So I sent a Mewtwo/Hitmonchan/Ninetales opened from the Base Set Theme Decks, and they had the residue from the plastic wrapper on them.
I sent them in for grading and they all came back as 5s. Which is ok because I was sending them to see what sort of knock down I’d get.
Anyway, I always heard that Eucalyptus Oil was what you were supposed to use to clean cards. I cracked out the Hitmonchan and the Ninetales and attempted to clean them. On the Ninetales the residue wasn’t noticeable by site but could be felt. I lightly cleaned the card(after practicing on newer holos and commons) and it seemed to do a good job of removing the sticky residue but I noticed it left the speckly holo showing through the attack texts.
So I tried the Hitmonchan next and the residue this time very noticeable on this one as well as being sticky. I had to rub a little bit harder and it just completely stripped away all the ink and I had a huge patch of silver holo showing through.
Before I ruin my Mewtwo. Does anyone have any tips for doing this better?
Pics of the before/after? Also of the mewtwo in its current state? I feel you may have posted them before, but to have them here would be handy.
Not really sure on what you could use, but it would be interesting to see and maybe help others with suggestions. Anything I can think of that works well at cleaning sticky residue would typically be too good at cleaning and clean the ink right off like you are describing. I can try some things this weekend on some junk new holos and see if I find anything helpful.
I reckon you might end up waisting more money then a shadowless booster box, if you purchase these decks ( other then machamp ) to get psa 10’s of the cards.
The funnest thing/best and most rewarding is definitely pulling your own wizards and gettin dem 10s, but these decks seem like the bad way to go after yours and someone elserbz experience ill mention below.
This pretty much does it for me on decks. I will just purchase booster box if i can ever save 20 billion dollan… Which was my goal for the coming year of 2017… But i might go for some machamp deck one daY i guess.
For some reason machamp doesnt get the stickies as much?.. Why pokemoon wizards of coast creators!! Why!
I mean, I guess its subjective but it might have been cooler/ felt more exciting to pull Theme deck holos somewhere through the deck, instead of the front… Like before the last lot of commons/uncommons or energies like the generations 20th anniversary japanese decks! I remember when crackrok mcaib got some decks and all of em had the sticky shit on them, so when you went for these i was a bit iffy about the odds.
I dont remember what your gyarados got though, or if you got a 10 on one… Ill scroll up to check… AHHH YEESE 1 OF DA THE MACHAMP GOT THE 10!
I would definitely like to find some korean unlimiterb and chinese unlimited ones though, because maybe/hoping they will be like machamp!
You have some explaining to do @dragontype How about i crack out all your psa 10 engrish rays and poor eucoliptis oil on dem while you sleep.
The answer to your question is Windex. I’ll explain here.
Spray a light shot of windex on a small swatch of double-folded bounty paper towel (or similar) and apply it to the card surface.
Gently rub the affected area using very light pressure. Cards from certain sets are more easily scratched, so start lighly and check your progress as you go. Increase pressure as needed.
Finally remove all residue and excess solvent by wiping with the fabric from a 100% cotton (soft fabric) t-shirt. For best results, during the final pass dry the card quickly before the ammonia in the windex evaporates. Avoid letting moisture reach the card edges as they can quickly absorb liquid depending on the age and wear of the card.
If windex doesn’t cut it the stain most likely can’t be removed. There are no adverse affects to the card if it’s done correctly.
So I tried using 3 different solvents. Acetone, Ethanol (denatured), and IPA. I didn’t really have any cruddy/sticky cards to try it on, so I just went after the ink on 3 holo cards to see which are most aggresive on the card ink. I do know though that these solvents all take care of various crud and sticker residue/glues in general very well, I am not sure the nature of the sticky mess in those theme decks, but I am fairly sure one of these would work on it.
As far as aggressiveness goes Acetone>Ethanol>IPA. I would try IPA as it is a good solvent in general and doesn’t seem to harsh on the ink and I think acetone would be a total no go. Just a tiny bit of each on a q-tip for the first test and acetone dissolved right through the ink quickly. The others took some very strong scrubbing to show any fading and have any color transfer to the q-tip. Even pouring a little pool on the card and letting it sit for a bit then wiping away with a tissue hardly any fading of the ink occurred. I imagine with an IPA soaked Q tip and gentle hands you could wipe away certain things, whether or not this residue that is on your cards it is hard to say.
I haven’t tested the ammonia-free product but I expect there would be minimal benefit. The ammonia evaporates and goes away very quickly and does not harm the UV coating. In effect ammonia is a pH adjuster and so helps to limit the harm that some acidic detergents may cause, so I believe there’s more pros for ammonia than cons in this case. I have cleaned probably a couple hundred cards so I can vouch for its success but I can’t say as much for another product.
I tried to clean the Hitmonchan again as a tester with diluted Eucalytpus Oil. It just made it completely worse and I ended up destroying the card for some catharsis. Ninetales will be used as a mule for the Windex option. Will report back on that, and make sure to take before and afters as well.
Also @pokemonsyndicate - My Gyarados got an 8 which did have residue as well, maybe it wasn’t as bad or maybe the grader didn’t think it was worth knocking it down.