For a couple of years now, I have been purchasing two copies of each CD title I buy: One copy I open to use and rip and the other copy I keep new and sealed. Having gone through my new/sealed collection, I have noticed that a very small percentage of them have loose CD(s) within the casing. This has become a concern of mine, especially when it comes to those multi-CD VGM soundtracks, since loose CDs could become damaged over time (I think). So, I have recently been thinking about just opening all of my brand new CDs (Over 700) and storing the CDs in a couple of CD album cases with some additional protection as well. I have thought about the pros and cons for both scenarios and they both have their ups and downs, so I am hoping to get the opinions of several of the more serious VGM collectors here (As well as two other forums). Anyways, my question to you fine people is this: Would you keep a rather large music collection brand new/sealed, even with all the problems that could occur to it, or would you dissect it? Below are the biggest pros and cons that I have thought of. Any advice/coments on this matter would be greatly appreciated -- Thanks.

Pros:
*Easier to move CDs without worries about them cracking/becoming loose
*Less chance I'll end up with a full-blown obsessive compulsive disorder/ large amounts of stress over the issue
*Don't have to worry about re-ordering CDs if they come with cracked cases
*Allows me the option to buy like-new CDs for harder to find albums/soundtracks

Cons:
*Regrets of opening some of those rare, sealed soundtracks/albums
*Not sure what to do with all the inserts/booklets afterwards
*Value drops
*Finding out that several CDs are flawed despite being held perfectly by their respective cases

Open the loose ones, don't open the non-loose ones. Even if you have to open one to fix the disc or even replace part of the spindle (that pisses me off when I get that), I don't think the resale value is going to take any kind of meaningful hit since it's been used once.

Moving the discs around like what you're describing is much more likely to cause scratches and damage the liners and whatnot. I wouldn't trust one of my rare CD's to those type of binders if I had a gun to my head (okay, maybe then...but not otherwise).

My $.02.

Sounds a little late for that!

I'd keep them sealed.

Or if you really must open the ones that are rattling around, just do so to affix the disc back onto the center holder and continue to keep it in the case.

There isn't any benefit to moving the discs into other holders, sliding them in and out of other disc-only storage binders would be more prone to scratching the surface. 

It makes no sense to ditch the cases and store loose booklets and liners elsewhere.

Buying 2 copies of the album each time, do many people do that?

I don't even buy one copy much of the time! Japanese CDs are friggin' expensive.

I think most people find it hard to afford even one copy of all the VGM releases they would want. To buy two seems pretty eccentric, I must say.

That'd be nice to buy two but then you've just spend about $60 on CDs not including the wild shipping fees (if it was the U.S., it'd be less/half that so it's not so bad). It's your call but when money's tight and you have other things to buy, spending a mint on CDs just to have them doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'd probably reserve this idea for CDs you really like but I think it's best to just have them complete and then maybe buy slipcases for them.

I think getting two copies of CDs and keeping one of them sealed is borderline ridiculous. After all, it's all about the music on the disc, not the disc itself... isn't it?

But, to be fair, I have been on both sides of the coin with collecting, and I've bought my fair share of crap I didn't like just to have it. Personally, I've found it a million times more rewarding to have an awesome CD to listen to than to have a mint condition copy of crap pressed to disc. But if obsessive collecting is your thing, knock yourself out. Buy three.

I'd recommend disassociating yourself with material objects. I managed to sell all of my treasured originals and I still enjoy the music. Therefore, the originals are not necessary.

By selling the whole lot, your life will become simpler because there will no longer be a material collection to manage. It will give you the freedom to focus on other things.

But, if you want to manage a large collection of material objects and can afford to do so, then don't bother selling them. In that case, I would keep half of them sealed, in vacuum sealed vault, if possible. I've also heard that some sort of nitrogen mixture does well at preservation, but I don't know too much about chemistry.

Fire-proof safe -
Safety deposit box -
Swiss Bank account -

It really just depends on what you're willing to spend or do to protect your investment -
I don't have enough money to buy 1 copy of all the music I want, but if you can afford it do as you please.

