Movies can go beyond just providing a few hours of entertainment for you, your friends, and your family. In fact, many people who deem themselves movie collectors will tell you that collecting movies has become all the more important these days. When movies are becoming invisible digital files, the role of a movie collector is all the more valuable. By taking care of movies, both on DVDs and on tape, movie collections can stand the test of time – and perhaps even become a valuable investment.
Keep Your Fingers Off
One of the easiest ways a movie collector can keep their movies in pristine condition is to keep their fingers away from the CD backs and off the VHS tape. Fingers naturally have oils in them which can cause damage to these sorts of surfaces. Even if you think your fingers are clean, you will want to avoid touching any of the surfaces which are used in playing the actual movie. And if you can not avoid touching these surfaces, clean your hands thoroughly with soap and water ahead of time – or use latex/non latex gloves to ensure that you are not damaging your movies.
If you have children, this might be more difficult as kids like to touch the various surfaces around them. Keep the movies out of reach of children until they can learn how to keep their fingers away from the parts of the movies which can be harmed.
In the Case, Not a Folder
The easiest way to make sure your movie collector library is kept safe is to keep the movies in the cases at all times. Never should a movie be out and sitting on another surface. What happens is that the movie can come into contact with any number of dirt particles and other damaging items. Or the movie can fall to the ground, causing scratches which might harm the movie’s playing ability. Whenever possible, keep the movie in its original case or in a case which will prevent jostling and scratching. Otherwise, the movie should be in its respective player.
Cleaning DVDs and VHS Systems
There are DVD cleaning and VHS cleaning supplies out there too, though a movie collector should choose these carefully. In this case, it would be a good idea to choose items which are highly recommended by the DVD player or VHS player manufacturers. This means you might pay more, but at least you will know the items aren’t going to hurt your movies in the process. Take some time to clean your movies and the movie players at least once a week if they’ve been used. This way, you can keep them looking and playing like brand new for as long as possible.
If you want to be a good movie collector, you need to make sure you can protect your movies from all manner of harm. Otherwise, your collection isn’t going to least too long at all, will it?