Rusty staples in games manuals

[Phil]

Hi I noticed several of my games manuals have got rusty staples. Some have unfortunately marked the paper I'm assuming that they have been exposed to water or moisture in the air for a long period.

Would you take out the staples and replace with new or take them out and leave the manual loose?

Any good tips to stop this happening to my valuable games manuals?

The manuals which have been tucked inside a sega games catalogue seem to be ok luckily...

apparently rusty staples can appear in sealed games too. Now I've got like 50 sealed games, so don't know if I should open them all, but if they are all rusty I don't want to inflict water damage too from my tears...

[korax]

Aug 24, 2014 10:04:15 GMT Phil said:

Hi I noticed several of my games manuals have got rusty staples. Some have unfortunately marked the paper I'm assuming that they have been exposed to water or moisture in the air for a long period.

Would you take out the staples and replace with new or take them out and leave the manual loose?

Any good tips to stop this happening to my valuable games manuals?

The manuals which have been tucked inside a sega games catalogue seem to be ok luckily...

apparently rusty staples can appear in sealed games too. Now I've got like 50 sealed games, so don't know if I should open them all, but if they are all rusty I don't want to inflict water damage too from my tears...

Only 1 or 2 of all the games I've had, did have manuals with rusty staples. Seeing as many of my SMS games are 25ish years old, and still have their staples intact without any rust, leads me to believe that if you just keep them in a dry environment, they'll be fine for a loooong time.

I'd probably replace the staple if possible for the affected manuals, eventhough there's nothing to do about the stains left by the rusty staples.

And don't open the sealed games, that would be daft Eventhough it happens to sealed games as well, it's probably 99,9% likely that the staples are fine and will be for many years to come. (You'll just be tearing up about opening 50 sealed games, which turned out to be OK instead )

[Centrale]

I'm not a stickler for getting everything near mint, but by luck I've had a couple of games that look as though they could be brand new... not one little fold in the manual. But the rusty staples give away the passage of time. I just carefully pried them out and restapled them.

[Phil]

Getting out and replacing the staples is easy, it's just the brown rust stain they have left behind on some of the manuals.

I live in a real old House with a moisture problem, I assumed the games would be ok sealed in a box, I thought wrong!

Ah well I will have to replace some of the games that's all, mostly are common ones to I'm not that bothered about those...

[playgeneration]

Perhaps you should have an electric de-humidifier in the room where you keep your games, to take the moisture out of the air.

[Phil]

A lot of my games from when I was a kid are affected, so we are talking 25 years old some of them, so are doubly gutted! Got my de-hummer on now. I'm going seal every manual is a sealable plastic bag too. Hopefully most of them I can replace the staples with and you won't be able to notice most of the stains...

[Transatlantic Foe]

Unfortunately that's rust - it requires water and oxygen, then you will get corrosion. Damp air will get into cases and, over time, affect the staples in manuals. All you can do is replace them (either the staples or the manuals, if there is too much mess left behind).

If you're sealing them up, make sure you flush them with "dry" air first - if you seal with damp air inside, you'll still get rusting.

[catapultaudio]

I'm completely speechless - your talking about opening sealed games because your scared the manual might have a couple of rusty staples??? Or even replacing your games, because of such...? I know theres perfectionism and all but christ, I guess I still have a lot to learn about the commitment of some true sega fans!!

[gallos_11]

I didn't have any rust problem with my Euro and US games, but almost all of my Tec-Toy games bought from Brazil had very rusty staples, probably due to the tropical/moist climate there. Even a few sealed Tec-Toy games had rusty staples. I replaced all those staples, but couldn't do anything with the brown rust stain they left behind. At least they won't get worse now.

If you live in a house with moisture problem, I think you should avoid sealing them up with plastic bags. Just try to put them in a different place with a bit more sunlight (not direct as colors will sun-fade) and maybe an electric de-humidifier in the room would help as well. But definitely replace all staples as soon as possible!

[Phil]

Aug 25, 2014 22:21:34 GMT catapultaudio said:

I'm completely speechless - your talking about opening sealed games because your scared the manual might have a couple of rusty staples??? Or even replacing your games, because of such...? I know theres perfectionism and all but christ, I guess I still have a lot to learn about the commitment of some true sega fans!!

It's not the rusty staples that I'm bothered about. It's the horrid rust stains they leave behind on the paper manual. Some of my Tec Toy games were really bad stained. I'm not too bothered about the more common games, it's the rarer games I've paid a lot for which is worse.


I will probably be looking at replacing staples on over half of my entire collection which is going to keep me busy. Most are very slight, but there is signs of rust which will only get worse with time.

I'm not sure whether to use sealed bags, but I think if I seal them in a room with little moisture as possible I should be ok.

The dehumidifier will be getting plenty of use from now on too!!!