Soaking - What exactly can be removed?

[conor912]

Imo, you've got to be crazy to soak, blot, or in any other way apply liquid to a 100 year old baseball card. The stains are part of its character and history. Leave them be and enjoy the card(s) as they are, in all their antique glory.

[rainier2004]

Originally Posted by conor912

Imo, you've got to be crazy to soak, blot, or in any other way apply liquid to a 100 year old baseball card. The stains are part of its character and history. Leave them be and enjoy the card(s) as they are, in all their antique glory.

Im not trying to remove the caramel stains and their glory, going after the dirt that was applied after the fact as previously stated...

[Leon]

Originally Posted by conor912

Imo, you've got to be crazy to soak, blot, or in any other way apply liquid to a 100 year old baseball card. The stains are part of its character and history. Leave them be and enjoy the card(s) as they are, in all their antique glory.

Sometimes there can be paper remnants which very easily come off with water. With the remnants, parts of or all of the printing, might not be able to be read. Without the remnants it can be read. No doubt almost anyone would rather be able to read the back of a well printed card instead of only seeing paper remnants. But certainly to each their own....(and I do agree that many times leaving what is on the card is a good thing, when it adds to it's character)

[Runscott]

It would be nice to see a list of card sets, and whether or not they can be soaked. For instance, I was very surprised that National Copper Plate premiums could be completely soaked - who would have guessed?

What's the verdict on Cracker Jacks? Complete Immersion? just carefully cue-tipping?

[kilo]

If I cant completely immerse a card, I would leave it be for fear of leaving a clean spot, lol. I have never soaked for reasons of dirt, only to remove scrapbook remnants, and even then have only ever done one sport card; a C56, improved it from an AUTH to a BVG-1 though. Have done lots of non-sports cards, and never really had any issues with them, (I do have some J-cards i plan on submitting as a result of how nice they came out!).

--kilo.

[EvilKing00]

so just to be clear here...Soaking a card = fully putting it in water???

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

so just to be clear here...Soaking a card = fully putting it in water???

Haha. Yes. It does sound horrible until you've gotten away with it.

[rainier2004]

CJ are completely soakable, both 1914s and 1915s. At thh National I soaked about 6k worth of 1914s for an associate to remove the scrap paper they were attatched to and I have soaked a few of my 1915s for the same reason. They do well in boiling water, but I only let them soak for 5-10 minutes opposed to the 1956 topps I soaked for hours. The biggest risk with a CJ is creasing the card post-soak but there are ways around that as well.

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

so just to be clear here...Soaking a card = fully putting it in water???

Just so you are clear, modern day cardboard is not soakable. It reacts how you are thinking cardboard would react to getting wet. Someone better informed than I will need to tell you which sets are OK to soak other than the T206 and the C46. I am not sure if it is a certain year when the industry changed across the board. Also. older glues seem to come off easier and more completely.

[EvilKing00]

so T206 can be soaked, what about the t205?