How to best remove pasted on photo from a vintage card

[polakoff]

Hi all,

Recently I bought a large low-grade lot of 1948-1952 Bowman baseball (most of which will make their way here most likely). There were 5 cards that had photos pasted onto the front of them of different players. I noticed the back of one was a 1952 Bowman Y.A. Tittle and - miracle of miracles - this was the one pasted on the poorest of them all. A small yank on the corner with almost no force allowed the photo to peel off almost a quarter of the way. There is a spot on the front where it appears some ink does appear to have come off of the back of the pasted photo and been left on the card front. The rest of it appears to be pasted extremely strongly, and any kind of force would likely tear the front of the card.

Any suggestions how to get the rest of the photo off with the most minimal damage to the card? I didn't expect this (or any) football to be in the lot, and I expected everything to be low-grade, so I'm expecting SOME issues, but want to minimalize them!

Photos:

[kmac32]

That would be called soaking the card. Have done it recently to W572 cards with success. Many soaking threads can be found here and very easy to do.

[polakoff]

Aren't there collectors who frown upon soaked cards?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by polakoff

Aren't there collectors who frown upon soaked cards?

There are some purists who don't like it but most, like me, don't mind it if it doesn't harm the card. Discoloration is a harmful side effect if not very careful. I have no issue with water being used on a card to get dirt or gunk off of it. I have done it many times and I would guess a great percentage of pre-war cards have been soaked or cleaned in some fashion. If I can't tell, and nothing nefarious was done, I don't care.

[polakoff]

Update: I had blow drier suggested to me and it worked wonders. Photo came off and it didn't even tear despite flimsy paper.

The paste and some residue from the back of the photo (mostly just black coloring) is still on the front of the Tittle, however. Would soaking still be the best for removing this as well?

[kmac32]

The answere is a definite maybe. It depends on what kind of glue was used. Glue from pre 1939 tends to dissolve well. After that it can be hit or miss. I recently soaked 18 W572 cards with scrapbook residue and it worked well. With that said, not all cards soak well so definitely do some research. I have some 4 in one Esco Exhibits coming that I won cheap off of eBay so they are my next experiment. Will try one card and if it goes well, wil do the rest.