Cleaning Cards: How to remove gum or wax stains

jskirwin

This is more for the search engine - for those who need to clean cards.

Just a note that I followed the advice here and tried using the nylon trick on a gum stain. So so results. This may work better with gum residue rather than stains.

I then went out to Michael's and picked up Rubber Cement Thinner. Wow! Does that stuff clean or what? No damage either while using a cotton swab and a cotton pad. Just rub gently - after testing it on a common card of the same series first (to make sure you are testing it on the same colors and dyes used in the dirty card)

For those who don't have a Michael's craft store nearby, the active ingredient is heptane - which, if I remember my O-chem correctly, is one carbon group short of octane.

This stuff is seriously flammable - and should be used in a well ventilated room and stored in the same way as gasoline.

I swallowed hard at first when I used it on a Ken Dryden rookie because the color of the background changed. However, this faded within a minute as the heptane evaporated off completely. Now the card looks great. No smell or residue from the chemical at all.

Thanks to everyone on this board for coming up with this cool method to clean cards. It's a true card-saver.

mikeschmidt

Can you use it to clean a card back? Like, 1974 Topps, for example...?

Allen

You can use a piece of panty hose and rub over it and it will bring them off cleanly without any paper loss.