Conference school::sports_memorabilia

    I have had good luck using white-out thinner, but you have to go slow
    with it on a q-tip. Make sure you change the q-tip after it starts to
    pickup color off the card so you dont smear the colors.Go extra slow
    on card fronts and don't put to mutch pressure on the card.If the card
    starts to soak up allot of liquid take a break and let the card dry
    out. Most important** do this on a clean flat surface preferably
    card board. I once lost a Puckett Rookie after doing this on top of a
    plastic card holder. The card soaked up the thinner and the plastic
    melted to the card. 8*( ouch! If you have any late 80's commons to
    practice on that would help you. This process doesn't work on the
    brown crystalized tape marks on old cards though. Anybody that has
    had luck with other products or proceedures I would be interested in
    them also!
    		-Wayne-

    I've heard rubbing the cards with nylon will remove some of it.
    
    Here's a wax removal process detailed in SCD a few years back. They
    said it worked good on 1990 Donruss and Fleer cards.

    Getting started:

 	Get a common household iron and a small roll of paper towels.

    Step 1:

	Lay a sheet of paper towel down on a table.

    Step 2:

	Place your wax backed  Fleer  or  Donruss  card face down on the
	paper towel.

    Step 3:

	Put the iron  on  a  low setting. If it's too hot it'll curl the
	cards.

    Step 4:

	Rub the iron over the card back  and forth for about five or six
	seconds.

    Step 5:

	Set the iron to the side ....  take  another paper towel and rub
	the melted wax off the card. Should take about 10 seconds.

    Finally:

	At this point you should have a card free of wax. I never tried
	it, but they said it works pretty good. They said you should try
        it on some commons first. They said they didn't try it on Topps,
        but then the Topps card backs are so wax stained anyway, I don't
        think it would help that much.
    
    John

    If the wax is on the face of the card, try the nylon as John mentioned
    or just some soft tissue paper.  This works fine for me, although be
    extra careful with older cards.  Try to use a few separate sheets per
    card, since you wouldn't want to rub wax back on another card...
    
    Good luck, 
    Dan 

    Nylons (i.e., panty hose) work just fine in removing wax from the
    fronts of cards.  Just make sure that the nylons aren't useable for
    their original intent ...

    thx guys.  I tried the nylons approach and it worked great!
    man this is fun... reliving the 60s...

    Okay, I'll let you all know about a couple of BLUNDERS I've pulled
    while trying to remove wax! Go ahead, laugh if you must, but if this
    can save someones' son from the pain I inflicted on mine, it'll be worth
    it!
    1. '84 Topps Mattingly rookie, the most perfectly centered and colored
    one I'd ever seen! Problem : wax on back. Solution : the IRON method!
    Here's a clue...make sure you DO NOT use a steam iron! Even if you
    can't get any water to shake out, there may be water in the system! I
    won't go into the gory details.
    2. This was far less painful, for my son, because the card was mine. It
    was a second year Yount, with a ton of wax on the back ( I thought back
    then the wax would have been on the front, but was glad it wasn't!)
    Anyway, this time the iron was dry. I placed the card on a book in
    order to have a firm surface on which to iron it. The wax came off
    pretty well, but the card got WELDED to the book cover! So, don't
    forget to place the card on a paper towel.
    
    dennis

    >> It was a second year Yount, with a ton of wax on the back ( I thought
    >> back then the wax would have been on the front, but was glad it wasn't!)
    
    I'd much rather take wax off the front of the card any day; especially
    if its a TOPPS card.  With patience, you can get it all off...  I've
    never been successful in getting wax off the back of a TOPPS card 
    (Donruss and Fleer is a little different though, because of card 
    stock).
    
    Dan
    

    Somewhere in this notes file I posted a method to ge wax off of the
    back of Topps cards. 
    
    It involved using rubber cement thinner; I tried it a couple of times,
    and it worked o.k.
    
    John D.

    Wax off the front with nylons works well for me.  I still use the
    freezer method for wax and gum on the back and been very lucky.  
    I put the card in a plastic case and freeze it ( overnight ) and then
    take the card out of the case and the freezer and "slap" it in a 
    table.  The gum flies all over the room in chunks.  
    Mike