Instruction manual preservation.

[InsouciantSoul]

After letting my collection sit for a few years I have recently started sifting through, re-cataloging, selling dupes, and expanding on my collection. I have a drawer full of out-of-box manuals, gameboy/color/advance nes/snes/n64 etc. I remember years ago seeing a seller that had protective plastic sleeves he had placed over loose manuals, protecting them from the elements. These sleeves seemed catered to each different manual size as they fit quite snug. One end was left open.

After a googling for a bit, I've found this page:
http://www.uline.ca/Grp_2...Lb3-ZHz-rQCFQLZQgod6Q4AJQ

And the "flat" sleeves seem to be similar to what that guy had. Although, those cheep different sized ziplocks look appealing. Although they seem pretty cheep at 30$ per 1000, I probably only need 100 total, and of different sizes.

Do you guys use any sleeves? What kind/where do you get them? Other solutions?

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Currently, I've got most of my orphaned manuals in a large binder, and put them in a sleeve that's open at the top. I arrange them flat to as many will fit in a sleeve, and then use the weight of the other pages to hold them in place. It works well, but the sleeves aren't acid-free and I need to find a better solution. A shoe box is NOT a proper solution, before others chime in.

[NES_Rules]

The best way to store them is inside a cardboard box, with the name of the game written on at least the front and both sides of the box. But since boxes are larger than most manuals, you'll need something in the box to fill up the rest of the space, perhaps a cartridge of some sort.

[Duke.Togo]

I think we had a similar thread to this somewhere, but it may have been before the crash. I personally use photo boxes, since they are all acid-free.

[InsouciantSoul]

The best way to store them is inside a cardboard box, with the name of the game written on at least the front and both sides of the box. But since boxes are larger than most manuals, you'll need something in the box to fill up the rest of the space, perhaps a cartridge of some sort.

Maybe even some game-related art on the box.

[Techie413]

Coming from a sports card collecting hobby, I have just one recommendation.  If you are interested in using a binder to store your manuals, like Shadow, you can't go wrong with using Ultra Pro pages.  There are 2 pocket pages that should fit most manuals:  http://www.ebay.com/sch/i...&_dmd=1&_ftrt=901

[monkees19]

I store my loose manuals on the shelf with my other games. There's not too many and I'm trying to complete the games they belong to. Sadly most of those manuals belong to games that are very hard to find boxes for by themselves. Other than ebay, if anyone know anywhere I can go to buy box only for older games (NES through N64 for about 97% of them) I'd love to hear them.

[Johnny Nintendo]

The best way to store them is inside a cardboard box, with the name of the game written on at least the front and both sides of the box. But since boxes are larger than most manuals, you'll need something in the box to fill up the rest of the space, perhaps a cartridge of some sort.

Maybe even some game-related art on the box.

Or sometimes even a black dust cover for extra padding.  Seriously, I have been putting my manuals in dust sleeves with the games, if I don't have a box.  Is this a big no no?

[techwizard]

The best way to store them is inside a cardboard box, with the name of the game written on at least the front and both sides of the box. But since boxes are larger than most manuals, you'll need something in the box to fill up the rest of the space, perhaps a cartridge of some sort.

Maybe even some game-related art on the box.

Or sometimes even a black dust cover for extra padding.  Seriously, I have been putting my manuals in dust sleeves with the games, if I don't have a box.  Is this a big no no?

i'm assuming you're talking about NES dust sleeves. i've seen some manuals packed in those with the games before, i don't think there's anything really bad about it, but personally i don't like it because it feels a bit too tight. like it's either going to stretch the dust sleeve or damage the manual pages when pulling it out or putting it in. if you're careful about it though i'm sure it's fine.

[Sauza12]

Coming from a sports card collecting hobby, I have just one recommendation.  If you are interested in using a binder to store your manuals, like Shadow, you can't go wrong with using Ultra Pro pages.  There are 2 pocket pages that should fit most manuals:  http://www.ebay.com/sch/i...&_dmd=1&_ftrt=901

I knew I remembered two sleeve pages like that existed, but I just never went to a store to look for them.  This is how I've wanted to start storing my manuals but I get real lazy sometimes.  Right now I'm just storing them in a shoebox and it's just not visually attractive, nor is it functional.  Sorting through 200 loose manuals to find my Dusty Diamond manual is a pain in the ass.