Removing tape from vintage cards

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Posted By: tbob

Has anyone tried? I have a couple of Obaks which have superfluous tape on the borders which looks very, very old. I know some here soak T206s for various reasons, I just wondered if Obaks could be soaked to remove old tape.

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Posted By: pete

i removed a tiny piece of tape from the back of a t206 by using a dab of saliva on the tape only and it worked fine but the tape did have one of the sides already coming up to where i could slowly pull it...i havent tried on any that the tape is completely down, all edges...

my best pitch was the one that made it to the plate!

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Posted By: Keith O'Leary

tbob, a hair dryer.

 

make sure you get it nice and hot before trying to pull any off, but it'll come off like a orange peel after heating.

 

 

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Posted By: T206Collector

...after the plastic is removed, I imagine there is a glue residue. Is soaking the best way to get that removed?

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Posted By: jackgoodman

I soaked an obak experimentally and it came out ok. They appear to hold up as well as the t206's.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

There is an old Becketts Price Guide that describes using toluene.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Blashpemy!!!!!

The card dieties and slab worshippers will curse you. How dare you tamper with a card!!!!


What you need is a non-polar solvent. Carbon tet was bad for everything on the planet, but good for this. Lighter fluid almost works, problem is that a slight odor and ever so slight residue remains. A stamp collecting watermark fluid might work. Some electrical component cleaners would work... high evaporation rate, bad for the environment, good for this. Test a bit on typing paper to make sure you'll have no residue.

I suggest putting a bit on a Q-tip and with a GENTLE motion, try to work up the edges, and add more fluid. Patience helps. Once the plastic film is off and the adhesive remains, use fluid, then blot, then fluid, a little rub, then blot. You might put a piece of tape on a "new" card and make an attempt at removing it, to get some experience.

Obviously, you must then keep the card forever, and have the card burned when you reach your deathbed. If you don't, it will be card-tamperer-hades for you for sure, if the card falls into the hands of another.


And it is my experience that Obaks survive an overnight soak in a glass of water just fine, as well as T206s...

Good luck with it all, and patience.

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Posted By: Peter_Spaeth

Hmmmmm.... alterations again, or do these merely fall in the category of removing something that wasn't there in the first place so they are OK? Are you guys OK if a dealer sells you a card to which this stuff has been done but he doesn't disclose it? OK with submitting cards that have been "worked on" (to find a more neutral term) to the grading services? Last time we had this discussion I know some people were drawing the line at water but now I see discussion of chemicals, don't they alter the fibers of the card? Just curious.

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Posted By: T206Collector

I don't view removing tape from a card to be an impermissible alteration. I have longed soaked cards in water to remove paper residue (with varying results), and my best work on a T206 cards resides in an SGC 70 holder. I also use art erasers to remove pencil marks. Neither is an alteration in my mind.

I do draw the line at any substance which leaves a trace, either chemical or otherwise. Then you are adding to the card (chemicals) while taking other stuff away (paper, glue, tape, etc.)

I received the cards today, and it appears someone has removed almost all of the tape skin, but ther brown staining from the glue of years gone by remains. I suspect it doesn't make any sense to clean these, but I may try on one or two, with water. I will upgrade my set where possible and then sell them all back on ebay, from whence they came.

Thanks for the tips.

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Peter,

I'm not okay with it. I know this covers old ground but I consider the things spoken about here to be card restoration, unacceptable and a real threat to the hobby.

Jim

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Posted By: Peter_Spaeth

I would definitely agree Jim that anything involving chemicals, solvents, etc. is over the line. I would differentiate also, at a minimum, between soaking to remove extra material (on the fence, but OK with it maybe as long as it doesn't degrade the fibers of the card) and soaking and pressing to take out wrinkles, if for no other reason then how can one be sure they won't come back at some point. I also wonder whether people who have no problems with doing these things to their own cards (and presumably selling at least some of them without disclosing) also have no problems if dealers performed these repairs but did not disclose before selling to THEM. As long as you are consistent, then, well it's at least a consistent point of view, but wouldn't you want to know if a NM Cobb you paid thousands of dollars for used to be covered in glue and/or tape?

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

My earlier post was partially in jest... I was serious about the tape.

