The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

[Keb]

I bought a used book yesterday and it smells like cigarette butts.

[Keb]

Fucking hell that's awful!

[Keb]

Ugh, when I bought the thing, I thought the smell was coming from the ratty ass old dude who was standing near me. Guess I learned my lesson for blaming old white trashy people for bad cigarette smells.

I'm gonna put it in a bag with some baking soda and see if that helps.

[ThirtyFiveMinutesAgo]

Did you buy The Gentleman's Guide To Cigar Smoking? If yes, you can only blame yourself.

[Zenguru]

That's what you get for buying wholesale from Hawk's basement.

[Victorian Squid]

Tobacco smoke is deadly for books, the soft fibers in the paper soak it up and there's not much you can do to get the stink completely out. It's a killer for values, an otherwise valuable book that has smoke damage is devalued by it often to the point of worthlessness.

You should return it for a full refund.

[Victorian Squid]

Ugh, when I bought the thing, I thought the smell was coming from the ratty ass old dude who was standing near me. Guess I learned my lesson for blaming old white trashy people for bad cigarette smells.

I'm gonna put it in a bag with some baking soda and see if that helps.

Stick a dryer sheet in there too.

[Amoebas]

I know the felling (and smell). I opened one of those group coupon/flier pieces of mail last week and it was like Pall Mall, Virginia Slim and Camel all decided to explode out from the envelope.

I doubled bag every thing and then proceeded to wash my hands for a very long while as the stink stuck.

[Keb]

It was Uncanny X-Force vol 3 the Dark Angel Saga. I almost bought the Gentleman's Guide to Cigar Smoking but decided against it.

Gonna wait a bit with the de-stankifying. If it doesn't work I'll just pitch the book and buy a new copy.

[Log-Man]

Stick a dryer sheet in there too.

Dryer sheets a good idea, but chances are good it's toast unless you want to invest in a recovery process that costs a lot more than the book is worth. We had a fire at the library and even though the collection wasn't burned, the smoke saturation was incredible. It took months of putting them in special ozone chambers to get them to the point where the public could use them, and the smell never went away entirely. Cigarette smoke is even worse, imo.

[Victorian Squid]

Dryer sheets a good idea, but chances are good it's toast unless you want to invest in a recovery process that costs a lot more than the book is worth. We had a fire at the library and even though the collection wasn't burned, the smoke saturation was incredible. It took months of putting them in special ozone chambers to get them to the point where the public could use them, and the smell never went away entirely. Cigarette smoke is even worse, imo.

Yeah, if you look at my post above that one I agree it's nearly hopeless. He might be able to get it to a more tolerable level of odor is all. Like I said, I would have returned it. Passing off smoky books is a real no-no for booksellers.

Many amazing book collections have been made into junk by being stored in a smoke-filled room.

[Black_Orchid]

Agree with the others, the stank doesn't go away. I collect a lot of large hardcovers books on various topics. One is an encyclopedia of American cars I read a lot. Horrible smoke reek. I have to open it to a page and let it air out a bit before I can handle it. Unless it is a rarer book that would be expensive to replace, chuck it or donate to Goodwill.

[guitarsmashley]

So I take it you finally quit?

[CountD]

smoking anything other than the kind is really gross, and even that can get smelly. the kind of smell that sticks in the back of your throat!

[Keb]

So I take it you finally quit?

Yah!