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So your saying, after i spent several hours changing all my books to the dull side after thinking the shiny side was more acidic.....i have to change it back?

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All of your books are on the dull side no matter what side of the board you use.

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So your saying, after i spent several hours changing all my books to the dull side after thinking the shiny side was more acidic.....i have to change it back?

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All of your books are on the dull side no matter what side of the board you use.

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Thus, the shiny side appears to be the "non-acidic" side of the back board, while the dull side appears to be quite acidic by comparison.

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Thanks for the test, but I never understood why it was even in doubt.

After all, why in the world would standard backing board manufacturers spend MORE to treat one side of the board, if you weren't actually *supposed* to use it?

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So your saying, after i spent several hours changing all my books to the dull side after thinking the shiny side was more acidic.....i have to change it back?

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All of your books are on the dull side no matter what side of the board you use.

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As many of you know, the eternal question among comic collectors who don't want to incur the cost of calcium carbonate buffered back boards is, "Do I put my comics against the shiny side or the dull side?" Many times this has been debated, with no clear answer.

Well, now there's an answer. I recently bought a pH detection pencil and used it on two back boards. The back boards are relatively new, having been purchased within the last six months or so from Russ at comicsupply.com. I followed the instructions that came with the pencil and tested the pH levels on the shiny side of a back board that I pulled out of the middle of a a previously unopened ream of back boards and on the dull side of the back board that was right next to the first one I pulled from the middle of the stack.

For those who don't know, on the pH scale, a lower number means that the item is more acidic and a higher number means that it is less acidic (alkaline). A pH reading of 7 means that the item is neutral, neither acidic nor alkaline.

I don't know how well these colors will show up on your monitor, but by my eyeballing the color scale, the dull side registered a pH of approximately 5, and the shiny side registered a pH of about 7 to 7.5. Thus, the shiny side appears to be the "non-acidic" side of the back board, while the dull side appears to be quite acidic by comparison. So, if you've been putting your books against the dull side of non-buffered back boards, you've got your books on the wrong side!

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