Cards that CAN and CANNOT be soaked?!

[Harford20]

Well, using trdcrdkid's soaking thread, only varying a bit with warmer water, finally sent some of my 19th century trade cards to the depths. Was amazed at how well things went. Most of my soaking times were near 20 minutes before the old album just peeled off.

I did run into some "newer" attachment techniques on one set of cards that had paper on the back. OK, new question: has anyone ever found a "safe" way to remove double-stick tape without removing the back of the trade card? Is double-stick tape completely non-water soluble? I did try very hot water for as much as 30 minutes without any visible change in the tape. The cards still look 20x better without the thick paper on the back, but if I could the tape off it would be a total coup. Any ideas would be great.

Dave

[Stonepony]

I'd not soak a T213. I recently couldn't resist soaking a T213 Matty which had glued paper covering entire back. I'm not patient and it took 2 hrs of soaking and teasing the paper off with difficulty. The back came off ok, but that T213 sheen/gloss was totally lost giving the card a bland, washed out appearance. Lesson learned.