Originally Posted by FrankWakefield
First, DON'T DO ANYTHING YET!!!
Next, read what others have posted. My first quick glance at the Clemente made me think it was paper LOSS, not scrapbook paper. Old tobacco cards were often flour pasted into scrapbook pages. Topps cards were seldom pasted in a scrapbook. Flour paste will dissolve with water, most glues won't. Old tobacco cards withstand soaking extremely well. Most Topps cards DON'T.
Before you soak that card, think about the down side of you waiting in 2 or 3 weeks to soak that Clemente card... Realistically, no down side. The up side is you have time to learn. Search on eBay and buy 2 or 3 very worn 1955 Topps cards. When you get them, soak the worst one for an hour, then dab water away, then let it air dry for a bit (I like standing on edge for 20 minutes or so), then press it enough to let it dry flat. The goal is for the card to still be flat while your blotting paper absorbs the moisture. Try to avoid mashing the water out of the card so that you end up with a thinner card (mashing increases the damage done). Then, assess your results and soak another 1955 Topps...
ADDED... having reassessed the photos, I see the one card on a page. It looks glued to me. I don't think that glue will dissolve with water. If you're determined to get that off, then give thought to this: cut away a bit of that big paper that has excess glue on it, it's to the right of that Pirate logo in the top right corner of the card. Don't use all of it, use little pieces of that as you search for something that will dissolve it. I think you'll need a non-polar solvent, think alcohol, lighter fluid, carbon tetrachloride... something like alcohol lamp fuel from Lowe's . lighter fluid will leave a slightly oily residue and a scent. I'm not wanting you to put that on the Clemente card, but rather see if any of those will dissolve that glue. If you find something that dissolves it
I think you'll find that 1955 Topps don't soak very well.
Are both cards that you're wanting to soak 1955s?
If the paper is absolutely/definitely scrapbook paper (which I doubt from the picture) then you don't have to soak the card, just dampen the scrapbook paper so that it softens, then gently nudge with a Qtip to remove, then gently 'wash' that spot to remove paste residue (most glues won't soak well). Try this first on one of your practice 1955 Topps cards from the eBay purchase... with a pinch of flour paste a piece of tissue or toilet paper onto one of your practice Topps cards, and after it has had time to dry, then try to dampen and nudge...
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