Why are you collecting?  Collecting for the sake of collecting or collecting for possible resale?  VGM collecting for the purpose of resale is a very niche market.  Very few people have the kind of money to pay top dollar for rare CDs.  If you scan the marketplace forum here, you can get a sense what prices have gone for.  Ebay sales are generally subdued as well for most CDs.  You are potentially wasting a lot of money in this area.

In the truest sense of collecting, the fact that some CDs have damaged hubs does mean their values have dropped already.  They're no longer mint or near-mint.  Taking them out to replace or move the CDs to some place secure will only risk damaging the contents and further reducing the value.  You're better off leaving the CDs in there and putting them in a vault or controlled environment.

Also keep in mind that the life of a CD is potentially unstable.  Depending on the conditions of the surrounding environment, CDs can deteriorate ("CD rot").  Once that happens, the music on them is lost, since it is binary data.

I think you make some excellent points!  Still, I figure if people have the money and it makes them happy, then so be it.  As for investment, I suppose video game music is becoming more and more mainstream.  Comic books were, and still are a niche market, and yet many sell for thousands of dollars.  That's not to say that video game music will ever be worth that much.  Personally, for me it's the enjoyment and not the monetary value.  As for "CD rot", I've heard that it's isolated (only certain disks manufactured in the 90s).

cheers,

-avatar!

And I thought I had OCD.  For every CD I own (not just VGM) I rip the CD and make a copy, then put the CD on my shelf to amass cobwebs. If you knew how disgustingly big my CD collection is, you'd know that's a lot of CD-Rs. But I can get Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs for about .30 a piece so it's worth it because in my experience there are some sheisty CD players out that that actually ruin CDs.  I think the only time I ever bought two of the same album was ESPgaluda II because I knew it was going to be out of print in 5 minutes and I'm a bastard.

As far as your question, this is the worst thing you could do:

If you think a CD is loose, just open the case and fix it. For the other ones keep them sealed. Outside of that, my advice would be to just try and enjoy the music every once in a while instead of stressing out about things like this, I'm effed up in the head, and even I attempt the follow this mantra.

Before I get to your specific comments/questions/advice, I'd like to thank all of you for your views on this issue. This being the first forum I've looked over, it's helped me decide which direction I should take.

For some reason, I always find something incredibly comforting about the opinions you give. I'm not sure what kind of storage I would use for the CDs if I were to take them out of their cases, but I asked others on a different forum for their opinion on that matter.

I don't think I'm completely OCD yet and it's just my CD collection that I have a minor issue with.

I think storing the actual CDs in a binder might be an alright idea so long as I don't buy those extremely large capacity ones and also make use of high-quality CD sleeves. Like I hinted at earlier, I haven't thought that out all the way through just yet, though. Also, I wouldn't be removing the CDs from the binder once they're in. I have two copies of every album/soundtrack/single, afterall. The booklets and linears can remain with the casing, I suppose.

Judging by some of these comments, I don't think it is, but I should mention that I don't always buy 2 copies at the same exact time.

That's more true if you don't have the resources to do it.

Not all of my CDs are from overseas and the ones that I get within my country (US), I don't pay full price for. Slipcases, much like original CD cases, aren't as durable as something like a high-quality CD holder.

Like before, getting two copies of CD is only crazy-esque for people that can't easily afford to do it, so I believe that's relative. Think of how a poor kid in Africa would feel if he or she saw you throw away a couple of fries from your extra value meal. And I am doing this for the sake of music, I think. Anyways, I have been listening to many, many awesome CDs and it is a rewarding feeling. It's just that I can afford to both buy music for enjoyment and also for collecting purposes.

Good wisdom there, but I'm not old enough yet appreciate something like that. However, I have always given away copies of albums that I didn't want anymore or had extra copies of to people that would appreciate them more than I would. That's also rewarding in its own small way.

Wanted to touch on this with Jodo's post, but I'll do it with yours since yours is more centered on it: The CDs are very well protected as far as the casing is concerned. It's the contents within that concern me more.

