Saw this on instagram. Thoughts on cleaning cards? Do you consider this altering a card?
Share your your opinion
Getting those weird black specks of dirt off is fine but idk how they can remove creases wtf haha.
If they alter the card by adding ink or anything, that’s no good and shouldn’t be done.
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Sometimes cards are meant to be creased and filled with holo lines. We are all beautiful in our own ways. Dont forget that
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Removing dirt is great and I do it. Flattening a card also is totally ok (tbh the creased one seems a bit fake to me, but I know sometimes is possible)
But I really don’t want anything involving chemical on my cards, or cards that I’m buying except water and very very little amount of rubbing alcohol.
I saw other threads with people polishing holo scratch or covering white corners, please don’t lol.
This is altering and we really don’t know if this can damage a card in the long term.
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Polishing and inking is card altering.
Using humidity to fix dents and creases isn’t. Pretty simple really. If you aren’t adding or taking something away it’s not altered.
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I want to know how they removed creases 
That definitely doesn’t fall under “cleaning” but I didn’t even know it was possible
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Humidor treatments, penny sleeve over the top and soft rubber objects to help smooth it out. Mixed with holding it between two acrylic plates.
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Kinks, cracks, discoloration fixed? Anyone who does is a greedy loser.
This type of question will come up more often because money is tempting and some people try to find some reason why it isn’t so bad after all. “Others do it too, why not me?”
I hope the boundary between what is tolerated and what is not does not shift
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It’s safe to run your cards through the dishwasher on the top rack ONLY.
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This is just complete misinformation. I’ve definitely put them in the silverware rack and have had no issues.
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“I’ve had no issues” ≠“It’s safe to do.”
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These cracks were not removed, they were just smoothed out some, and then the second picture was taken with the glare on a different part of the card. VERY apparent in the first image pairs if you look where you would see the crease. I think this is OK, TBH. It does run a risk of further damaging the card, however.
I think this issue has been addressed in previous threads, but in general, I look at it THIS way:
- Structure of the card physically changed in some way, other than trying to bend it back out or flatten a dent (good luck)?
- Something chemically or visually added to the card?
Then it’s been altered.
Cleaning or fixing would consist of removing dirt or something with a damp cloth, fingernail, etc. even flattening dents I guess. I even cleaned tape off a card once with patience, steady hand, and an exacto knife. But otherwise, it’s “restoration” and just as in art, you are changing the structure of the item. If someone wants it in a non-altered condition, “restoration” is not acceptable.
Is restoration OK in general? I’m not sure.
Trying to pass-off one as the other is certainly not.
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I gottta say, my friend, it REALLY depends on how much rinse aid you use, and whether the salt has been recently refilled. (or the hardness of your tap water.)
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The problem with using art restoration as an analogue, is that these are playing cards not art. Regardless of what some collectors want to consider it. A canvas painting or print’s entire purpose is to look nice and be displayed.
Condition of a playing card, video game, comic, etc. is secondary to it’s actual function. And if we want to go one step further, the avenue in which we bring the hobby close to the art world, through grading, is ran by companies who also don’t consider it card altering.
Fixing creases is literally just pushing the paper back into place. Not that functionally different from little Timmy opening a pack of baseball cards and bending a corner back with his fingers.
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The art analogy is irrelevant. Every Pokémon card, even the rarest, have multiple copies. Regardless, this is just a distraction from what’s really happening: Money. People aren’t cleaning cards to preserve the history of a 1/1 item. They are cleaning cards with 10,000+ copies so that theirs might be worth more than the other 10,000+ copies.
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I would consider some of the high end comics a piece of art/history.
Action comics #1 the first appearance of Superman released in June of 1938 to me is an art piece.
Well the cover is literally artwork, but the object itself is a comic book. You can praise the art work on a box of cereal but it’s still a box of cereal. The art is just to get you to buy the rest of it.
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To be fair though, how many people here have cracked slabs and resubmitted the card hoping to accomplish the same thing?
I mean yeah but it’s a piece of history in terms of superhero’s. Idk maybe I’m looking at it wrong
Well it is a piece of history. But that’s besides the point. The argument with restoration with art work is completely different because the issue there is one person intervening with a piece of original art work by another person. Which can potentially make it visually altered from how it was originally. These are mass produced printed items.
But comic book graders offer pressing services to get creases out of covers before grading anyways.