What's a cheap solution fo CD cases?

[adalect]

Hi...

I am currently running out of cases for my data CDs and am wondering if there is a cheap solution for CD cases? I was wondering whether I could craft something at home to substitute as CD cases. The cases don't have to be perfect; I just want something to store the CDs so that when I take them out, they won't get scratched.

I was thinking of putting one or several CDs in a Ziplock bag. I was also thinking of cutting out some newsprint or paper from pads and folding and gluing them in a way to act as paper envelopes. What do you think?

[Quema34]

A CD/DVD album (case) from CaseLogic might float your boat. One former guru on here used that and said he never saw any degradation of his CD collection of 15 years stored in those (and I believe him, since he was always a straight shooter and very informed). There was another alternative, one consisting of some kind of Tyvek inserts between CD/DVDs where you could put them back into a 50 or 100-pk spindle and use the inserts as tabs to separate and title each one. May be a little impractical on removing them, though. When they first came out, people were using these 250-500 capacity aluminum cases I believe Meritline or some other company was promoting. Initially they were very cheap and people bought them–and they were excellent investments, since the pockets were vertical in orientation and one veteran here (chas009) sat around and did a ‘mindless test’ (his words) of removing the DVDs from the sleeves and putting them back in for 15 minutes straight and noticed no scratching was the repeated in-out, which easily reached 500 reps. You can get those, but they are double their price (of when they first came out) when I last took a gander to look at them. If you find a manuf part # or some code, you can try using it on a price comparison engine like www.pricegrabber.com or www.pricespider.com. If there’s no joy there, try using Google for the same product and see what comes up.

[Matth]

http://www.papercdcase.com/

Other Paper CD case designs
http://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-Cd-Case-!!!-Flower-Design/

[adalect]

I heard that paper cases scratch discs? Does anybody know from experience whether this is true and if so, would paper cases be good to store CDs in?

[alan1476]

I have been using paper sleeves with the window for years and never had a scratched disc. But its really not a long term solution.

[DrageMester]

At least some paper sleeves scratch discs in my experience.

[adalect]

OK… so I get the impression that paper envelops are OK for discs, but sometimes scratch CDs.

What about spindles? Are spindles a good way to store discs? The discs are stacked in spindles, so do they actually touch and scratch each other? Can you make your own spindles like paper envelops?

Thanks.

[Ripgut]

From what I’ve read here on this board, spindles are the worst way to store CD’s and DVD’s. I go to this mom and pop store that sells blank media, burners, printers, etc. for bootleggers, LOL, and I get my 5mm or 7mm slim DVD cases for like $8.50 per 100.

[Quema34]

[quote=adalect;2147768]OK… so I get the impression that paper envelops are OK for discs, but sometimes scratch CDs.

What about spindles? Are spindles a good way to store discs? The discs are stacked in spindles, so do they actually touch and scratch each other? Can you make your own spindles like paper envelops?

Thanks.[/quote]

Reread my post #2. That said, you can get the Tyvek inserts that go between the CD/DVDs in a spindle and stack them that way. According to the tests the place that sells them did, it doesn’t damage the dye side nor scratch them when the inserts are used between discs. They used to have ads on here and I used to have the link, but I don’t anymore. If you can find the place or someone still has the link, you might get lucky and they save you the searching.

[adalect]

I see…

Strangely, I am getting the impression that storage for CDs that you buy is superior to storage you make at home. I am also getting the impression that I should never gamble with super cheap storage solutions. Am I getting the right impression?

[Quema34]

Well, one gets what one pays for and unfortunately it costs money to house a CD/DVD. If the dye side gets excessively scratched, it’s likely the data may not be retrievable or only partially so. There’s just no ultra-cheap way to go that also protects CD/DVD media well.