multiple storage rolls? if so, are you going to
stack them? or stand them up in the back corner of your
closet?
Square Containers
Let's
say that you're going to stack them... well it's EASIER
if they are square and not round. If you get quite a few
posters, then you will know that the studios send out their
posters in rolls of 50 in nice heavy SQUARE tubes. These
are excellent for storing your posters.. They stack well
... (BUT I DON'T suggest that you go over
4 high in your stacks. The weight weakens them after this
height) If you don't get the studio tubes,
then Bags Unlimited has an excellent comparable which I
have pictured.
Round Containers
Let's say that you're going
to use a ROUND container to store your posters. They don't
STACK well, BUT .. (they stand in the back of the closet
REAL GOOD.... until you run out of corners in the back of
your closets) They're not as convenient but are still popular.
I would wait until I received
a LARGE shipment from a larger dealer in a NICE large tube
with caps.... AND SAVE IT for storing MY posters.
In desperation, (when I
was trying to inventory and store about 80,000 posters)
I have gone behind carpet stores to get their large tubes
that the carpet came on. Then I would cut it to 30"
lengths and use for storage or shipping....
You can be a little creative
in finding your Storage Containers if you want.... For a
while, I had a friend that worked in the highway department.
They receive huge rolls of plastic sheets wrapped around
a tube. These were the greatest!!! it worked in reverse..
you wrapped the posters (up to 100) around this tube.. on
the ends of the tube were square plastic holders. You would
then take your posters wrapped around this tube and set
it in a large box... suspended in the middle of the box.....
IT WAS GREAT!!..
You get the idea... you
can be creative... just remember that the purpose is to
protect your posters...
Preparing your posters
Once you have the container
that you're going to use... NOW you know about how many
you can put in it and how you're going to store them...
so the first thing that you do in preparing your posters
is to make sure your posters are clean and free of any
type of tape, dirt, etc. Make sure there's nothing sticky,
pokey, dirty, ugly or smelly on them. Since you are rolling
them together, the BACK of one poster is on the FACE of
the other AND IT WILL GET ON THE OTHER POSTER (like
the country song says.....'Don't ask me how I know... I
just know')
Next, neatly rolled them
together..... MAKE SURE THE EDGES ARE EVEN OR SMALLER SIZES
IN THE MIDDLE. If not, any odd end sticking out will get
damaged in storage.
You want to put them in
a plastic bag to separate them from the storage container...
How many times have you
heard this... ok.. in unison now...
'Plastic and cardboard
tubes are loaded with acids... and acids can migrate to
attack your poster UNLESS you seal it in an acid free,
untreated, high quality plastic bag.
All plastics are NOT alike.
Cheaper grade plastics contain acid also. You need to
store your collectibles in a better grade material.'
Stick the roll in the plastic
bag. Tuck and roll it across the bottom of the bag (sort
of like a jelly roll) until you reach the end. Tape the
plastic, then fold the top of the bag down and tape it shut.
Now your posters should
be sealed in the acid free plastic bag. Place them gently
in the tube. If there's extra space between your plastic
roll and the sides of the tube, you can stick newspaper
or cardboard strips in between because you don't want the
roll to bounce back and forth. Then close your tube and
keep in a dry cool place away from heat, moisture and critters.
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PROS -
inexpensive, fairly small storage area, easy to get to and
move around, can be sealed fairly tight against dust.
CONS
- can't be displayed,
difficult to show. A real pain to open and close.
TIP:
If you have several tubes stored this way with multiple
posters in each, be sure that you label the outside of the
tube with all pertinent info to know which posters are in
which tube.
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