Collection storage/display advice. Mold?

[Gentlegamer]

Oh no, I better check my games to see if they have caught mildew from the Duo-R you modded for me!

[xelement5x]

There was mold in the attic of the house I bought.  It was found during the inspection and remediation was a condition of the sale.  The cause of the mold was a shitty bathroom fan design, where wet air was being moved into the attic.  Once this fan was fixed and properly vented outside, the mold never came back.

Fix the moisture and you fix the mold, but you need to find the source first.  I'd start with a dehumidifier and go from there.

You can do that in some houses and it's perfectly fine and not an issue.  For example, my house does that but I live in the Southwest where every drop of water is precious and growing mold would be considered a miracle. 

[Necromancer]

You can't legally do that anywhere governed by code.

[780racer]

Option 7.  Just make sure to sell all your games to me at discounted prices. 

So you can flip them later for more than you paid?

Don't think so.

[xelement5x]

You can't legally do that anywhere governed by code.

I think you used to be able to?  My house was built in the 80s so it's probably no longer code to do so, but the professionals I have mentioned it to say that for our climate it's not an issue. 

[glazball]

First things first, you should take all of your moldy or possibly moldy manual and put them in a sealed container with dessicant - either the silica gel like xele mentioned or DampRid.  Keep them in there for several days to dry them out as much as possible.

[goldenband]

Does the mold seem more attracted to dark-colored manuals?

In my old house (which was very close to a body of water), we had severe problems with some kind of light-colored mold/mildew that was preferentially attracted to dark colors. Fortunately it only seemed to grow on the surface of objects, and didn't seem to take root or bloom/flower, so it was easy to wipe it off with a paper towel that'd been dampened with a mild cleaning solution.

[gex]

seem more attracted to dark-colored

Sounds like someones mom I know

[spenoza]

Sometimes you can't really address the source of moisture and running a dehumidifier is your only option. Our house has external waterproofing, but moisture still gets into the basement. So we basically have to run a dehumidifier all the time unless we want to tear out all the wood paneling and waterproof it on the inside as well.

[Keith Courage]

Does the mold seem more attracted to dark-colored manuals?

In my old house (which was very close to a body of water), we had severe problems with some kind of light-colored mold/mildew that was preferentially attracted to dark colors. Fortunately it only seemed to grow on the surface of objects, and didn't seem to take root or bloom/flower, so it was easy to wipe it off with a paper towel that'd been dampened with a mild cleaning solution.

yes, the manuals I have where it was a little more obvious had it on mostly the black areas. Can't really see it in any other colors even while holding the manual at a different angle under bright light. Things have not gotten any worse and like I said before it was only on maybe 3-5% of my game manuals.

I have since spread out my games much more with lots of space above and behind them on the shelves I use. So hopefully all will be good now. I also purchased some plastic sleeves to seal up the manuals if need be but I'm going to wait a bit and see if things get worse and or issues return. I was able to remove all the minor mold spots using a paper towl and some cleaner. 

[blueraven]

May be a good idea to hit the manuals with something with something that can kill mold. Hate to say bleach but man, mold is so damn hard to actually kill. Maybe some bleach dilution or something? I bleach wipe most NES games I get (because...eww) and the labels have never been hurt (that is they didn't fade, too much moisture of course sucks in).

This is a shitty idea.

yes

[Digi.k]

I don't know if you have things like this available in your area but they remove a lot of moisture in the air.

The tablets need replacing every few months.

[gex]

[Mogwai]

Dehumidifier is the best solution, but if you don't want to drop that much money then I'd try putting a tub of DampRid (this stuff http://www.homedepot.com/p/DampRid-64-oz-Fragrance-Free-High-Capacity-Moisture-Absorber-FG50T/100391308) near your collection. It works pretty well.

I lived on the Cali coast for a few years where the humidity was usually >85%. The mold problem was so severe that it would get into the walls (outside and inside) of my place.

[csgx1]

Fortunately I've never had any mold problems where I live, but I'm always concerned with receiving funky stuff from others. 

I picked up Heavy Unit and was a bit surprised at what I saw when I opened the case...




Took me a moment to realize the white shit isn't mold, but just the printed artwork on the back cover.  Not exactly on topic, but WTF kind of art is that?