Make sure that the delicate music surface area never touches any part of the inner sleeve. Careless removal causes minute hairline scratches and scuff marks from rubbing that over time degrades the quality of replay causing surface noises such as ticks, pops and crackles. This damage is readily visible on many discs.

There are oils on your hand and fingers which will leech into the vinyl and degrade replay. In addition to that, finger prints can only be removed safely from vinyl LPs through professional cleaning as described elsewhere on this site. A good idea and one which we have utilized over 40 years is to cut a small square of clean, soft and non-abrasive white paper. Use this square of paper between your fingers on both edges of the disc when removing and replacing the disc in its inner sleeve or bag. In our experience this has caused no issues whatsoever in over 45 years of collecting, playing and caring for vinyl records.

We have used LAST RECORD PRESERVATIVE and would endorse the use of this enduring vinyl product. It is expensive and tends to evaporate as soon as you put it on the application brush. Correctly used however we have found that it improves and preserves vinyl records. It is said to change the composition of the vinyl surface rendering it harder and less prone to degradation from regular play. Some people are earnestly against the use of LAST Record Preservative however, although vinyl expert Michael Fremer, Senior Contributing Editor at Stereophile magazine and proprietor of analogplanet.com endorses its use and it remains a recommended accessory in Stereophile’s bi-annual recommended components listing. Suffice is to say, that if you ever happen across a LAST treated LP in a Used Record Store, grab it because they are always in top condition!

It troubles us to see people who should know better carelessly and roughly removing LP records from their inner sleeves. This is sacrilegious (in our view) and results in serious damage to the vinyl. Anybody who collects Vinyl Records knows that it is a serious monetary investment. You deserve to keep your Records in top condition so that they can be enjoyed throughout your life and by future generations. Vinyl Records are amazingly durable provided they are treated with utmost care and played on properly set up turntable/arm/cartridge combinations. Records attract dust and become dirty. Mold often forms on record surfaces and needs to be removed. Only a proper and safe system of vinyl record cleaning and handling can keep your records in top condition. Even sought after rare collectible items are not worth their market value unless they are in top condition M, NM/M-, EX+ or EX depending on whether you use the U.S. Goldmine Standard of Record Grading or the U.K. Record Collector Magazine Standard. We use both but prefer to use EX+, EX rather that VG+, VG.