Posted By:
Frank WakefieldI know an old collector who'd advertise in a city paper about being at motel such-and-such in room #____ and that they'd be buying old baseball cards Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday morning. This was 35+ years ago. He and his friend would check in, open the door, and sit there. Folks would come in, and they'd buy cards. Scrapbooks full of old cards.
They'd run the tub full of water, tear out the scrapbook sheets, and put them in the tub. Next morning they'd rinse them off, blot them dry, then dry them between paper and books.
No distilled water... just a good soakin'.
I was aghast when I heard this. I had a few T206s, and could not believe that anyone would put one in water. He assured me it was no big deal. Eventually, with great trepidation, I selected a worn T206 with scrapbook bits on the back. I put him in a glass of tap water. The scrapbook remnants released, the card looked better. I rinsed him off under the tap, blotted him, and pressed him dry. The card looked much, much better!!!
My understanding is that most of the worn, corner rounded T206s we see today weren't in a scrapbook. And that almost all of the ones with nice corners were in a scrapbook, that's how the card survived so well. Those nice cards were soaked out. And some eventually found their way to a grading company.
Can a soaked card be graded? Absolutely, MANY have been already.
Do you need to use distilled water? NO, not unless you have really bad tap water, or free access to distilled water. I've used it, it is a waste of time and money. Tap water is fine.
If you've never done it, soak one really rough T206. Stay with it, because you're going to be afraid that it will peel apart into layers. It won't, it will be just fine. But the first time you put a card you think so highly of in water you feel a bit foolish. After you've done a few, then you'll believe the 'scrapbook pages in the bathtub' story above.