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Questions about my OD&D books
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outskirtsofinfiniti
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Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:17 pm

Howdy folks, I have a few questions regarding some OD&D books I lucked upon at a used bookstore:

Checking this site, I believe I have the following:

Monster & Treasure: 4th printing, November 1975
Blackmoor: 2nd printing, July 1976
Eldritch Wizardry: 1st printing
Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes: 1st printing
Swords & Spells: 1st printing

The bad news is, apart from general wear, age, and staining on the covers, it has the smell. From water, mildew, something. I didn't see any black spots, but they stink.

Cleaning Questions:
Does anyone have any tips on de-stinking them? I looked in the library, but most of what I saw talked about drying them out vs de-smellifying them. Grodog at KnKA recommended I use an odor eater. I checked my local hardware stores and couldn't find any unscented odor eaters. Would it be bad to use a scented odor eater? I figure the best way is to put these books in a closed plastic tub with an odor eater for a few days.

Grodog also recommended using q-tips with rubbing alcohol to remove the price tags (the price tags were put on very recently). Is this easy to do, or do I run a risk of damaging the books?

Value Questions
With the damage mentioned, do these have any value outside of reading/playing copies? I'm not much of a collector - I don't really care about printings/balrogs/ents/hobbits, etc., just in having raggedy reading/playing copies. If they still have any collectible value, I'd rather trade them out for other, less collectible books. If not, that's cool, I'll just use these as my reading copies.
Once I de-stink them.

Zenfinite
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Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:31 pm

outskirtsofinfiniti wrote in Questions about my OD&D books:Howdy folks, I have a few questions regarding some OD&D books I lucked upon at a used bookstore:

[ Image ]

Checking this site, I believe I have the following:

Monster & Treasure: 4th printing, November 1975
Blackmoor: 2nd printing, July 1976
Eldritch Wizardry: 1st printing
Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes: 1st printing
Swords & Spells: 1st printing

The bad news is, apart from general wear, age, and staining on the covers, it has the smell. From water, mildew, something. I didn't see any black spots, but they stink.

Cleaning Questions:
Does anyone have any tips on de-stinking them? I looked in the library, but most of what I saw talked about drying them out vs de-smellifying them. Grodog at KnKA recommended I use an odor eater. I checked my local hardware stores and couldn't find any unscented odor eaters. Would it be bad to use a scented odor eater? I figure the best way is to put these books in a closed plastic tub with an odor eater for a few days.

Grodog also recommended using q-tips with rubbing alcohol to remove the price tags (the price tags were put on very recently). Is this easy to do, or do I run a risk of damaging the books?

Value Questions
With the damage mentioned, do these have any value outside of reading/playing copies? I'm not much of a collector - I don't really care about printings/balrogs/ents/hobbits, etc., just in having raggedy reading/playing copies. If they still have any collectible value, I'd rather trade them out for other, less collectible books. If not, that's cool, I'll just use these as my reading copies.
Once I de-stink them.

These are pretty much the definition of reading copies.

If I remember correctly, there is some special charcoal you can buy, like the kind they use in rebreathing gas mask type things. Try and google it, again, thinking hard here, but just stick them all in a rubbermaid container or something and wick that smell away! As for price tags, honestly, with all the rest of the damage to the books, it doesn't really matter bud, just peel em off carefully and there shouldn't be any damage. Good luck!!

Zenfinite

JasonZavoda
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Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:33 pm

Keep them away from any other paper products you may have. From what I've learned the mold spores are in the paper and there isn't any way to get them out again.

"You get more with a kind word and an excruciator than with just a kind word."

outskirtsofinfiniti
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Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 4:19 pm

Yeah, that's what I had guessed. Most of the tags peeled off easily. I did a little damage to the cover of one that didn't peel off well, using alcohol swabs. I must've done it wrong.

That being the case, I just placed them in an old shoebox with a "cotton brush" scented deodorizer. I'll check back in on them in a few days. The good news is I now have some guilt-free reading copies I picked up on the cheap.

nesbit37
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Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 4:39 pm

There are things you can do to kill the mold but it involves some materials you probably don't have. If its a very rare item of you have a lot of mold issues it could be worth it though. The conservation department at the Historical Society had to vacuum and kill lots of mold while I worked there:

mold | UCLA/Getty Conservation Program

Phentari
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Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:23 pm

If I remember right, putting them in a box with an unscented dryer sheet can help with the mold smell in some cases.

grodog
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Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:17 pm

This is the stuff I recommended, which someone pointed me to recently: Gonzo 32 oz. Odor Elimination for Homes-OEH26 at The Home Depot

Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

outskirtsofinfiniti
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Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 11:03 am

I would have bought the Gonzo stuff for the cool brand name alone, :wink:

but they didn't have it. I went to a Home Depot and Lowes, and they both had basically the same thing - everything was scented.

