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How to Remove Tape From Very Old Baseball Cards

Very old baseball cards are collectors' items. Unfortunately, during the earliest years of their production, many peopled viewed them with no more deference than they would standard playing cards. Horror stories abound of parents and grandparents sticking baseball cards in the spokes of their bicycles to produce helicopter sound effects or gluing them to the wall as cheap decorations. One of the most common forms of old baseball card abuse is taping them together to form structures such as card houses or boxes. Removing tape from very old baseball cards is a painstaking and deliberate process that requires more skill and patience than it does special equipment.

Things You'll Need

Table light
Razor blades
Magnifying glass
Cotton swabs
Chamois cloth

Instructions

- 1
  Designate a workspace for your card "surgery." The space should be cleared of distractions and obstacles and it should be lit well by both an overhead light as well as a table light, if possible. The space should have designated containers to hold your equipment.
- 2
  Examine the card under a magnifying class. Locate all the areas of the old baseball card to which tape has been affixed and make a mental note of which areas are salvageable and which are not.
- 3
  Test the surface of the affixed tape with the edge of a razor blade by gently sticking the edge of the blade into the tape and shifting the blade slightly. Sometimes the adhesive of the tape has long since disintegrated and this maneuver will cause the tape to peel off the card face easily. Test all surfaces of all pieces of tape in this manner.
- 4
  Clean the face of the card gently with a cotton swab. This process may also dislodge some of the tape.
- 5
  Wipe the face of the card gently with a dry waxing chamois cloth. The delicate fibers of a chamois, intended to prevent scratching while waxing a polished and painted surface, will not damage the card face.
- 6
  Reexamine the card face while using a handheld microscope or a jeweler's scope. Reassess the salvageable areas.
- 7
  Work around the edges of the remaining tape with a new razor blade, gently sweeping the tape off the surface of the card. Hold the blade perpendicular to the card and tilt the top of the blade toward the tape as you pull the edge of the blade across the face of the card. Repeat this process until all of the tape or as much of the tape as possible is removed from the card face.

Sports Cards Collecting