I love Lego and I have a shitload of boxes in my wardrobe but the problem is, they smell like shit. I have identified that it's specifically the Lego boxes smelling bad, and as the time goes, the smell is getting worse. I don't want to throw them away though, because they're nice and colorful and might be useful in case in the future I want to sell the sets.I took out the boxes but there is no mold or any other visible damage.Any advice?
>>11807274Lego boxes just naturally smell like puke. Throw the boxes
I am a Lego box collector and that's sad to hear. Maybe you could try locking them in an airtight area with an air purifier going for a few days and see if that helps. Stuff like the Green Grocer box alone is worth a few hundred dollars.
>>11807286Anon, that's a picture he stole This is just low-effort baitDon't give some imbecile (you) farmer any notice
>>11807560Why do redditors do this?Well if anyone is serious, as a comic book collector = paper degrades and decomposes over time. Ever grabbed an old book from the 70s or 80s and it smells really good kinda like vanilla? It's the pages slowly breaking down over time. As with comics, a strong smell usually has to do with the acids in the paper/cardboard. Majority of paper stuff is not made for archiving or lasting many hears.
Boxes are for fags, toss them.
>>11807865Saw a serious comic collector on youtube, all bags /boards are archive quality, room temperature and humidity both controlled to balance between desiccation and mold growth, blah blah blah. Shit is an investment, for me it’s much more fun to open my toys and enjoy them.
>>11810134>Shit is an investment, for me it’s much more fun to open my toys and enjoy them.Ah I see, there is some confusion. I don't buy just to own. I buy, build and display. It's just that I don't throw away the box, in case in the future I want to sell the set. I even keep boxes for chink sets that have zero resale value.
>>11810500I save boxes for tons of shit. It's just a thing some people do. There are memes about it. I have boxes for computer monitors that have long since broken, and I have discarded.
>>11811519>I still have my Nokia phone and my current phone Zenfone 9 boxes on my office desk>They stoping making Zenfone like a year ago ending the series in 12.How horrifying.
>>11810134Yeah because it usually they collect what is essentially decomposing paper and ink. It's not the same as plastic toys which normally should last decades as long as they are kept indoors. Like old comic books will break down faster because they were not mean to last more than a few reads and then tossed in the trash. They were made from cheap paper that wasn't meant for "archival" purposes so they have acidic compositions. I have probably like 3 comics and they're all bagged and boarded with basic boards and bags and all of my fancy comics are in "mylar" bags, that keep humidity out of them and the included thicker boards that are "buffered" with calcium carbonate to absorb acidity. Most boards already absorb acidity. This all sounds scientific and shit and it kinda is but it's only like in the last two decades that comic collecting has become like this because before we didn't know what different storage methods would do to older comics. Plus it keeps them straight and dust free while in storage boxes. Yeah you can just leave your comics stacked somewhere but they will eventually sustain physical damage from the weight if you have a bunch of them. It's called spine rolling. The worst your plastic toy can get is probably rusted screws from the humidity or discoloration from the sun and that requires them to be played with outside constantly.
>>11810500Oh and forgot to mention the actual advice:1. Take the boxes and try to fit them in a large plastic container with a lid or a big plastic bag that you can seal.2. Place a plate filled with baking soda if you're using a box or try to get a clean sock filled with baking soda if you're using a bag and put them in the same container and seal it and leave it alone for like a day or two. If they still stink leave them there for a week.If they feel wet add dry rice to the mixture or silica gel packs to absorb moisture.This works for me when I get old comics that smell really acidic or smoky from cigarettes.Also this is assuming the boxes are flat. If they're still in shape do the same and put it inside the Lego box and put another baking soda outside of the box and seal it.
>>11811784>2. Place a plate filled with baking soda if you're using a box or try to get a clean sock filled with baking soda if you're using a bag and put them in the same container and seal it and leave it alone for like a day or two. If they still stink leave them there for a week.this isn't going to do anything, because there's going to be no interaction between the baking soda and an object in an air tight environment. there's no air circulation going for a reaction to happen, and even if there was, it would be almost nothing.Its like putting a crayon in a box and expecting a mosaic to appear on the inside the next day.Also, bags and boards to reduce the effects of air, humidity and acidity on comic books has been around since the 80s. Bags themselves were being used since at least the 70s.
>>11811859Ok. Listen here homo: the baking soda absorbs odor. That's what it does. It works. Otherwise my stinky comics would still be stinky.Secondly, yeah bags and boards have been around since the 70s, but those were unbuffered and made from polyethylene which eventually yellowed from the acids. It wasn't until the end of the 80s that we got "archival" mylar bags that keep humidity out. Both formats are good but Mylar is just much higher quality and is manufactured differently.
>>11812294>Otherwise my stinky comics would still be stinky.I bet they still stink, because that stink comes off from you and you're used to your stank.I used to work in a university library and i was trained to archive shit, since they were moving shit from the old library to the new one.I coudl go into the details of how shit works, but so I'll be brief: smells come from PHYSICAL shit laying ontop of an object. Your evaporated sweat, your shit particles, your skin flakes, dirt, bug shit, is all laying on your books and boxes that needs to be physically removed.Like i said, you can get rid of a LITTLE of the smell, by circulating air, which helps dry out the moisture that undoubtedly has saturated your paper books and cardboard boxes. This helps way more and faster than if just sticking shit into a box with no air to help dry your shit out.The backing soda helps remove moisture, but it would be exponentially quicker if you had a small fan to move air around in the box. Just leaving out in the sun outside would do the same shit in just a few hours. It'd actually work better to, since UV light will also kill any bacteria and molds.So by drying out your books/boxes, you're still leaving all the physical smells on your papers, but now there's next to no humidity to carry the stink lines to your nose.Also, buffered inserts were used since at least the 80s. It's ancient technology, but was little used due to the price (20¢ isn't much until you have 100-1000 books) until the comic book boom happened in 80s and enough people using it brought costs down to the point they started advertising that shit in the early wizard mags (1990?).
>>11812672>I bet they still stink, because that stink comes off from you and you're used to your stankLmao they are comics that I buy on eBay. Sometimes they come in stinky because some smoker in the 70s owner them.Yeah I think Wizard used to have the ads, probably that Comic Buyers Guide magazine and of course The Overstreet Price Guides since they're the same company that owns E Gerber.
>>11812672Almost forgot to make this post:You need to physically clean your boxes/books/whatever to actually get the smells off, because those smells comes from physical (usually literal) shit laying on your box/books.First dust off your your smelly shit. Use a dry towel, sock, or paper towel to do this. Then get a clean paper towel, completely soak (entirely wet but not dripping) it with 90%+ alcohol and proceed to wipe down your box/book/whatever. Wipe the box on every side, every square centimeter to make sure you clean every little spot. If the towel gets dirty, you can fold it to use the other side that's still clean or use another towel that's soaked with alcohol. Then clean that shit again and let it dry afterward.Avoid doing this with cardboard or paper that isn't glossy. If it's not glossy, you can use baking soda and use your hands to scrub the surface. Dust it off afterward thoroughly, using a towel/duster/whatever.There's other stuff you can use, but it isn't much better and costlier. For books, there's buffered papers you insert inbetween the pages that draws out oils, moisture, and even kills bugs.I use alcohol on basically every used comic/graphic novel, magazine, and book i buy, whether they smell or not, because who knows how many trips to the bathroom it took the original owner to read it
