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When I first started out with vinyl I would put everything in poly protection bags but found it increasingly frustrating trying to get the damn record in so i stopped. Now I have a good collection Im wondering if its something worth revisiting.

Do you guys cover your records? do you find they fit in ok?

Drives me mad trying to stuff everything back into a DW release sometimes never mind spending hours stuffing it into a poly bag as well.

I have everything in plastic, openings up to avoid frustration when sliding in/out of shelves.
I also store the inner sleeve outside of the record jacket tucked in the back of the plasric sleeve - so it is even easier for me to get to the vinyl than it is with your system.

I cover all my vinyl no matter what. If I don't have sleeves that fit something , I make something new to fit it or I buy something too big and tape it. I'm not overly obsessive about my collection , but I do come close to obsessive about taking care of it all. I spend way too much money on these records now to just let them get bent up, dirty, jackets all ringed out, and vinyl scratchy.

I buy these plastic vinyl sleeves (which I imagine are similar if not the same as your poly bags? Like an outer-outer sleeve) from Head at 35p each. They're about 1cm bigger than an LP jacket (outer sleeve) so are easy to get records in and out of plus they are open along the top seam. Pretty easy to see the spine through too and look fine on the shelf. I don't protect the newer tip-on / thick card sleeves that DW, Waxwork are putting out now as they are really robust but all standard width records go straight in a plastic sleeve.

The hope is it doesn't just protect against bumps, finger grease etc but ring wear too after a long time sitting on the shelf squished up against lots of other records.

Forgot to mention I hate those ones that seal at the top so you have to seal and unseal the record which takes an age to do and also those polysleeves that are ridiculously tight fitting. If I ever buy a record in a sleeve like that it gets thrown out immediately and replaced! The sleeve, not the record that is

I put everything in a poly sleeve. Like mentioned above, I spend way too much money on this stuff to let it get shelf wear, etc. I put the record jacket in the poly sleeve then put the record sleeve behind it with the opening facing up. I find it to be a pretty good setup.

I have three different sizes of poly sleeves: ones for standard single LPs, ones for standard double LPs, and ones for thicker format releases (Coraline for example).

I used to just open the shrinkwrap on the opening side of the jacket of single lp to keep them in the shrinkwrap plastic.But it annoyed me when sliding back a record in between other records, the shrinkwrap would sometime roll back or shred.

I left gatefold releases in the plastic sleeve they came in if they did come with a plastic sleeve. I had a lot of records that were gatefold in shrinkwrap (therefore no choice but to completely remove the shrinkwrap) or didn't come with any sleeve. they were all left as is.

recently I went to buy a batch of plastic sleeves and started putting all my records in them. it's great because it slides back better on the shelves and of course it's better protected.

Personnaly I dont mind having to pull the records out of a plastic sleeve, it's part of the ritual

Im convinced!

one of us ! one of us ! one of us !

Any of you guys recommend a good online place for buying outer sleeves in the UK?

How about a recommend for the USA? I've not found anything that properly fits the new DWRC releases and their ilk.

Taking the advice I looked around and ordered 50x12" for £18 delivered from a UK company called Vinyl Guru.

Arrived today, and have to say they are much bigger than the previously mentioned batch. All is well, and fits everything except those big ass DW releases.

Don't look as good on the shelf though.