Soaking cards to remove pen marks?

[greenmonster66]

Can anyone tell me if it is at all possible to remove small pen marks on cards. I know you can remove pencil by soaking them. Any thoughts??

Thank you!

[Leon]

I have seen plenty of cards with a mark almost exactly like that one. I am not sure if soaking will get it off. That being said, if you can get the mark off and if there is an indention left, it will get the same MK qualifier. On the ones I have seen that were erased, similiar to yours, the indention was still there. I have a feeling a mars plastic eraser would take that mark off but not the indention left behind. No promises, I am just quoting my experience. best regards

[drc]

Ink doesn't disolve in water like glue. You would need a certain type of alcohol, depending on the type of ink. Luckily, the alcohols needed can be bought cheap at drug and grocery stores. One is normal rubbing alcohol. If you want info on the specific type of alcohol versus ink, I couild probably find that out for you.

One thing is disolving the ink might just lead you to smearing it. It's possible it could look worse. Of course, it's easy to first test things out on a few 1988 Topps common. Before I removed the ink from my T206 Honus Wagner, I first tested the technique out on my T206 Eddie Planks

[JK]

Ive heard of removing glue or paper from a card by soaking, never heard of removing pencil by soaking a card. How exactly would that work?

[barrysloate]

I think removing ink from a baseball card would be quite difficult, and you would be more likely to ruin the card than improve it. A professional paper restorer might be able to do it, but it would be expensive.

[Jim VB]

Neal,

There are guys who claim to be able to remove ink from cards without damaging the card, but several issues come to mind. Please do not be insulted by my post. It's not really aimed at you, directly.

The first is the risk you take with a very nice card. You may go through the time and expense and NOT get a card that looks any better. But you may also ruin the card.

Secondly, many on this board will question your motivation for doing the clean-up. If you're doing it just to make the card look better, some will find it acceptable. If you're doing it to sell the card, without disclosing the change, most will find that a little offensive.

Good luck with the project.