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- May 13, 2015
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OK, this may get me criticized rather than praised, but I thought it worth sharing none the less. Let me say right at the start, I am NOT in favour of removing the "New Figure" stickers ordinarily, but this sticker has been horrendously damaged and leaving it as was really wasn't an option.
To make this a little more interesting, I have made this into a poll. Should the damaged sticker have been left along whereby, although it was unsightly, at least the card back wasn't actually damage? Or has the removal of the sticker and the improvement in it's looks justified the damage caused? Just for fun guys, I won't go off and sulk if I get slamed 8)
In my quest for the every increasingly insanely-price Tri-Logo R2-D2 with Pop-up Lightsabre I bought a MOC with a partially removed "New Figure £1.59" sticker on it. Sadly, the removal tore a small chunk out of the litho. But for the £203 I paid I was happy enough. Having received it I saw the seller had listed another. This time, the sticker surface was all gone but the backing paper was still stuck to it. Crucially, there was no litho damage even though the card looked butt ugly. I paid a perhaps-too-high £280. I paid that because I thought I could remove the remaining part of the sticker and would have a C9 R2 for a bargain price.
How wrong I was.
I don't have a proper "before" photo (have asked seller to provide the one he has for reference) but if you look at this photo and the imaging wherever you see sticker paper you couldn't see through it; it was completely white:
(Please note: The above photo was taken after the backing paper has been thinned right out by the method shown below and some "Goo Gone" had been successfully applied, also described below, but it's the best representative "before" shot I have for now)
It appears the "New Figure" stickers aren't glued with regular gum like on normal price stickers but some kind of gum that sets rock hard and is forever attached to the backing card. A hairdryer as zero effect. I tried a spot of nail varnish remover (I can hear the screams.....) but no effect. In mild desperation I ordered some "Goo Gone" from the US of A and awaited it's arrival.
After a few experiments, it appeared to have no effect. However, in trying it out I discovered that I could "shave" a lot of the sticker's backing paper off with a knife (more screams....); by angling a sharp pen knife, with the curved part of the blade I could shave most of the paper off bit and a bit, producing small balls of paper fibres:
From the above photo you can also see that in some places, the backing paper would scrape away completely without damaging the litho at all. This was unintended and I knew to try this over the whole area would be disastrous. The gum used was so tough it protected the litho from the knife scraping across the top of the paper.
One I had removed as much of the backing paper as possible/safe with the knife I then turned to the Goo Gone. I folded a piece of kitchen towel and put some on it before dabbing it over the backing paper. I left it to work it's way in for a few minutes. I then started gently rubbing the paper with the kitchen towel. To my surprise the gum started to come away. It took a while but it did come off. I repeated this over the whole area and quite some time later the following was the result:
To my eyes, it looks a million times better. That said, as you can see, there is litho damage where there never used to be. I would say 98% of this was caused before I discovered the above method. I think it could be perfected to cause zero damage. As I said at the start, I'm not in favour of removing good stickers (unless, really badly placed!), but this was very, very unsightly and damaged. It's worth noting that the "Goo Gone" did not damage the litho at all. Sure, keep rubbing and it'll take it off but a silk glove would have the same effect if you kept rubbing it with one!
The true extent of the damage I caused can be seen here. Yes it's a great shame I caused any but I am glad I did remove the sticker. I had tried to get a reasonably priced badly damaged card back with the sticker on to experiment on first but ebay idiots were asking at least £10 for one and I wasn't going to pay that nor wait for a more reasonably priced one:
Anyway, since doing this I have received a very, very nice R2 complete with a wonderful "New Figure" sticker, so I am going to put the one above up for sale in an appropriate thread. I will ask what I paid as although I think the card is better than it was even with damage it has been fun (tedious) carrying out the above work.
To make this a little more interesting, I have made this into a poll. Should the damaged sticker have been left along whereby, although it was unsightly, at least the card back wasn't actually damage? Or has the removal of the sticker and the improvement in it's looks justified the damage caused? Just for fun guys, I won't go off and sulk if I get slamed 8)
In my quest for the every increasingly insanely-price Tri-Logo R2-D2 with Pop-up Lightsabre I bought a MOC with a partially removed "New Figure £1.59" sticker on it. Sadly, the removal tore a small chunk out of the litho. But for the £203 I paid I was happy enough. Having received it I saw the seller had listed another. This time, the sticker surface was all gone but the backing paper was still stuck to it. Crucially, there was no litho damage even though the card looked butt ugly. I paid a perhaps-too-high £280. I paid that because I thought I could remove the remaining part of the sticker and would have a C9 R2 for a bargain price.
How wrong I was.
I don't have a proper "before" photo (have asked seller to provide the one he has for reference) but if you look at this photo and the imaging wherever you see sticker paper you couldn't see through it; it was completely white:
(Please note: The above photo was taken after the backing paper has been thinned right out by the method shown below and some "Goo Gone" had been successfully applied, also described below, but it's the best representative "before" shot I have for now)
It appears the "New Figure" stickers aren't glued with regular gum like on normal price stickers but some kind of gum that sets rock hard and is forever attached to the backing card. A hairdryer as zero effect. I tried a spot of nail varnish remover (I can hear the screams.....) but no effect. In mild desperation I ordered some "Goo Gone" from the US of A and awaited it's arrival.
After a few experiments, it appeared to have no effect. However, in trying it out I discovered that I could "shave" a lot of the sticker's backing paper off with a knife (more screams....); by angling a sharp pen knife, with the curved part of the blade I could shave most of the paper off bit and a bit, producing small balls of paper fibres:
From the above photo you can also see that in some places, the backing paper would scrape away completely without damaging the litho at all. This was unintended and I knew to try this over the whole area would be disastrous. The gum used was so tough it protected the litho from the knife scraping across the top of the paper.
One I had removed as much of the backing paper as possible/safe with the knife I then turned to the Goo Gone. I folded a piece of kitchen towel and put some on it before dabbing it over the backing paper. I left it to work it's way in for a few minutes. I then started gently rubbing the paper with the kitchen towel. To my surprise the gum started to come away. It took a while but it did come off. I repeated this over the whole area and quite some time later the following was the result:
To my eyes, it looks a million times better. That said, as you can see, there is litho damage where there never used to be. I would say 98% of this was caused before I discovered the above method. I think it could be perfected to cause zero damage. As I said at the start, I'm not in favour of removing good stickers (unless, really badly placed!), but this was very, very unsightly and damaged. It's worth noting that the "Goo Gone" did not damage the litho at all. Sure, keep rubbing and it'll take it off but a silk glove would have the same effect if you kept rubbing it with one!
The true extent of the damage I caused can be seen here. Yes it's a great shame I caused any but I am glad I did remove the sticker. I had tried to get a reasonably priced badly damaged card back with the sticker on to experiment on first but ebay idiots were asking at least £10 for one and I wasn't going to pay that nor wait for a more reasonably priced one:
Anyway, since doing this I have received a very, very nice R2 complete with a wonderful "New Figure" sticker, so I am going to put the one above up for sale in an appropriate thread. I will ask what I paid as although I think the card is better than it was even with damage it has been fun (tedious) carrying out the above work.