I pulled out a book to give it a quick sniff, and it smelled like "brushed cotton" with only a tinge of the musty odor. Not bad for overnight, it seems to be working. I'll leave them in the "deodorizing chamber" until Friday, and let them air out over night so I can take them to my gaming group Saturday.

Scalydemon
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Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:03 am

I have found the advice in this thread to be sage when I had a similar problem Dragonsfoot â€¢ View topic - A Collector's Guide to Storing and Caring for Game Materials

Good luck

Well, we land in barren fields
On the Arizona plains

Publisher of AFS Magazine, 'Pulp literature meets old school gaming' Halls of Tizun Thane

outskirtsofinfiniti
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Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 10:11 pm

Just to give an update on my cleaning attempts:

I put the books in a deodorizer container on Monday and left them in until Friday. I then left them out overnight before taking them to my group on Saturday.

It was not as successful as I was hoping. They now smell mostly of "brushed cotton" with a side of mildew. And the smell is very strong. I pulled them out to show the group, and people started to sneeze and the smell started to fill the (large) room! :oops:

So I've put them in a sealed plastic bag for now.

I tried using the alcohol swabs to remove the price tag, starting very cautiously, but it wasn't doing anything as far as I could see. I gradually increased the amount of alcohol until I accidentally ended up saturating the area, causing the cardstock to crumble under the swab.

stratochamp
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Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 11:44 am

it seems from far away that your books have moved from "fun game booklets" to "unreadable health hazard".
as such, I recommend burning followed by burial in an unmarked grave as the best course of action.

as Jason wrote, please keep these books away from your other books, so they don't become carriers too.

Shrink is not a condition

Thunderdave
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Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:32 pm

Did I read somewhere that putting books like this in sunlight can kill the mold/odour?

I draw the line at collecting... D&D beach towels.

Shoulda been: ".. from Pangreenia to Floratopolis, from mystical Treeonia of spectral Forests to Schruborial dimensions." - The Forests of Leng

JasonZavoda
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Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:08 pm

Thunderdave wrote in Questions about my OD&D books:Did I read somewhere that putting books like this in sunlight can kill the mold/odour?

You might get rid of the odor for awhile (though I doubt sunlight alone would even do that) but you are unlikely to ever really get rid of mold spores once they have set in a paper product. The kind of things that would destroy the spores will also destroy the paper and the spore colonies consume the paper so they are really a part of it. What you can visually detect of the mold is only a part of it and the spores can exist for a long, long time then 'flower' again when the conditions are right. Inactive mold spores can rub off on anything and even become airborne so you can easily breath them in. They will cling to your fingers when you handle moldy items and attach themselves to anything else you handle very easily. If the conditions are right they will spread very quickly (damp, dark, humid, etc...) and if you put a moldy book near other books or papers they are going to get mold spores as well. It is very vile stuff and a real loss because you shouldn't handle moldy items and definitely not breath in the mold spores. It is Fahrenheit 451 time for moldy items I'm sorry to say.

"You get more with a kind word and an excruciator than with just a kind word."

outskirtsofinfiniti
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Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 5:38 pm

JasonZavoda
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Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:16 pm

outskirtsofinfiniti wrote in Questions about my OD&D books:[ Image ]

You're welcome.

"You get more with a kind word and an excruciator than with just a kind word."

outskirtsofinfiniti
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Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 12:45 pm

Well I thought it was hilarious.

cabala
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:21 am

The rubbing alcohol tecnique to remove sticker residue does work, but only to an extent, and it largely depends on the texture and finish of what the sticker was stuck to. Also, I remove the sticker as best I can first, not try to remove the whole sticker with the alcohol.

I found that the residue on extremely high-gloss surfaces comes off in no problem with no damage to the cover. On covers with essentially no gloss you have to be careful, as the ink will smudge right off. 3E GURPS books do this the worst, I finally just left the stickers on. I wouldn't assume the OD&D booklets would take very well to an alcohol swab since they are pretty much straight card stock with minimal ink.

I can't stand putting stickers on books, it should be outlawed as a crime! :evil:

dbartman
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:39 pm

It's probably not worth the effort of removing the price tags on these books, but for something with a glossier cover, there have been a couple of threads on sticker and sticker residue removal:

Removing price tags

How to remove remainder of price tag from cover?

Energine has been discontinued, but there are equivalent products available. Any naphtha-based product would probably work, but I would test first, if possible. With porous materials or non-glossy paper, all bets are off.

In some states, naphtha-based products are restricted so you might not be able to get it, depending on your states regulations.

On these books, I would bet that with the proper care and patience, those stickers could be removed. It would require slowly peeling up the corners, and working your way carefully towards the center. You could at least try and see what kind of adhesive you are dealing with. If it is a more pliable or gummy adhesive, you will probably be able to peel them off without damaging the books further.

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