Nerding 101: Intro to Protecting Your Comics - Organization and Boxing

Good evening class! It's a snowy, chilly day here in the Northeast! It's the perfect day to write about comics. The topic this evening is about boxing and organizing your comic books.

Generally speaking, there are two sizes of comic book boxes to choose from: Long boxes and short boxes. The long box is about 27.25 inches long, and is ideal if you have many comic books that you'd like to store. Conversely, the short box measures in at 15.75 inches, and is great if you just have a few comics to store. The easiest way to organize them right off the bat, is to go in alphabetical order. Start with numbered comics, and then go from A-Z. For example: "30 Days of Night" goes before "100 Bullets" and "The Avengers" comes after "100 Bullets". You can usually get long and short boxes from any comic book store, however, if you're ordering bags and boards as well, you may want to check out www.BCWSupplies.com, as they have the best pricing.

Size is everything

Comic book boxes can be stacked on top of each other, but you want to be sure that you don't stack them over 3 high, as you do not want too much weight on them. The best thing that I have found, that beats the heck out of a traditional long box is a drawer box. They hold slightly less than a traditional long box, but you can stack them neatly in a corner, and have super easy access to all of your comic books. Instead of having to open and dig through each box to try and find which box is the box you're looking for, with drawer boxes, you can simply open up the box like a drawer, and have organized access to what you need. Also, because of the hard, reinforced shell of the drawer boxes, you are able to stack these higher than traditional boxes without worrying about the comics on the bottom being damaged. The Editor and I order ours from www.collectiondrawer.com. They do cost more money than regular long boxes, but the extra money is well worth it.

Neat and organized is the name of the game in my house!

No matter what type of box suits you best, you want to make sure that the boxes are stored in an area with low moisture. The boxes will protect your comics from the sun and temperature changes, however, they will not protect against moisture. Next week we will be discussing how to archive all of these comic books. We'll be talking about the best organizational software, generating lists and reports, and how to send said reports to your phone, so you can have easy access to them, etc. Class dismissed!