About soaking cards

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

"a card should be left un-tampered with...left exactly the way it was when you obtained it...i think Daniel hit it on the head, the paper damage on the back of a card, pulled from a scrapbook, is the price you pay for pulling it out...i have been collecting for 15 years and the thought of "touching" a card has never even crossed my mind..."

Remember....you can have two types of cards pulled from scrapbooks. Cards with paper ADHERED to them that can be removed and cards with paper LOSS. If you don't simply rip them from the book, in many cases, you can soak the paper ADHERED to them off. I know you are vehemently opposed to this but as Dan said, it is WIDELY done. I would certainly not approve of ADDING something to the back of the card to repair the paper LOSS example.

Check back through the last 3-4 years worth of Mastronet and Robert Edward auctions and see a few scrapbooks of T206's or other cards and see what they went for. Think those cards didn't get soaked out and ultimately either graded or sold? I distinctly remember a couple of those albums (because I bid on them as well) selling for $3-$5K or more.

I'm sure the thought of the whole process--especially for the slabbemites--is very disconcerting. To think you have slabbed cards that were once soaked off paper or from an album eats at you. If you didn't have that knowledge and looked at the card and admired it, why would your whole life crash down WITH the knowledge that it had been soaked?

Those with the thousands of graded cards should work diligently to get the PSA's and SGC's of the world to REJECT soaked cards if it runs so far against your ethics. Those entities must not be too concerned about soaking if they've allowed such cards to be encapsulated. Like was stated earlier, if you collect only 8's and above, the probability they've been soaked SHOULD be less than those in 4-6 holders. Most of the albums I've ever seen have been in VG-EX type condition. Nothing pristine. I'm sure those albums at one time may have existed though.




As an aside....
Hopefully all those opposed to the practice of soaking or 'altering' cards would not consider lasix or plastic surgery or breast implants for their wives or anything that would alter any facet of their lives. Guess when you get that fender bender in your car, you just let it go to protect the integrity of the car. Oh...don't polish those silver tea services either. That oxidation should be left as is....