Prepping Cards for Grading
Cubsfan71
Posts: 67 ✭✭
Hey everyone, what do you do to prepare your cards before you submit them for grading? Do you "clean" them??? If so, how? Would love to hear "Dos" and "Don'ts" from your experience.
Always looking for 1950's Graded Banks Cards
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If by "clean" you mean buff out scratches on the gloss, that would be altering a card and dishonest. If you mean removing fingerprints, that is a little more grey, I am mostly alright with that.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
@craig44 yeah, I have never submitted anything for grading... didn't think you'd be able to "buff" anything out, just meant wipe them down, yeah, I guess for fingerprints or just to "clean" the surface with a type of towel or rag??? Was thinking in terms of washing a car before someone comes buy, not covering up accident damage.
Always looking for 1950's Graded Banks Cards
i have never heard that wiping for fingerprints from chrome cards is a grey area. can you go into further discussions as to where you heard this?
When I'm submitting, I seem to notice every spec of dust or loose paper bits on the card and on/in the holder. So I spend and inordinate amount of time dealing with that.
I always give two rounds of examination on two different days and that has served me well over the years. I would say there is a tipping point though. Just remember the more handling of the card, the more opportunities to do damage.
@thehallmark good point! And how do you deal with that...just a dry soft cloth??? Do people wear gloves to prevent fingerprints...I hadn't even thought about getting downgraded for fingerprints.
Always looking for 1950's Graded Banks Cards
It's true, once you put a fingerprint on a card, you can never wipe it off!
guess i'll jump on amazon and snag a hazmat suit so i can properly rip packs now.
those summer time rips are gonna suck...
Future generations will either be mocking our card preservation obsessiveness or praising us
A little Windex and some squeegee action always does the trick
want 10s consistently...
Not sure this is the right place , but does anyone know of a site where all the abbreviations of card defect meanings are explained. I know o/c is off centered but there seem to be many more on PSA graded cards. Thanks
https://www.psacard.com/resources/gradingstandards/
OF is pretty rare to see used.
there are many people who use different substances and microfiber cloths to actually buff out small scratches in the surface gloss to alter the original card and make it appear to have a better, more pristine surface.
it is bad practice and deceptive, but it is very common with modern chrome and chrome like cards. there are people who do this as a business as well. they call it "card prep" it is nothing more than alteration.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Thank you, problem solved.
just my personal opinion. anything that alters the original card is an alteration in my book. I call it grey in the same way I think of erasing pencil marks or removing wax stains. same idea with "cleaning" tobacco cards with distilled water. not entirely deceptive like buffing scratches, but grey.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I wouldn't do anything to the card. just protect it well in shipping. I'm curious though if people are boxing cards for shipment, or using one of those bubble mailers?
For me personally, I draw the line at altering the paper/finish. If it's buffing out fingerprints and wiping off dust or wiping away a wax stain on the front of a card, that's fine in my book. Trying to polish away scratches gets into altering the finish of the card.
One new thing I'm trying with a crossover submission is to use a wet cloth to clean the holders before sending them in. For some reason I never did this before which could have cost me some crosses if the holder was too dirty or stained.
Someone mentioned placing a micro fiber towel on a lamp, once warm they wipe their cards down.
I am always scared removing/handling them will damage them.
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
personal opinion, got it. let me flip this over. by your definition, wouldn't placing your finger prints on the card in the first place be altering as it wouldn't be in its original state any longer? pencil marks & stains i get, but by your definition removing a piece of dust, hair or debris off is altering. these things are just as easily transferable or non-transferable, right?
buffing scratches, i get as well. but submersing the entire card under water, drying it out between paper towels while pressing it in between a couple encyclopedias in an attempt to remove glue, stains and foreign materials is not entirely deceptive but wiping off simple fingerprints are? your logic, to me, seems all over the board. to me, wiping a chrome card falls way short of soaking. and i'm not totally against soaking if a card meets a very specific criteria. i do feel it should be disclosed though. but seriously, wiping fingerprints? i mean i get it if you just ate a barbecue sandwich or just lubed the bar on the chainsaw and decided to rip w/o washing...but ordinary fingerprints w just a simple wipe?