Newbie intro + a retread on soaking

[Maxximus]

Hi all,

I'm Max, a former (and perhaps soon-to-be recurrent) sports card collector. Given the recent boom in trading cards across the board, I've reacquainted myself with some of my old childhood treasures, of which the vast majority are from about 1989-2001. Of course, this is the pre-WWII forum, so enough about that.

The more relevant part of this introduction has to do with the childhood treasures of my great-uncle, whose handiwork took place from 1934-1941. As the title suggests, these cards were glued into old-school marble notebooks with lined paper. The cards primarily consist of 1934-36 Batter-Up and 1936 Goudey/Goudey Premiums, with a few other things sprinkled in. Given that this notebook is 80+ years old and isn't getting any younger, I was hoping to remove many, if not all, of these cards so they can be better preserved in the future. I won't proclaim that I'll never sell them, but that's not the goal of this endeavor. I've taken a look at some of the older forum posts/threads that discuss soaking and I have a few specific questions here that may or may not have been addressed (apologies for excess rehashing, if so).

First, are there any considerations I should take into account for dealing with lined notebook paper versus something like album paper when attempting to do this? I don't have a good feel for whether or not this matters, so why fly blind if I don't have to? Obviously, I will be starting off on common cards to make sure I'm doing it right.

Second, given that most of the cards are intact Batter-Up cards, is there reason to believe that fully soaking the card may mess with the perforations within the cards? If so, I'll try the "marvymelvin" method from years back here.

Last, and perhaps most importantly, many of the cards are autographed. While I don't think distilled water should mess with the ink, I do want to ensure I don't mess those up, as a lot of signatures are still pretty striking. Anyone happen to have experience with this? I'll do a partial cross-post on the autograph forum later in the event I can get any other info there.

In the spirit of "pics or it didn't happen," here's a few pictures I took last weekend. I don't have the notebook in my possession currently, but will hopefully post updates should I manage to do this correctly.

Thanks for reading this far and I appreciate any advice you might have.

EDIT: Eventually figured out how to include the pictures!

[JollyElm]

Check out post #11 in this thread. It may help...

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...FWhat+to+Do%3F

[jbsports33]

Take your worst condition card and try hot hot water first, these types of notebooks from old paper may come off just like that - the cards cardboard is much thicker.

keep it soaked until you see some other paper come off, make sure you have the back side - so you can use your hand or glove to remove some of the paper.

If this works with limited damage - try others, your still going to have some kind residue anyway you go.

I like to keep cards as is - and would keep them protected in a glass case - sometimes in cases like yours it's hard to judge for yourself.

Try trimming some of the paper first as well, just understand you could damage the cards more - practice with the really poor condition cards first

The other problem you have is the autos, I would leave them as is and just trim the paper and be very careful with the Goudey Premiums

Good luck!

Jimmy

[chadeast]

I would be hesitant to soak any of these, but I wouldn’t dream of soaking the autos. Trim the paper and enjoy, raw or slabbed with Psa/dna if desired. Theyre really nice, especially the Ferrell auto!

Edit: or don't trim and keep in the notebook. That might be what i would do if I weren’t selling them.

[FrankWakefield]

If you're gonna soak them... For EACH card that has an autograph, get a Q-tip and some bits of paper towel. Then get the tiniest bit of dampness on the Q-tip and touch that to that part of the autograph that you could tolerate failure. Failure will be that the autograph ink is water soluble, and the ink will run, ruining the autograph and diminishing the value of the card. If it starts to run, blot blot blot with the paper towel bits. If the ink is oil based it shouldn't run, and that is an initial step in whether to soak. If later on you soak with hot hot water then the oil base ink is more likely to run... (so I'd not get hot water going).

I've not soaked a Batter Up. I think they're layered cards, and they'll separate if soaked for very long. I think I have soaked a few premiums. Just out of cautiousness, if you're all motivated to soak one, start with soaking the one you value least (that's not necessarily the one with the least monetary value).

If you do soak, be ready to blot dry with tea towels or paper towels, the let air dry a bit, then put the card between cardstock or blotting paper and stack up some books to sandwich your card so it'll dry flat.

I'd look for a piece of the paper with something other than a ball card glued to it, and try soaking that, first. If the glue isn't water soluble then soaking isn't going to help you much.

Get your stuff together before you soak, so you're ready for contingencies. Be patient. Good luck with it. If you soak any of the cards, then you should know that some folks consider that card altering and wrong.

[steve B]

I wouldn't soak them.

Some notebook inks can bleed into the card, leaving stains.

And many autographed ones will probably do the same and get blurry or worse.

If you MUST remove the autographed ones, instead of testing and soaking, I would try very limited water, maybe applied with a damp sponge from the back of the paper. Enough to get the paper and adhesive wet but not too much on the card itself.
It's a bit of a tedious process, and what's on the other side of the page will affect how or whether you can do it.

If there isn't much pate or glue, you could open the gap between the page and card and drip a couple drops in.
Which is still more tedious and a bit risky. as far as peels/creasing goes.

Since the notebook pages still look pretty good, they were probably decent quality paper that isn't having big acidity issues. So it's not damaging anything to leave them as they are.

[Joe Hunter]

I wouldn't soak them, either. I have used Steve's method mentioned above with pretty good results. You just have to be patient and take it slow.

[obcbobd]

I agree with what others have said, especially regarding autographs.

I you so try soaking some, or doing a test soak, I would use warm water not hot.

Good luck

Bob

[SD]

Cotton swabs, distilled water and a lot of time and patience.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by SD

Cotton swabs, distilled water and a lot of time and patience.

+1 and welcome to the forum!

.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

I wouldn't soak those cards. The autographs are going to get messed up.

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