I have a shining steelix that would be a 10 candidate, but it looks kind of cloudy on the surface. it looks like it would wipe off and i’m tempted to use a slightly damp cloth to try. Anyone have any experience doing something like this? any tips? thank you.
Whatever you do, please proceed with extreme caution. 
better off selling to me.
I do clean my cards sometimes, I make sure I have a very very soft piece of cloth and make sure there is no dust on it. I make it moist (not wet, don’t want the card to get water damage). And very softly rub it.
Rubbing on a surface like a holo could cause scratching, so that is inadvisable. On like the back of the card I usually get the card cleaned without any damage . Just make you take your time for the proces and be very carefull!
Posting a photo can help judging the defect.
Also, isn’t cleaning consider altering?
If noticed and the grader decides to do so, it can recieve an N7 no grade, which is “evidence of cleaning”… But this is very highly unlikely. Cleaning off some finger print smears (for example) from a Pokemon card are in large part insignificant to any graders consideration. The parameters considered for baseball cards stains are different from pokemon such that it wouldn’t be a concern. Cleaning baseball cards’ wax stain, though, could be considered alteration by certain perspectives in some instances.
I’ve cleaned dozens of cards and never had a no grade yet so 
I think if it was pretty drastic like trying to clean a pen/marker mark or factory stains they’d no grade it. It would probably be a fine line between cleaning/altering the cards condition as well. But what you’re planning on doing sounds okay to be honest
Same, I clean all of my cards the same way with no issue yet. Just run the card under some tap water, hang it from the clothesline for a day (or blow dry to save time), and then wipe it down with a Kleenex. I like to use the Anti-viral tissues to ensure my card is as clean as can be. Using this method, I receive pretty consistent grading from PSA.
I am swimming in 1s.
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Thank you for making my day Sir.
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Wax or bubble gum lol.
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I use a cotton swab to lightly buff out wax or oil stains, mostly just for fingerprints. I am extra paranoid though and I do so VERY CAREFULLY. I just would hate to submit a Gem that gets a 9 because of half a finger print on it.
I will say though, I never do this for the holo part of the card. Too afraid of causing small scratches.
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I saw a thread from a baseball forum, which posted an email they got from PSA. It basically said buffing out fingerprint or dirt marks is not considered alteration and they in fact encourage you to do that because graders will take these blemishes into the grade consideration.
That makes sense. I’m assuming the alteration they don’t like is from intensive restoration.
The guy I do baseball card breaks with uses 500 grit sandpaper for the Beckett submissions, lots of people get back 10s.
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I often use sandpaper on my freshly pulled mint pack cards.
But to clean old cards i use the piece of cloth you get with your pair of glasses + some tepid water. Wrap it tightly around my first finger and just gently go round in small circles until any marks in question are gone, works a treat with those black mould like marks you get on older cards.
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orders superfine sandpaper 