Leave Wrapped or UnWrap?


Recently I have purchased several extra copies of my favorite records. Perhaps I will actually use them one day or maybe sell them off down the road. For example, I have an extra copy of The Beatles, 'Love' album. Question is: should I leave these records sealed or go ahead and open them? Will leaving them sealed for years cause them to warp?
stickman451
Photon46 I think you're on to something there.Let's bring back the loose shrink!It's possible that the art of shrinkwrapping an LP has been lost.Maybe with smaller quantities pressed workers do more than one job at a pressing plant.Perhaps when a person shrinkwrapped all day they knew how to do it right.Also Sinister I'm with you on preferring lightly used opened,but I don't feel this is a majority stance.
In light of Sinisterporpoises68's & Casey 33's experiences, looks like the manufacturer and their particular brand of shrinkwrap is a big factor. All the older sealed lp's I mentioned buying have been 80's European classical or jazz lp's, mostly ECM, Deutsche Grammophon, Phillips, etc. All their shrinkwrap was a bit loose as I recall.
Every older record I've ever bought sealed, like Superchunk's 1991 "No Pocky For Kitty", has been pretty warped. Still playable, but warped. I'd much rather buy a lightly used opened record than one sealed.
The issue is really how tight are the shrinkwraps.The warpage is caused by overshrinking.This is a prolem I have encountered on several new releases lately.Unsealing would absolutely impact resale value in a negative fashion.Who would believe "opened but never played"? Maybe the same people who believe used cartridges have "low hours".
Personally, I'd leave them sealed. I'm not sure where the belief originated that
leaving records sealed will warp them? Seems like this is an issue that would be
hard to empirically prove on way or another. I've bought dozens of records that
are twenty + years old that were still sealed and none of them had any problem
with warps.