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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Unbelievable...

The way to be sure you have a collection that is free of T206s that have been soaked is to not collect T206s.... Or be about 130 years old and only have the cards you obtained directly from the little cigarette packs.

If you had a T206 Polar Bear with a almost loose piece of tobacco on the back, would you touch your finger nail to the speck and see if it would fall free???

An old, wise collector of more than half a century told me about how he and a friend would advertise in a newspaper that they would be buying old baseball cards, and would be at room # such and such at so and so motel... They'ed rent the room and wait. Some weekends only a few would show up. Some weekends many would appear. Most T206s were in scrapbooks, and flour paste had been used to glue the cards into the scrapbooks. (Don't you reckon that most loose cards were long lost, and almost all of what we have came from scrapbooks?) They would haggle out a price, buy the scrapbook, run water in the bathtub, and float the T206s off. I was shocked at the idea of putting an old T206 in water.

But finally, I tried it. On a dirty, beat up card. Tap water in a glass. (For those of you who smoke, your smoke is more harmful to the cards than tap water would be.) The card didn't separate, as I'd feared... lots of the dirt came off. The scrapbook remains on the back fell free. It was great. I rinsed the card once under the tap, blotted both sides with a paper towel to remove surface water, then put the card between some copy paper, with that under 2 or 3 heavy books.

I encourage everyone to soak off the scrapbook bits, dirt, and tobacco bits. I encourage those outraged at this thought to soak their heads...

DO NOT SOAK GOUDEY CARDSS! They are a sandwich of 3 papers, and will separate. You'll have a mess.

Paper is tough stuff... paper survived the world trade center better than the steel and concrete. Paper is made with water. We're not discussing cutting and trimming, bleaching, adding ink, restoring paper loss.... I had a 1937 Dodge sedan for a few years. It still had the original interior. 94,000 miles. 2 owners. I'm ashamed to say I did wash dirt off of it...