Soaking a card?

[Archive]

Posted By: Bob

Derek- You mentioned that the card is 100 years old and I was wondering what kind of card it was. If it is a T206 we are probably talking about Magie, Demmitt or OHara, based on your price range. Those cards appear to suffer water "baths" much better than others for some reason. I have never heard of some of the other century old cards being soaked so perhaps that might be more dangerous. Although it might have occurred, for instance, I have never heard of an E card from that period being soaked to remove paper or to press out a crease, only some tobacco cards.
I noticed that my year old post is the beginning of the thread and since then I have gone ahead and had several cards slabbed with paper on the back. It's just too much of a risk, in my opinion, if you don't have a card that you are 100% sure will be able to bear up to that kind of treatment.
I've never seen a crease disappear in a card, although I have heard of collectors who have wet their cards and then dried and pressed them with wrinkles or small paper creases disappearing. I assume the stories are true.
tbob