Last night's "debate" .....some interesting observations.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

"Restoration" of a damaged item commonly is understood to imply rebuilding it. That is a "no no" as far as I am concerned if the card is to be deemed authentic.

"Removal" is the term used to describe what Towle does. As long as the card is not damaged by the process, I don't see what problem a removal causes; you are subtracting something that was not meant to be there in the first place.

Finally, in terms of crease removal, I have done extensive work with it and it is much easier than you think and if done right, totally undetectable. Here is how you do it: Get a clean china or glass bowl and some distilled water. Fill the bowl partway with water. Put in the card and let it soak until it softens. Typically, this takes no more than a few minutes. If the card has a typical layer of varnish on the front (the stuff that makes card fronts look glossy), expect the card to curl alarmingly because the fibers on the gloss side don't move like the rest of the card. Don't panic, just let the water seep in. The card will relax some, actually. Once the card is sufficiently moist, remove it carefully from the water. NEVER rub or abrade it; the card is easily damaged. Have about a dozen sheets of white paper ready to go, folded in half. Place the card inside a sheet or two and put it on a hard, smooth, dry, clean surface. GENTLY press down on the card to flatten it. Hold for a minute or two, then carefully remove the card from the paper and switch it to another sheet. Repeat until the card is no longer actively dripping water. Take the card and put it inside two or three folded sheets of paper, then place the sheets inside a thick hardcover book. Close the book and lay the book down flat on a surface. Stack 1.5'-2' of additional books on it and let it sit. Check it periodically and change the paper until you are getting perfectly dry paper for a full day. At that point, the card is done. I like to give it a couple of hours to breathe before I put it into a plastic sleeve, to be absolutely sure it is dry.

The main error most people make in crease removal is choosing the wrong card to do it. It requires a careful assessment of the card first. A good candidate for a crease removal is a card where the crease does not break the surface of the card and has not had any wear on the crease. Hairline back creases on otherwise near mint cards are the best candidates. If the card has lost color or taken wear on the crease and you remove it, you will have a line of wear where the crease was and the boost in grade will be minimal.

Removal is another thing. I've never used solvents to remove stains; I have no doubt that they work. I have removed extraneous materials via a special eraser called an "Art Gum" eraser. Art Gum erasers were developed for artists to use. Most erasers rip off layers of paper to accomplish their removal, which damaged the paper. Art Gum erasers remove virtually no paper. The rubber they are made of grabs pigment or extra materials and crumbles. I've cleaned many cards of wax stains, product stains and light pencil writing with an Art Gum. Again, if the card is a good candidate and the technique is good, a removal like this is impossible to detect.

Removals are performed all the time on paper artworks without any loss of value. Treating cards otherwise is silly and is no more than the product of marketing efforts by the grading services. We have never had an honest discussion of the subject in the Hobby--it has simply been taken for granted that any alteration made to a card is "bad" unless the alteration was "natural", which is why you get idiotic distinctions like slabbing a card with a punch hole as "poor" but refusing to slab a trimmed card as "poor". Both are intentionally altered cards; the reason the trimmed card is treated differently is that ten years ago the marketers behind the slabbing services glommed on to trimming (which they pejoratively labeled "doctoring") as the means to scare the public into using their services. Every alteration to a card was then lumped into the same category with no critical thought or debate, regardless of what it really meant to the card. Like so many other things in public discourse (like labeling the reduction of injured workers' benefits "workers comp reform" as governor terminator just did out here, labeling the stripping of the right to sue for injuries as "tort reform", or labeling anti-abortion movement as the "right to life" movement), once the langage is co-opted by the marketers in charge of pushing a point, there is no intelligent discussion.