Alright class, pay attention and learn how to remove those dreaded super neon bright orange Toys R Us stickers!
A buddy of mine asked if I could send him some pics and a quick “how to” on how to remove price stickers, and I decided I would create a thread on here as well for anyone interested. (Note that you do this at your own risk. I am not responsible for damaged cards.) The trick is to go very VERY slowly. Patience is key.
Alright, so I got this poor MOC Slythe off eBay last week and he is in pretty bad shape, a C4 I would say. I got him for dirt cheap though, and am going to try and restore him up to a C5 or so if I can. Just something to mess with I guess.
Here are some pics of the card and sticker(s).
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/BlackieLawless/Sticker/Dsc02816.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/BlackieLawless/Sticker/Dsc02817.jpg
Here is what you will need: A good blow dryer, a pair of tweezers, a shirt, and some Goo Gone plus some Q-tips. (not pictured, sorry. You can get it at WalGreens.)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/BlackieLawless/Sticker/Dsc02818.jpg
So first thing you want to do is carefully wrap a shirt around the card and bubble, as we don’t want the heat hitting the bubble and possibly lifting it. (I doubt it could be easily done, but why take the chance?)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/BlackieLawless/Sticker/Dsc02820.jpg
Now you want to set the blow dryer to the hottest setting, aim it real close to a corner of the sticker, and blast it with heat for about a minute or two.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/BlackieLawless/Sticker/Dsc02821.jpg
Afterwards, the corner should start to lift by its self as the adhesive melts away, or you could use your finger nail to carefully lift the corner up. Once you have a tiny bit of the corner lifted, grab the tweezers and carefully grab the corner that lifted, like so:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/BlackieLawless/Sticker/Dsc02822.jpg
Now, you want to point the blow dryer under the sticker, and as you do this, SLOWLY and carefully pull back on the sticker so that it starts to peel off. You have to do this slowly, even if it feels like it is ready to come off.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/BlackieLawless/Sticker/Dsc02824.jpg
Slowly but surely, it will come off as the blow dryer melts away the adhesive.
Afterwards, soak a q-tip in Goo Gone and clean the area where the sticker was. This will clean up any debris left behind.
Here is how it looks now after having removed not one, not two, but three freaking stickers that were on this poor card.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/BlackieLawless/Sticker/Dsc02827.jpg
Like I said, you have to just be patient, work slowly, and not let temptation get the best of you and just yank it off. So far I have done this successfully with about 8 of these orange Toys R Us stickers.
Since this card is in such a bad state, right now if you look real close you can see where the sticker used to be due to the card being cleaner in that spot then the rest of the card. Hopefully I can change that though when I clean up the rest of the card.
The super minty MOC Mon*Star that I sent into CSG had one sticker on the back of the card which I removed in this same exact way. I asked my dad to give it a good look over and see if he could tell where the sticker used to be and he couldn’t tell. Lets see if CSG can’t tell either.
So there is my “I’m bored” thread for the night. Hope it helps someone out.