# Is plain white 16 lb. bond paper still sold anywhere? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-plain-white-16-lb-bond-paper-still-sold-anywhere/464056 "2008-09-17T22:06:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-plain-white-16-lb-bond-paper-still-sold-anywhere/464056/21 "2011-10-20T15:21:10Z")
Yes but if you have a zombie to carry it for you… ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-plain-white-16-lb-bond-paper-still-sold-anywhere/464056/22 "2011-10-20T15:22:40Z")
Reeeaaaaaams! ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-plain-white-16-lb-bond-paper-still-sold-anywhere/464056/23 "2011-10-20T15:23:18Z")
I’m pretty sure she already took the trip 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-plain-white-16-lb-bond-paper-still-sold-anywhere/464056/24 "2011-10-20T15:47:27Z")
nm. Too late to point out the zombificity ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-plain-white-16-lb-bond-paper-still-sold-anywhere/464056/25 "2011-10-20T17:41:11Z")
\*\*garygnu \*\*FTW! Yep, took the trip. Didn’t have an operational ebook reader at the time. I had a bricked Rocket eBook Reader (still mad about that). Ended up taking a few regular mass market paperbacks and leaving them behind when I was done reading them, and found, in a Tel Aviv bookstore, a nice thick one to bring home: _[Acacia](http://www.amazon.com/Acacia-War-Mein-Book/dp/0385722524/)_, tipping the luggage scales at 768 pages. However! I did end up ordering some boxes of superannuated 15 lb. Mead typing paper, probably vintage mid-90s, and it runs through our laser printer just fine. I have heard since then that acidity is a much bigger problem with paper from the 80s and earlier. I don’t recall whether more recent paper is supposedly less acidic or is somehow resistant to deterioration for other reasons. But my 90s-era paperbacks don’t have that old-paper smell that I remember books having when I was a kid, and they haven’t yellowed at all. Wikipedia on [acid-free paper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid-free_paper#Overview) sez: > [@](#): > > Today, much of the commercially produced paper is acid-free, but this is largely the result of a shift from china clay to (cheaper) chalk as the main filler material in the pulp: chalk reacts with acids, and therefore requires the pulp to be chemically neutral or alkaline. Not clear to me whether this passage is meant to apply only to designated acid-free paper or to commercially produced paper in general. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-plain-white-16-lb-bond-paper-still-sold-anywhere/464056.md?page=1)