How to take care and clean your flood damaged collectibles

ragnell's photo of water damaged comic books

This is a tip or some kind of advice on how to handle your collectibles, toys, comic books if they are damaged with flood waters. I know this is such a horror for all collectors and fan boys and looking at our precious items being damaged by Typhoon Ondoy and the unexpected flow of flood waters to our homes. The photo above is only a reference, but it's an example of a water damaged comic books that I found in Flickr. I just got lucky that my collectibles is stored in the 2nd floor of our house in Pasig, but  after cleaning the house few days ago, I saw a collapsible box containing lots of magazines and comic books. They are slightly damaged by moist and flood water, but I didn't dare to check it and kept it away, let's consider it that they are in the ICU of comics and toys clinic.

I have become a flood victim years ago, and it was a traumatic experience in the year of 2001 when I encounter a knee high flood water inside the house and in my bed room. Some of my comic book collections were submerged under flood waters and my toys too. Even my dvd player and VHS tapes weren't spared. And after cleaning my room, I did some things that are hmm effective in restoring some of my collections back to near mint condition.

Comic books
This is the most sensitive collectible ever and we store them in  a box away from any heat of the sun and moisture in our room. Comic books usually are packed in our mylar plastic bag with backing board, it protects them from creases, folds and paper discoloration. Having a mint or near mint condition of comics makes it a good item for investment, we can sell it again for a same price or maybe a double price, depends on the rarity of the comic title.

Having  damaged comic books by flood waters is a pain, not only from the heart, but from our wallets.  here are some tips that can be helpful ( reminder: I'm no expert here, but this is what I do for my comics)

1. If your box is submerged into full flood waters,there's a slight chance that the comics is still okay inside, if you have used a high quality mylar plastic or maybe a acid free plastic comics, the chance of getting wet from the inside is 60&%. The game here is that.. did you close the comics properly using a scotch tape ?

2. Remove the comics carefully out of the box, and check if there are water inside the plastic bag. Placed the wet comics away from the slightly wet damaged comics. Use a cloth to wipe out some water from the plastic comic bag. Open the plastic carefully and check if water and moist already entered the pages of the comics.

3. Placed the comics in a dry place and use a cloth in holding them in the table. Don't use magazines or newspaper in holding them on top of your table, because the moist will absorb the paper underneath them and it will stick to the back page of the comics, it will result to a total damage and  rip some pages if you take it out from the newspaper. Don't placed the comic books on the table with the cloth,  Table wood and glass will stick to the moist comic page paper and it will be hard to remove it when it dry up.

4. If you have a blower, use it to dry the comics. This is advisable if you are focusing on some comics and not the entire collection. Really helpful especially if the comics is very rare and collectible like a Wolverine 1st appearance in the Incredible Hulk comics.

5. If it dries already, you'll see the moist will be gone, all you have to do is place them in a fresh and clean plastic and backing board. Then you can store them back into a new comic box.


Toys and Action Figures 
1. It is easy to clean an action figure, if they are damaged by flood waters, all you have to do is placed them in bin of water,  and put detergent on it, and clean carefully each action figures.

2. use an old toothbrush and cloth in cleaning the joints and arms of your action figures.

3. let it dry in one place, and use an electric fan in drying them up.

4. use a cloth in cleaning them again, and check for mud in each joints and edges of the action figure.

5. if the action figures or toys are damaged inside the box or blister pack. All you have to do is, removed all the toys in their packaging boxes or packs. and throw the packaging away.


Gaming consoles
1. For damaged consoles, do not plug them in your electric socket, it will electric short circuit and permanent damage to your console.

2. bring the console to the nearest service center to check it if it will need repairs or major clean up.


Other collectibles
1. For CDs, DVDs, remove them all in their packaging and wipe the discs carefully and remove all dirt. And place them in a new CD case jewel or library.

2. For Posters, if they got wet, they are already damaged for good, you can take a last look of the poster and rip it in pieces and then throw it away.

3. water damaged books is also difficult to restore, but if you own a vintage book, all you need to do is let it dry in the sun and carefully dry the page of the book one by one. Use an electric fan to remove the moist in the book.

If you have more tips and suggestions on how to restore back our collectibles, then post a comment and share those awesome tip.