Record Sleeves - Which ones and where?

Cytocycle,
I've been giving the albums a dry brush treatment before putting them in the new sleeves. I'll do a thorough wash when I get my Kab EV-1. I'm going to get some sample sleeves for a penny each at Sleeve Town and compare. I'll post my findings when they get here.

Thanks for the tips guys. As far as the outer sleeves(Hartwerger, I believe the "plastic covers" and "outer sleeves" are one in the same, and keep your albums from getting scuffed up), I like the idea of a thicker 6 mil sleeve (thanks Markd51!). I've been looking at the 3 mil, but I've never used any outer sleeves and so I don't know what the quality will be like. Do the outer sleeves fit snugly or are there edges that will fold under when I place the albums on shelves and end up taking away valuable real estate on my shelves with the "bunching up" of the plastic on the bottom?

I forgot to mention that I hit the motherload during the past week finding well over 200 albums in virtually brand new condition (even the sleeves look like new) and all for $1 each. Everything from obscure Gentile Giant LP's to Ry Cooder, Steely Dan, Dave Mason, Dire Straits, and on and on. I also found a near mint Ariston RD-11S that works perfectly for $200. What do you guys do with all of the original sleeves after you put your albums in new ones? Will they fit in the new outer sleeves along with the album? There's a lot of info on most of the original sleeves that I like to read while I'm listening, and I don't want to have to search through hundreds of original sleeves to find the one I'm listening to.

Thanks again Mark for your precise help. I'm going to call Music Direct and inquire about the 6 mil outer sleeves as well as inners. Do you really need inner sleeves if you put the whole album, cover and all, in an outer sleeve? I'm suspecting that the old paper sleeves flake and whatnot onto the vinyl making them dirty correct? Is there a difference between polypropylene and polyethylene sleeves? I've seen both for about the same price.

Well I got my order today from Music Direct. I got 300 outer sleeves and 100 poly lined paper inner sleeves (to start*). The outer sleeves were advertised as 6 mil, and are very nice. Double albums fit with little hassle. It's easy to see the album covers through the sleeves. These are well worth the investment if your album covers are in nice shape and you want to preserve them. The inner sleeves are fine too. The paper isn't much heavier than a normal paper sleeve, but the poly lining makes it nice. I think I'll get a couple of samples from Sleeve Town and compare. *My thinking is that I can get more inner sleeves comparable to these for less $$$. The one thing I wasn't ready for is the time required to change out all the sleeves! I've been at it for a couple hours now and I've got a long way to go........but they're worth it.

Hi Mark,
Yes, the sleeves are really nice. Seem like the manufacturers have us over a barrel on the cost of this stuff though. Sometimes I wonder how much more effective these cleaning fluids are over the homemade varieties. My plan is to give each of my albums a good cleaning with vinyl-zyme and then do a really good cleaning with RRL wash ($25 / quart). I'm then hoping that with the new sleeves, I'll only have to do a dry brush cleaning before each play. I did a lot of research on cleaning machines, and the Kab seems to do every bit as good as one of the expensive motor driven units. I found a small shop vac (2 gallon version) at a yard sale with some of the albums, and read that it will work even better than the motorized RCM's because of the better suction. The only difference being manual rotation of the record for cleaning. I know that some people say not to use a shop vac (larger models) with the Kab, but I'm going to try it anyways on a scrap record and see what happens.

Thanks Larry,
I'll look into it.

Sleeve Town is sending me a sample of their best inner and out sleeves for free. I'll compare them to what I got a Music Direct and post about it when they arrive.

I finally received the free sample sleeves from Sleeve Town. The poly lined paper sleeves are identical to the ones I got at Music Direct (Nitty Gritty). The outer sleeves were the same quality as the ones from Music Direct, but were completely (and I mean 100%) clear. The Music Direct outer sleeves are pretty clear, but still have a haze to them. I like the Sleeve Town outer sleeves better, but since I already bought 300 from Music Direct, I'll probably stick with those to keep things looking the same.

I just noticed that Sleeve Town has the outer sleeves on sale right now (5.0 version). Get em' now guys, it's a good deal.

Hi Mark,
The ones I got from Music Direct don't have any writing on them at all. They don't have a re-sealable flap. Mine are open on the end, and are just a tad bit cloudy. The Sleeve Town sleeves are crystal clear. My Music Direct sleeves were the only ones they had in 6 mil.

Dave