Great post. Some really helpful stuff in there, especially for beginners.
Personally, I HIGHLY recommend always using cotton gloves when handling artwork. Even if you wash your hands right before handling the artwork, there are still tiny amounts of oil that will find its way onto the prints. Considering how ridiculously cheap cotton gloves are and the fact that it only takes 5 seconds to put a pair on, there is just no excuse for not wearing them. I haven't touched a piece of art without gloves on in over 10 years. Its just a very good habit to get into.
I recommend Light Impressions Deluxe Cotton Gloves:
http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.co...ools-supplies/
A box of 12 pairs costs around $42 or basically $3.50 per pair. They last a LONG time if properly taken care of. I keep mine stored in an archival 4x5 negative box along with a Pelican 1500D Desiccant Silica Gel Canister. That way the gloves remain perfectly dry. Some would probably say thats a bit overkill, but I take archival storage and proper handling of my artwork extremely seriously!!
When you wash your cotton gloves, I highly recommend using a detergent like Charlies Soap over name brand detergents like Tide or all of the other popular brands you normally see in department stores.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o06_s00
Charlies Soap is basically one of the highest quality biodegradable, environmentally safe and hypo-allergenic detergents on the market and most importantly, it completely rinses out and leaves absolutely no residue behind. It has no abrasives, no lye, no phosphates, no bleach, no dyes, and no perfume. Popular detergents like Tide, Gain, All, etc cannot say the same and all leave residue behind. The same goes for fabric softeners so do not use a fabric softener. Just use Charlies Soap, nothing more and nothing less.
Basically, if your going to take this aspect of collecting seriously and spend the extra money to use archival materials and use safe and proper handling methods, like wearing cotton gloves, make sure you go the full 9 yards and do it right.
As for the storage route, I use Safeco flat file storage cabinets for my really large prints and use Light Impressions portfolio boxes for my prints that are 20x24 or smaller. The benefits to using portfolio boxes is overall price (quality flat files are very expensive) and Light Impressions portfolio boxes are lined with library-quality fabric and acid-free Apollo Paper, so they ultimately provide a more protected environment than your basic flat file cabinets. Here is a link to Light Impressions Portfolio Boxes:
http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.co...ntation-boxes/
I honestly can't give these portfolio boxes a higher recommendation. They are really high in quality and are just beautifully built. I have some that are over 10 years old and still in amazing condition. Between myself and all of the other photographers and artists I know, I have seen first hand almost every brand of storage box and portfolio on the market and Light Impressions Portfolio Boxes are really as good as they get. These will protect your prints as well as any other portfolio or print box out there.
For portfolios and presentation cases, I recommend Prat's Start 4 for 18x24 prints and Itoya's Profolio Professional Portfolios for prints that are 13x19 or smaller.
If you do go with flat file cabinets, I highly recommend Safeco.
http://www.safcoproducts.com/SearchD...ce:&pageSize:&
They have a HUGE selection and some nice bases available. I prefer the 20" base as it allows you to store a bunch of stuff underneath, including supplies like your cotton gloves. Here is picture of Safeco's 20" flat file base:
There is a short video on the following page that gives a quick explanation of Safeco's flat file system along with the bases.
http://www.safcoproducts.com/product...4975wh#YouTube
Another good flat file company is Mayline.
http://www.mayline.com/drafting-furn...20Plan%20Files
You really can't go wrong with either one, but again brand new Flat Files are not cheap, especially if you buy a base. I highly recommend using Light Impression Portfolio boxes if you can. Unfortunately, they don't come any larger than 20x24 so if you collect prints larger than that, your going to have to look for alternate storage methods, like flat files.
Just remember to never store your prints rolled. In all honesty, you should avoid rolled prints whenever possible. I know that isn't possible all the time, but if a seller is willing to ship a print rolled or flat, always take the flat option even if it winds up costing you more money. The memory Sithlord spoke of is actually the paper fibers stretching. In all honesty, a print should never be rolled in anything smaller than a 5" diameter tube. As long as a print is rolled in a tube with that size diameter, you will have no problem flattening it back out. The smaller the diameter of the tube, the more tightly the print has to be rolled and the tighter you roll a print, the more severe the stretching of the paper fibers. Once you get down to the 2" diameter range, its very likely your print will have permanent stretching of the paper fibers and the print will never lay perfectly flat again regardless of the methods used to flatten it. What winds up happening when you get permanent stretching of the paper fibers is you start to get a wavy pattern or ripples in the print. Anything more than 24 hours rolled at small diameters and your likely going to have some degree of permanent stretching damage.
Again, stick with prints that are shipped flat whenever possible and if you do wind up with a seller that is going to use a tube, ask him the diameter of the tube he intends to use and even ask him if he is willing to use a larger diameter tube. I have done that many times on eBay. If the seller is planning on using a tube that has a diameter of 2" or less and refuses to move up to a bigger tube, I recommend not buying the print at all. Personally, I won't buy a print that is being shipped in a tube unless it has at least a 4" diameter. Again, 5" is preferable, but I will accept a 4" tube as I own a heated print press and am able to flatten prints relatively easily. Again, as long as you stick with 4" or larger, you will not run into permanent stretching damage.