I think the 'drop in value' thing might have made it seem as if I may be doing all of this to resell the new copy later on. I never had the intention of selling off any of the CDs that I have decided to collect, and I know I'm wasting money when I buy more than two copies, but like I mentioned above, I give breaks to other people when it comes up. So, I'm not being entirely wasteful. This post of yours has made me realize that controlling the environment is impossible to do, even with the aid of a vault, since the cases themselves are an unstable environment; or more so than other mediums. As for CD rot, that's always a risk, but I probably wouldn't live to see it actually happen.

I personally think that collecting comic books, from start to finish, is a hobby for the very rich, though only for the more iconic heroes. Even collecting entire runs for the more recent series would normally cost you around $300. The hardcover reprints are very nice, though.

I rip one copy of each album, save the rip to an external drive, and also keep it on my computer should I want to listen to it/burn a CD/place it on an mp3 player. It's not that I always stress about it, in fact, this whole ordeal has only happened recently. About removing the CDs from their casing and putting them elsewhere, having opened 700+ CD cases of various types over the years, I think I have enough experience in extracting a CD without causing any damage to the disc itself.

Good for you, man. I was at the point where I was just collecting and not enjoying the music as I should have been. I'm glad you can do both.

perhaps he should keep them all in a special airtight room such as the the guesthouse or on the extra yacht and have the butler gently shake them daily to ensure that none of the discs are loose, then he can have the maid dust them daily to ensure that no particles are attempting to permeate the plastic wrap.

lol lhm, i was thinking in the same terms.
it sounds TOTALLY overkill to me.
And i like to consider myself as a serious collector ^^;;
Later,

Alcahest

Thanks and I'll try my best to avoid that scenario.

Keeping something airtight is relatively easy and so is protecting something against more particles from seeping in. That part I had down a long time ago. As for the shaking thing, transferring all the CDs from their original cases to slim jewel cases is what another forum said I should probably do. Slim jewel cases might offer less protection if left on their own, but they should keep the actual CD from rattling around in the case since there is less space to move around. The booklets and inserts can remain in their original cases, which only leaves the obis to think about. That way everything except for possibly the case is new as new as can be and any discs that end up moderately scratched up I'll just give away per usual.

I think most serious collectors always have back-ups so long as there is more than one item in existence - Maybe.

So when are you opening your VGM archive museum?

Same time yesterday, I probably would have said this weekend, but the only thing I'll get accomplished this week is deciding which kind of case I am going to use. I was set to buy 900 or so 5.2mm ultraslim jewel cases, but I noticed there were other slim cases I could use while I was checking out the site. One being the aptly named Clamshell case and the other being the Slimpak case, which is like two clear CDs that are attached to one another to form sort of like a CD sandwich when you place your CD in between them. I e-mailed the site and asked for their opinion, but they did me one better and said they would send me samples of all three cases. I have a couple of sealed singles/ablums/OSTs I don't really need, so I'll just crack one or two of them open to test how well each of the three cases do. So... I guess next weeked would be the time I start opening the CDs and the VGM OSTs will definitely be the ones I open first since I would like to know how many of those are screwed up.

Heh. That isn't what I meant :-p

Yeah what about a place with CDs classified and placed on shelves behind glass with numbers assigned and several wireless headphones to listen to those, sit in comfy chairs.
Could be a cool museum in fact.

I already thought of that idea back in 2002, but not like it can be claimed as an original idea anyways though, hehe...   Still would be very cool to see happen someday 

Somehow i'm not surprised.

I'm curious about something.  Why don't you buy one copy of each CD, keep it sealed, and download the music from that CD from the Internet?  Even if it is a technical violation of the law, it can hardly be said to be immoral.  You are, after all, entitled to listen to the music from the CD that you've purchased.

Not only is that one of the stupidest questions I've ever heard, I have to wonder why the hell it matters for VGM specifically.

-Joshua

That's why you open the CDs and listen to them.

that would be a VGM investor,, not a collector...