To clean or not to clean~that is the question?

[selling4nana]

I have an unidentified substance on some of these cards. It reminds me of thick chalk. I think several cards were graded with this on them. I just tried scratching a very small portion of it off one of the ungraded cards just to see what would happen and it comes right off with no visible damage.
I know with pencil marks I was told not to touch them. I don't know about this stuff though. On some of the cards it covers 75% of the picture. This is the card I played with. Any thoughts?
Becky

[steve B]

Pencil marks leave indentations which won't come out, and the removing usuallly removes some original ink as well.

If this stuff comes off that easily, I'd clean it. Maybe not by scratching, as that could cause further damage. But maybe a damp q tip would work and be more gentle. And a card that's that worn and has stuff stuck to it is good to experiment on as it's hard to make it much worse.

Personally, I wouldn't send that one in for grading. It's bad enough that the grade should be clear to anyone. Just put it in a postcard sleeve and toploader and itwill be fine.

Steve B

[selling4nana]

Originally Posted by steve B

But maybe a damp q tip would work and be more gentle.
Steve B

I tried the q tip idea and it looked like the color was bleeding onto the q tip. So I tried a little more scratching (cringe!). I just did the title and a little on the face. This is an update.

[JamesGallo]

Keep scratching, it looks good and the card doesn't have an high even value that anyone would be bothered IMO.

James G

[Leon]

Originally Posted by steve B

Pencil marks leave indentations which won't come out, and the removing usuallly removes some original ink as well.

Steve B

Very light pencil marks that are erased won't always leave indentions in my experiences. You can usually tell by closely examining the marks. I have erased quite a few, very light pencil marks and no indentions were left. It all depends on how heavy handed the writer was. Remember to always use a plastic type/art eraser that crumbles easily, to remove the pencil.

[steve B]

That's good to know about the pencil marks, I'd do that for light marks on the back, but all the ones I run across seem to be very heavy handed and on the fronts. I have some stamp stuff that's been lightly marked by dealers or previous owners, and most of that erases just fine. Some of it I won't erase because it's too cool. Like a note on the back as to the date the original collector bought the item and which post office it came from. A couple of the ones I have are from the 1890's.

On the cleaning - Looks like the scratching is working fine. If color is coming off then you know that the ink on T201s may be water soluble and they can't be cleaned that way. Good info to file away for later. (Odd too, lithography relies on wet plates and oil based inks.)

Steve B

[Exhibitman]

Use an Artgum eraser on pencil marks. It is formulated not to damage paper artwork.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Use an Artgum eraser on pencil marks. It is formulated not to damage paper artwork.

Absolutely. The kind I have on my desk are Mars Plastic Erasers. They are cheap and work great.

Steve- I have some pencil marked cards where I do leave the marks as they are part of the provenance, history and glory of our cards. Here are two with tiny prices on the upper backs. I know there is a 3rd similar one floating around the hobby with the same type mark. I think a board member might even own it. And my Zeenut Weaver has a game scored on the back that is very neat. Those kinds of marks I leave as I think they are neat.