making a personilzation go away

[canjond]

Originally Posted by milkit1

Thanks guys! I am working on a monty pythons flying circus autographed set and just got michael palin back personalized. The cards are pretty glossy but not sure if they are glossy enough.

Try it first on a spare card?

[thecatspajamas]

Something else to try is marking over the personlization with a black dry erase marker, then wiping the whole thing off. Seeing this thread reminded me of someone mentioning this previously, but I never actually tried it until just now. I took out a photo I care nothing about, made a big bold mark in the white margin with a black sharpie, let it dry, wiped my finger across to make sure, rubbed it with a cloth (no effect), took out a black dry erase marker, tried the marker first by itself on the photo beside the mark (wiped clean), then colored over the sharpie mark with dry erase marker making several passes so that it was covered completely and "thickly", took the same cloth and wiped it clean away. You would never know the sharpie mark was there. Amazing! And I was pretty skeptical about this method when I first saw it.

I don't know if there is a "time limit" as to how soon you have to do this to be able to remove it cleanly, but I'm on the hunt for an older low-value sharpie signature to try it out on now.

[thecatspajamas]

Just removed a long-present "Best Wishes" from this Paul Mitchell signed photo. I'm not sure how long the signature has been on there, but I've had the collection this came out of for at least a year, and don't know how long before I purchased it the previous owner got it signed.

As shown below, the original signature was in blue sharpie. I covered over "Best" with blue dry erase marker, wiped it away, took another scan to show in-progress, then removed "Wishes" as well. No residue, and no indications in reflected light that the "Best Wishes" was ever there.

This was done on a modern glossy, matte-finish photo. I did test it on a couple of other materials as well, including a semi-gloss card stock, and photo paper like you would run through your printer, and in both cases the dry erase failed to wipe off on its own, let alone take any sharpie with it. So I would caution you to use this method on full-gloss surfaces only, and test it before you risk anything permanent. Also, it probably goes without saying, but be sure to wipe AWAY from whatever writing you are trying to preserve.

[dgo71]

I think the dry erase trick works on photos only. Not 100% on that as I've never tried on cards. For glossy cards, an alcohol prep pad works fine, just be wary of the "excess" alcohol from the pad, especially if the inscription is close to the signature. Additionally, be careful not to spread the ink to the sides of the card. The sides are NOT coated with the gloss and the ink/alcohol combo will bleed into the edge and this cannot be removed.

[thecatspajamas]

Tried it with a glossy card and it worked. Again, I've had this signed card for at least a year, and don't know how long before that it was signed. I feel pretty confident at this point that this method would work with any "glossy" surface where the sharpie ink sits and dries on the surface rather than soaking into the substrate.

It's probably also worth noting that in this case, after the first wipe-off, a faint haze and much lighter number remained, but after a second application of dry-erase ink, the haze and remaining number came off cleanly.

[milkit1]

Wow lance! Great work! I can't tell if these mo ty python cards are full gloss but I'm going to try one tonight. Ill keep ya posted

[thecatspajamas]

As Jon suggested, just be sure to try it on a spare card first. If the dry erase just "sorta" wipes off, don't count on being able to scrub it enough to get it off. The ones that I tested, if it worked, the dry erase would wipe off cleanly and easily.