Removiing PSA/DNA sticker on back of old photos

[Huysmans]

Hey Gary, I totally agree. I wouldn't want that sticker on the back if it was my photo. It messes with the vintage aesthetics of the piece.

[pawpawdiv9]

Atleast its on the back. I won something from Iconic (a old 51-ish Mantle photo). At the time was not certified. I made clearly to put the sticker on the back--but lord and behold they put it on the FRONT!!!.
So when i received, i notified them and returned it and got my money back.

As for the sticker, not sure about removing it, but i read once removed the sticker changes, so people know if its be transferred to something else.
And i didnt get any letter of Authenticity as i would of thought.

[bn2cardz]

To me putting a sticker on these items is like putting a sticker on the baseball cards they grade that have the card grade on it. It just doesn't make sense.

[thecatspajamas]

At least the sticker has some significance to someone outside the company that applied it. I can't tell you how many photos I've had where the seller put their inventory sticker on the back of the photo which has zero significance to anyone outside the company. Some are semi-professional looking and/or easy to peel off. Others are neither.

Then there are the stickers that simply identify what archive the photo came from. Perhaps mildly useful in some instances, but I've seen a number of cases where important stamps or markings were partially or totally obscured because their location happened to coincide with where the company typically applied their own identifying sticker. Seriously? You can't shift it over an inch? "Screw that Burke guy, this photo came from MY archive, and this is where people expect to see my sticker."

If they're going to sell these photos as collectibles, they need to treat them as such, and have a little respect for their customers. Don't slap stickers on them like bananas or soup cans or any other cheap commodity. There's a reason why these "how do I remove this label" threads pop up regularly, yet you've never seen a thread with a collector asking where to get some randomly bar-coded labels printed up so he can apply them to his photos...

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

There's a reason why these "how do I remove this label" threads pop up regularly, yet you've never seen a thread with a collector asking where to get some randomly bar-coded labels printed up so he can apply them to his photos...

I don't think any of the 'worthless to collector' sticker guys have ever posted here. Once identified, their credibility in the photo-collecting world is zero.

I'm surprised to hear that PSA/DNA stickers can be removed without damage - does anyone have first-hand knowledge of this? meaning - have you done it and seen the undamaged sticker? How about the MLB ones? I really liked the idea that they disintegrate, and hope it's still true.