EMERGENCY: Rain damage - 33 DVD snapper cases, 73 CDs in cases (1 Viewer)

[Yumbo]

Could anyone pelase advise the best way to dry the cases and inserts without warping etc?
thanks.
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Yumbo - IMDVD

 

[Dave Barth]

I couldn't, but I can sympathize. I had about 50 discs soaking in 6 inches of sewer water. The ruined inserts were the least of the problem; the discs all smell like...you know...ugh.
My sympathies!
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[CRyan]

Nothing is going to prevent warping with completely soaked cardboard. Letting them dry naturally pressed under something heavy would probably help.
That is really terrible. Would your insurance not cover it? The cost of 33 DVD's at retail would probably be over your deductible.
C. Ryan
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http://www.elitestoragedesigns.com/RyanOAR.bmp

 

[Bruce Leonard]

I have a great solution, but first you have to fly me to Fiji so I can tell you in person.

Seriously, I do sympathize with you as I had a basement full of VHS movies after closing my video store and got 6 inches of water after a heavy rain. Most dried OK but many cardboard covers were wrinkled.
Bruce.
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[JasenP]

Chris I am SO sorry, that is a crappy thing to come home to. It was said before, let them dry naturally under something heavy. If there are booklets, I would separate the pages to dry before they stick together.
GOOD LUCK!
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THIS BAG IS NOT A TOY
375 Reasons why I drive A 1991 Cavalier.

 

[Chris Maynard]

Paging Steve Tannehill....

 

[Michael Lee]

But the damage is limited to the cases only, right? As long as my discs were able to play properly, I'd be semi-ok.

 

[Jeff Krispow]

Chris,
I really sympathize with you...I just had something nearly identical happen to me, and I was actually going to write something up here asking for help when I read your post. Anyway, over here we've been slowly packing up stuff because we're moving to a new house soon, and we have some items stored away in our garage. About a week or so ago, the hot water hose going into the washing machine literally exploded, and there were inches of water on the floor in no time. We heard what sounded like an explosion and ran out to see what happened, and then scrambled to get the DVDs out of there (none of the other stuff mattered...dishs, clothes, etc...all washable). What really sucks is that I'm disabled and can barely walk, so trying to move the DVDs quickly was almost impossible, and we'd have lost more stuff if my wife didn't get most of it out of there.
Anyway, the boxes on the bottom were filled with DVDs from Image, and I literally lost 105 snapper covers. They turned completely to mush and are gone forever. I freaked out over this, but luckily I knew some people in the right place and got 70 of those replaced. Unfortunately, I'm still screwed and don't have any covers whatsoever for 35 of these.
My suggestion for you if none of the covers can be salvaged is to contact the individual studios and see if they can offer you any replacement covers. Truthfully, it's likely a longshot, but it's still worth the effort to try.
Another alternative -- and something I wanted to write to the people on this board about -- would be to somehow ask for scans of these covers (inside and out) so that you could print out the full covers and put them inside keep cases. That's what I'm going to ask for in a future posting. There are some great people here, and hopefully some of them can help us out.
Best of luck,
Jeff
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Jeff Krispow
Retired Reviewer
http://www.laserrot.com
[email protected]

 

[Yumbo]

thanks guys,
I got them on top of the counter surface which is warm from the Cube below, so it is a warm dry (with help from air-con), 1 at a time (at bottom of pile - for weight) rotation.
seems to be working ok, with slight creasing top and bottom edge from expansion.
even my Video Store Magazne got drenched. grin.
I actually woke up (late) to find it. Myself to blame as I had some company (rare), stayed up watching Mummy Returns (and Basic Instinct) after chatting...oh well.
I'm really going to cry when tackling the CDs - a few of them are collectible soundtracks. How does one separate the pages, then dry them (apart and under something heavy)?
Insurance does not offer rain cover at all.
(Empty) snappers and CDs were all on a tall Boltz shelf right below the leak.
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Yumbo - IMDVD

 

[JasenP]

How does one separate the pages, then dry them (apart and under something heavy)?

I would suggest carefully removing the staples and separate the pages to dry.
I might try an iron on low heat to try to combat the severe wrinkling. [experiment on a less valuable/less loved booklet to see if it is more destructive than it is helpful]
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THIS BAG IS NOT A TOY
Link Removed
375 Reasons why I drive A 1991 Cavalier.

 

[Chad R]

I had a simlar problem. My wife's kitten loved cawling up into spaces to pee (finally he's litter trained), and did so on the bottom row of my DVD's.
I was able to save most of them by color copying the covers from my rental store, (no snappers were involved thankfully) but have been absolutely screwed with the 'X-Files' cases. They couldn't be saved, and obviously they're so unique a color scan wouldn't help. I've tried everyone, Fox, Image, DVD Planet, but no one will replace just the covers.
I'm still looking for a solution to this, 21 cases takes up much more sapce than the streamlined originals.