I sit here in disbelief. I collect baseball cards. I don't collect slabbed cards, where I'm dependent upon someone who knows less than I think I do about cards. So removing tape, or erasing a pencil mark, or soaking an old T card to let the scrapbook remnants and flour paste leave the card is fine with me. To me, the slabbing and grading services, the "investors in baseball cards" THOSE guys are the real threat to the hobby of baseball card collecting.

I can see that I might be a threat to lemming-like slab collectors, who collect only "4"s, or "6"s, not that they know what they have...

Neither me, nor my card maintenance, is a threat to a card collector.

What about those little desicant packages that control moisture???? H2O is a chemical, is removing that from a card "doctoring" and taboo???

Maybe I'm wrong on this... next time you guys who think so get cards that have tape or pencil marks, mail them to me and I'll give you a fair price for the butchered little fellows.

I'm not advocating soaking a card to stretch it to fool a card grader... nor am I advocating bleach. But really... pulling tape off? Unbelievable.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Again...

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

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Posted By: T206Collector

"wouldn't you want to know if a NM Cobb you paid thousands of dollars for used to be covered in glue and/or tape"

If the glue was removed with water, leaving no trace from now to eternity, then it is just as nice as a Cobb that never had glue on it in the first place.

These cards are 100 years old. Wouldn't we all like to know where they've been and what they've been up to before they made it into your collection. But, this is not CARDFAX. This is not trying to determine if your card will break down in a few months because it was soaking in a Katrina rain storm. This is about returning the card to its original state by removing additions made to the card, leaving no trace of the addition or the efforts to remove it. My SGC 70 Pfeister Throwing is one of the best cards in my collection, even if it once had 3/4 of its back covered in paper.

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Posted By: will

Although much of my collection is in severe need of restoration and cleaning, it has never even occured to me to do anything about it. I buy them as they are, keep them until upgraded, then sell them off in the same (or worse) shape then when I got it. My personal opinion is that upgrades should could from new acquisitions, not reworked/repackaged inventory.

Proper sign-off due to expression of thought -

William R. List
Favorite color - Blue

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Will,

Good for you.

At a purist vintage board like Network 54 I am surprised that this is not the prevailing view...or maybe it is?

Jim

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Posted By: Tim James

Ok,oil paintings go through "cleanings",of course done by curators,but that isn't considered to be "degrading" to the value of the piece.Why would it be different when it comes to baseball cards ?

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Yikes!!!!!!!

As I was eating Cheerios, one of the milky rascals flopped out of my spoon and landed on a Jack Kramer 1941 Goudey card I got on eBay for a dollar, Item number: 140020012495, and then it rolled over onto the 1941 Play Ball Bobby Doerr card that I also won for a dollar, Item number: 140020036514. Fortunately, the !941 Play Ball card of Pinky Higgins, Item number: 140020038009, that was also a dollar, was spared, he was on the bottom of the stack. 3 1941 cards for a dollar each was a good deal, I thought, even if they are a bit rough.

Now here's my dilema... in the old days I'd remove the milk from Jack Kramer and the Cheerio from the Hall of Fame Doerr card. But maybe you guys are right. Maybe I shouldn't remove anything ever from the surface of a card. Please respond soon, the milk is soaking in!

Frank.

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Posted By: leon

Insert cat next to milk laden cards....hesto presto, the milk is gone....might be a little cat saliva residue left but it doesn't stain the way milk does...unless it's skim milk....which stains lighter than said cat saliva...

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Posted By: Dan Koteles

look at all the Doctors on this board !.....I should try these
methods on carpets or my shorts !....cant get the stains out of those...anybody ?

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Posted By: Peter_Spaeth

You guys are so damn funny you should quit your day jobs and do stand-up in Las Vegas. Seriously. I haven't seen such brilliant humor in a long time.

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Posted By: Dan Koteles

next to WOnka Ticket, I was voted the 2nd most funniest person
in America !....Chris who ?

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Posted By: jay behrens

Dan, I don't want to know why your shorts are stained.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Dan: your shorts are stained because you buy the wrong color shorts.

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Posted By: Dan Koteles

besides the Goodwill has a "soiled special and "removal"
every Friday....me like it there.

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Posted By: Frank Evanov

Milk stain....cat...great idea Leon! Now if I only can get kitty to develop a taste for tobacco and gum stains!!

Frank