Should cards be cleaned or left alone

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I believe in removal of foreign matter from cards provided it can be done in a manner that does not harm the card either in the short term or over the long haul. There are two types of removal, chemical and mechanical. You are talking about mechanical. I have had good success with an Artgum eraser (this is an eraser used on paper artwork. The rubber crumbles without taking the paper with it, unlike a pencil eraser, which tears off layers of paper to do its work). The architect's eraser mentioned elsewhere is called a vellum eraser. Same principle. I prefer the Artgum for cards.

Here's how to do it:

First, check the card under a light by moving it around until you see a shine on the area. If the pencil mark has indented into the paper, you will be able to see it. If so, you might as well quit because the card will never grade better than vg unless you engage in some rather sophisticated additional doctoring, which I will not elaborate on here.

Assuming the pencil hasn't gouged into the paper, you are ready to erase. Regardless of which eraser you use, place the card on a clean, dry, flat surface (a pane of glass or piece of plexiglas is the best, but a laminate counter or table top works too) and have a lot of light on it, so you can really see what you are doing. I prefer placing a card sleeve beneath the card also. The key is to work VERY GENTLY on the item, with patience. The more pressure you exert on the card, the more likely you are to damage it. If there is not solid progress almost immediately, STOP. Some pencil marks just do not erase (I have a T229 Pet Cigs card like this) and you will just kill the card by trying.

I have had several cards with erasures graded by SGC. If the mark leaves any trace of indentation or outline or dirt, they will find it and ding you. If the pencil marks erase cleanly with no indentations, they will grade the card as though it never existed (I've got an 88 nm-mt Exhibit Salutations Ted Williams to prove it).