u/WarSt0mp

I've recently decided to bag most of my collection. I'm doing this for series I've already read and especially for rare volumes (mainly the Battle Angel Alita series of "Last Order" and "Mars Chronicle" singles) in my collection.

And here's some things I've learned along the way that might help those of you who might be interested in doing the same.

1.) Always make sure to buy polypropylene (acid free) resealable bags. Double check that you are not buying PVC bags because those are not good for the long term health of your manga.

Why? Because PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) as it ages breaks down and the chloride part will eventually turn into an acid that will destroy your manga. This is the most important piece of information I can impart upon you the reader. And yes, this is common knowledge amongst comic book collectors as well.

2.) Don't use bags that are tight. You want a bit of wiggle room at the sides. Packing your manga in a tight bag can potentially cause spine issues for the manga.

Also you don't want an air tight seal, assuming you are using resealable bags, because your manga needs some air to circulate around to prevent mold from potentially growing if you live in a humid environment.

Of course for optimal storage you want to keep the room you have your manga stored in at or around 40%-50% humidity. Humidifiers are a great purchase if you suffer from high humidity issues where you live.

3.) Here are the bag sizes and brands I've used. Yes these are measured in inches. Feel free to convert them if you live in metric land.

I've also included some examples of titles with each size to provide a framework for what type of manga formats best fit in those bags. If you want to move up a size to provide more wiggle room be my guest. These are just the sizes I use.

Here are my bag recommendations:

8 1/2 x 10 3/7 in. (Falling in Art) - Blame! Master Edition, Knights of Sidonia Master Edition, AoT: Colossal Editions, Tokyo Ghoul Monster Edition, etc

*These are great for near magazine sized manga like the Master, Colossal and Monster editions listed above.

7 5/8 x 10 1/2 in. (Brand: BCW) - Gantz Omnibus, Alita Last Order Omnibus, Aria: The Masterpiece, Climber Omnibus, etc.

*Basically most 3 in 1 chonkie boyz. This bag size offers enough space to accommodate the majority of 3 in 1 paperback manga sold on the market today.

7 1/8 x 10 1/2 in. (Brand: BCW) - Death Note Black Edition, and most paperback 2 in 1's.

*Certain 3 in 1's can fit in these bags but they are often a tight fit along the sides.

7 x 9 in. (Brand: Golden State Art) - Black Lagoon, Dorohedoro, Baki, Centura, The Color of the End, etc.

*These are manga that are oversized singles. Maybe some 2 in 1's can fit this size as well.

6 1/2 x 8 1/3 in. (Brand: Falling in Art) - Blood on the Tracks, Kingdom, Blue Lock, etc.

*Good for manga single volume format's that are a bit taller or wider than the standard format.

5 29/32 x 8 37/64 in. (Brand: Ultimate Guard Store Resealable Manga Bags) - BillyBat, Berserk, Frieren, Chainsaw Man etc.

*Basically your standard baseline 5" x 7..5" manga single format found on the market today.

That's it. Feel free to chime in with your own experiences, information and/or corrections to this info. I hope this helps some of you out there if you decide to do the same.

The only place I've seen selling new copies of volume 1 is on Amazon and it's via a 3rd party seller. That's where I got my volume 1 even though it was over priced IMHO. I bought volumes 2-7 from Crunchyroll which has those volumes very much discounted compared to other online retialers.

In short, buy volume 1 from Amazon, unless you've seen new copies sold elsewhere for cheap, and volumes 2-7 from Crunchyroll.

P.S. I'm assuming my copy purchased from Amazon was new because it came in sealed and it was in 100% new condition.

Lastly, the set fully collected looks so freaking awesome. TokyoPop did an awesome job with the gold metallic spines and front cover lettering. And, no this is not an image of my copies. I just grabbed an image off the net to illustrate how awesome this series looks.

https://preview.redd.it/ebjsgttawb7h1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff4f85743784cb1bdbad0819b41a024de0bb2a54

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