I noticed about a month ago I was running out of gatefold sleeves for vinyl so I hopped onto Amazon to order a new pile. Imagine my surprise that no one seems to have any, none of the variants are in stock and no independents seem to have them either!
What gives! Am I now allowed to enjoy the splendour of centrefold action any more!
Spincare
I used to buy spincareā¦ zero for sale on amazon and they donāt know when theyāre coming back
PVC covers are horrid though, and potentially harmful over a long enough term. I only use poly outers.
Youāll see they have no Non PVC gatefolds.
Crystal 12 Inch Gatefold Outer Vinyl Record Sleeves - For 12" LPs (25 Pack) ā SPINCARE
seeā¦ sold outā¦ so something is going on
Like you mentioned that in your post 
I thought everyone stopped using PVC years ago!
ah thinkingā¦
There lies the problem 
I have well over 1000 PVC covers and have never had a problem
Admitedly i have no direct experience either, just seemed a lot of people went off them, saying the became brittle etc. That said, Iāve had more than one PVC ācutā in my time 
i still wonder whats afoot with the gatefold poly outers.
PVC degasses and stains your records.
It makes old records look cloudy.
Spincare rely on container ships. It will just be a wait for more from China I guess.
sleeves or records?
Any examples?
I have heard this for years but have never experienced any issues or seen any examples.
Makes me think it is an urban myth
I have PVC sleeves over 40 years old
Maybe @Ruprecht has some info?
Iāve seen it first hand. Rolling Stones albums my dad handed to me in pvc were white stained. No issues with others in just cardboard.
The pvc was a horribly brittle, yellow mess.
Itās a reaction to the off gassing.
Have lots of examples here - out-gassing is very real caused by the two petrochemical (inner or outer interacting with the record) often it looks like a slug has crawled all over the record - Sometimes itās non audible after a clean sometimes itās fully audible even on a mint record.
Tightly packed records on a shelf can be a contributing factor as this can hasten the interaction - Other issues of fun which may / can cause difficulty are paper inners or card sleeves with a high acid content (Thais can include some inks) if youāve ever seen a record which once had a white back cover that has gone uniformly yellow this is an acid bummer -
Transatlantic also did covers for several records with a PVC liner with āfoamā opening edge designed to stop scuffing when removing / replacing a recordā¦ good idea? NO Squire! - it broke down over time and the acid in the foam eats the record - You will not find a 1st of CMU for example thatās opening track is not affected by this well meaning but cruel backfire -
For more mind numbingly dull record info send a stamped addressed mailer to: No 1, OCD house, spectrum lane, Plymouth
So the outer PVC sleeve can cause an issue on the record even though the record cover itself and the inner sleeve are are between the outer and the record?
Yes.
Gas. It gets into the surface of the vinyl. Cardboard isnāt gas proof.
PVC is bad.
Most likely to be plasticiser leaching out. PVC alone is rigid (think window frames) so to make it nice and flexible small molecules such as pthalates are added. These are sticky liquids and will in time form a film on the surface (like those soft-touch plastics that get sticky with age). They are a bugger to clean off, and if in contact with a record surface can attach or migrate in.