I have so many oversized gatefolds, some of which clearly cannot fit in a standard outer plastic protector, and some like Pantera’s – Far Beyond Driven (Reissue) were not only wide but once you open them they are too rigid and don’t store well and have too many extras to stay closed properly without an outer sleeve holding everything together.
Then I recently bought ^this 2016 2LP Reissue of Coil – The Ape Of Naples and like the Pantera Reissue it was thick before you break the seal and thicker after you break the seal, especially when you pull out the records and give it room to breathe it seemed to get wider just being out of its shrink wrap. Again, it’s a nice, thick pressing, with thick inner sleeve and thick hard cardboard making it impossible for a standard outer sleeve. Sliding the records back into their sleeves and then into each side of the gatefold was too tight to even attempt so I knew I needed something to keep this thing together with the records.
So I put the 2 records in their sleeves, and put them in between the gatefold instead of in each pocket and put this outer on it as shown above and as you can see everything fits comfortably and it now is no longer a pain to store, protect and retrieve the records.
The only record I wanted to protect that this did not work with was the Music On Vinyl Reissue of David Bowie’s “Earthling”. If you don’t know how thick it is, it’s a tri-fold and seemingly as thick as the Beastie Boy’s Paul’s Boutique Quad fold record. I don’t expect it to work on every record, or it would be too thick for standard gatefolds so as a product I can highly recommend this to people who have the same problem with protecting today’s over the top thick gatefold records.
TLDR: If you got fat gates that won’t stay closed, this is your solution. Highly recommended.
Check the video that shows it on various sized records:
I've used Sleeve City products for years, both the inner and outer sleeves. I've never tried the 5.0 outers, but have heard nothing but good things. Unfortunately I've had a couple bad batches of inners from them so I think I may stop purchasing them going forward. I'll still use their outers though.
