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Does shrink wrap on albums warp vinyl?

williwoods

williwoods

Active Member
I have been buying alot of newer records over the last year or so and I have this thing about trying to keep the shrink wrap intact, especially if it has a sticker on the front. I am pretty anal about it, I even keep the shrink wrap on boxsets like the Dylan Boxsets, those I have to tape on so it doesn't pull off when opening it. I also have a number of backup copies of records that are still sealed. One of which is a first pressing of revolver in stereo.

I have been reading a few comments from people on other forums about the fact that the shrink wrap on albums is actually not good, that at worst it can dish the vinyl a bit and can also degrade the artwork depending on the composition of the shrink wrap.

Any truth to this? Do I go home and remove all the shrink from my records? Do I open sealed records to avoid dishing the vinyl? All my records are stored correctly standing up and are tight fitted in my various Expedit bookshelves.


I am preplexed! :scratch2:
 
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It usually doesn't become a problem until you move from one climate to another. People have lost a lot of nice vinyl that way.

Cheers

Lar
 
Check some of your sealed lps and see if there is any pulling or tension in the wrapper, splitting of the seams, or if the jackets are exhibiting any waviness. All these can be signs of impending damage to your record.

Can be, not necessarily must be signs of damage.

Me, I take any tight shrink off, and put the record in a poly or mylar outer sleeve.
 
I have LP's that have had the shrink wrap on them for 20 years, albums warp for various reasons, I doubt shrink wrap has ever caused a warp in a record, more likely the LP was destined to warp anyways.
 
I've bought new LPs from the 80s recently with shrink wrap. No warping.
I have albums that are 30 to nearly 50 years old with shrink wrap. No problems.
I do have one Deutsche Grammophon album where the shrink wrap looks like it fused to the jacket. But it looks like it will peel of clean.

If you leave it out in the sun, it can warp.
 
onepixel said:
If you leave it out in the sun, it can warp.
Click to expand...
Yep. The possibility of that happening increases significantly if you open ('slit')the wrap only to get the LP out and leave the tight wrap on it. I've seen it happen to opened LP's with the wrap on much more than with closed LP's.
 
I used to think that shrink was harmless. Now I'm not quite as certain. I have a handful of warped records. Not all are in jackets with shrink wrap, but it seems (unscientifically, I haven't done a count) that more are from shrink wrapped jackets than would be expected at random.
 
It's actually a guilty pleasure of mine to rip the shrink wrap off...

And stick the pristine cover into a nice new outer sleeve :nerd:
 
I will remove the shrink wrap from a jacket only if it is obviously too tight and causing the edges or corners to bow. I have not found a direct correlation between warped vinyl and the shrink still being on the jacket. In fact, overall, I find the vinyl to be in better condition with the shrink still on.
 
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I would assume that someone who kept the plastic on their jacket may have also kept their records in better shape, as a correlation...

Funny thing is to find records in shrink that have lost their inner sleeves...
:headscrat
 
Hi
guess the phenomenon is a combination. High temperature lets the shrinkwrap shrink and in addition softens/melts the vinyl....
 
The warped records I've purchased came with shrinkwrap that seemed excessively tight, so tight that it was bending the corners of the album cover. I don't know if it's coincidence or it this is the cause, but in every case those LPs were warped badly enough that I needed to bring them in for an exchange.

So I'm in the camp that believes that shrink wrap, even after opened, possibly can cause some damage. What I do is remove the shrink wrap and then cut out any sticker I think is cool and worth saving and then store it along with the LP in a poly bag. I keep a supply of these bags on hand; usually pick them a package of 50 or so every few months from the record store.
 
Like the last two posters, most of the time shrink is not an issue. But every once in a while you find one where the shrink is tight enough to pull on the edges of the sleeve, and those records end up warped. So it's rare, but it does happen.
 
Hey Guys

thank you all so much for all the feedback. I think what makes sense for me is to look at my records that have shrink and determine if the wrap is tight enough to bend corners and if it is I will remove it. I always put them in a new poly outer even if they already have shrink, so I am good to go there.
 
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