Of course not all "soaks" are totally successful. I'll share my most difficult soak ever, as I tried to rescue a 1971 Topps #156 Terry Bradshaw RC a couple years ago. This is the most expensive card in the '71 Topps football set, and "books" for $200 in NM shape.
Here's what I started with:
Terry gets "tossed" in the sink, hot water:
I had to break out a more "advanced" tool, a safety pin to get things going:
Post "soak" advanced tool still in use. But the back didn't clean up that well:
Terry is between the paper towels:
Terry joins his buddies:
Larry