Amazing Outer Record Sleeves for Your Vinyl Album Covers
Below is a transcript from my YouTube video on the best outer record sleeves on the market. You can read it as an article, or watch the full video below. And if you enjoy it, please subscribe to my Devoted to Vinyl YouTube channel.
Hey guys, this is Michael from Devoted to Vinyl, and in this video, we’re going to be talking about the best outer record sleeves your money can buy. Stay tuned.
So in my last couple of videos, I’ve been talking a lot about record storage. In the first video, I kind of talked about how you can store your records at home, and also use a carrying case to take them with you on the go.
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And in the second video, I talked a lot about inner record sleeves. High quality inner record sleeves that I personally like to use.
Now in this video, I actually wanted to talk about the outer record sleeves, because I also think that this is also another thing that a lot of people can take for granted.
I know that when I first got into the hobby, I pretty much used the most simple, ugly and very cloudy record sleeves that I could get. I pretty much just used whatever came with the record. And as time went on, I decided to kind of step my game up a little bit and see what else I can do to improve the quality of the plastic that I was using.
Now the outer record sleeves that I like to use are called Ultimate Outer Record Sleeves and I got them at Sleeve City.
Now the thing that I like about these sleeves is the thickness of the plastic. I have 5.0 mil plastic sleeves. “Mil” is just a manufacturing term—it’s basically a way to determine the thickness of the plastic.
Now there are some sleeves that come in 2.5 mil, 3 mil—I use 5.0 mil because it’s about the thickest that I can find, and I find it to be the perfect quality for protecting my record jackets.
The thing that I found about my old sleeves were that they were cloudy. When you actually put the record jacket inside of the plastic, it actually degraded the look of the cover art because of the cloudy plastic.
So here’s an example.
Here’s an outer record sleeve that I’ve been using for my [record] jackets for years now. And while it’s a perfectly adequate record sleeve, you’ll notice that it has some creases in it that’s collected over the years, it’s not quite as clear as some of the better quality plastic sleeves that I’ve used, and overall it doesn’t actually hold up well. It doesn’t keep its shape as well as higher quality plastic, which you’ll see in a moment.
Alright, and now these are the outer record sleeves that I’m using from Sleeve City. And, while it’s not a drastic change, you’ll notice that there’s not as many creases, it looks like the plastic holds up much better than it does from the previous plastic that I showed you.
I also really like that the cover art is a little bit more bold. Although it’s not not in color and you’re looking at a black and white image, you can kind of look at the hair of Birdy for example and see that it’s a little bit blacker compared to the previous plastic.
And that’s because this particular plastic, this thicker quality plastic tends to make the images pop a little more on your cover art. So if you have beautiful cover art and you really want to display it on your shelf or somewhere in your room, if you pop it in this plastic, I think you’ll be really, really happy with the results.
So that’s about it. I hope this video has given you a little bit of insight into possibly acquiring higher quality outer record sleeves when you’re ready to upgrade.
If you enjoyed this video and found it to be helpful guys, please hit the “like” button down below. I’d really appreciate it.
And don’t forget to comment down below—listen, I really want to know: what types of outer record sleeves do you all like using and why?
And don’t forget to also Subscribe to my Devoted to Vinyl channel where I’m going to be coming out with more videos.
So guys, once again, I really appreciate you watching—I’m never going to take it for granted. And I’ll talk to you later in the next video.
[OUTRO]
“This is…a slow descent downward.”
“Not only can higher quality plastic look better—I don’t even know why I said that.”
[Sighs]
“Taking them out to display them, if you can get crystal—“
[Shakes the rust off]
“I gotta work on my public speaking. This is no bueno.”
[Laughs]
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