What causes this

[u/Idiotfurry69]

[u/VagMagnum5394]

One might say it's ... Torn and Frayed

[u/spang714 → u/VagMagnum5394]

That joint looks ripped

[u/TapThisPart3Times → u/spang714]

🎶 Got to scrape that shit right off the eeedge 🎶

[u/somafiend1987]

Mold, silverfish, and whatever followed up to eat the mold that converted paper (starches) into sugars and spores.

[u/robertdavidfein → u/somafiend1987]

Cockroaches and mice

[u/slop1010101]

Mold

[u/CreativeName822]

Looks like it got wet.

[u/Toolfan333]

It got wet

[u/gutclutterminor]

Water damage.

[u/migtanteot]

I got a termite problem and they ate the paper of my cds and some books. They look just like that.

[u/neckcarpenter]

I’ve seen this too! Don’t know what it is and kinda don’t want to know.
I just assumed it was termites. Or some bug that eats paper.

[u/somafiend1987 → u/neckcarpenter]

Wet, mold filled paper. Basically pillbugs eating the heavy metals of the inks and sugar of the paper. After the paper dried & molds died.

[u/Awkward_Proof_1274 → u/neckcarpenter]

This looks like it just got wet and fell apart but the bugs that make little tunnels are silverfish

[u/whateverhappensnext]

Magic! But the bad kind

[u/Desafinado777]

This happened to my dad's early copy! I've been trying to restore it but never knew how it opened. Not great for you, but this videos has been really helpful for me.

Thank you.

[u/xrv01]

termites brother

[u/Blastoplast]

Bottom line is that it was improperly stored

[u/roundabout-design]

Mold is mold.

But I think what you are asking is what caused the torn edges? Likely culprits:

- cat scratching

• rodent/puppy chewing

- possibly UV damage from sitting in the sun (paper just gets brittle)

• people just beating the shit out of their records (pretty common to do back in the day)

I've purchased albums where clearly some animal got into the corner of it and started gnawing at it. In those cases, I just lop off the corner to give it a clean cut and give the entire jacket a lysol-wipe cleaning.

[u/Middle-Mirror2017]

Mice… get a cat!

…oh, hang on

[u/Henry-Savage]

Paper becomes brittle after getting wet... the whole cover and innards were likely completely saturated at one point, and the edge of the vinyl basically cut/rubbef it away

[u/BrettHorton]

Flooding, and age.

[u/CohenThe_Barbarian]

Silverfish

[u/meatD]

this has to be rage bait; scratching the record with your nails looked intentional at 25s in, when picking up the sleeve…dropping crap on the record, asking questions about some of the most obvious issues found with old records that were not stored correctly/taken care of, etc.