Cards that CAN and CANNOT be soaked?!

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

I have to echo what everyone said and say that soaking is much scarier than it is difficult. It can really enhance the look of a dirty card and remove the paper stuck to the back.

+1 to this, Alex. I'm too scared to soak any of my cards. I know a bunch of you guys have done so successfully, but with my luck, I'd be the rare exception, and destroy a piece of history. And even if it was only some $50 card, I'd want to punch myself in the face a few times.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

+1 to this, Alex. I'm too scared to soak any of my cards. I know a bunch of you guys have done so successfully, but with my luck, I'd be the rare exception, and destroy a piece of history. And even if it was only some $50 card, I'd want to punch myself in the face a few times.

I thought the same thing but luckily it turned out well. My wife doesn't care much about my collection but she loves it when I have a card that gets to soak. We both think it is pretty neat to see the water work it's magic.

[marcdelpercio]

I have soaked thousands of cards, including examples from virtually every major tobacco and caramel set. Most of the bad candidates for soaking have already been mentioned...E94, E98, colored Exhibits, Colgan's. I'd generally also recommend against soaking Old Judges, Fatimas or other similar glossy photographic cards as they can stain and warp in ways that can't be undone.

I do not in any way look at it as an alteration, simply because it is not affecting the card any more than blowing a piece of dust off of it would be. True alterations like trimming, recoloring, rebacking, etc all clearly change the composition of the card by adding, removing, or changing some aspect of the card's original state. Soaking does not do any of these things.

To answer an above comment, soaking in distilled water will not in any way affect the ph of the card and "pyrolysis" will not occur unless you are soaking your cards in a thermal vent at the bottom of the ocean or something. In fact, the temperature of paper would need to get to around 200 degrees before that process would begin to occur as it is basically the first stage of fire oxidation.

[glynparson]

I agree 100%

[toledo_mudhen]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

+1 to this, Alex. I'm too scared to soak any of my cards. I know a bunch of you guys have done so successfully, but with my luck, I'd be the rare exception, and destroy a piece of history. And even if it was only some $50 card, I'd want to punch myself in the face a few times.

I had the same fears regarding q 1955 Topps card that I was considering soaking. I went to ebay and found a 2 low cost 55s with glue stains that were perfect candidates for soak.

My experiments resulted in not so great results as the glue/stain removal resulted in paper loss on both of my attempts.

So I'm not sure if 55s overall are not good candidates in general or if I really didnt do it correctly - I have stopped "experimenting"

[h2oya311]

I love when threads from 3-1/2 years ago get bumped! I still have yet to soak any of the cards in my collection. But I still have some old albums and a few cards that have significant paper/glue residue. I might give it a go soon enough, but still feel uneasy about the idea of soaking. It still feels like an alteration in my opinion.