I saw a comment in the other thread that was mentioning an item having a price sticker, and I guess the assumption is that it lowers the value.

Unless it's a HUGE honkin' sticker, it's very, very easy to remove without doing any damage to your book. I'd thought this would be common knowledge, but perhaps not =)

Just use lighter fluid, and gently rub off or peel off the sticker. If you want to be really delicate about it, use a q-tip to apply it. I generally just squirt a bit (or a lot) onto the item, give it 30 seconds, and then rub the sticker off.

I can't gaurantee that it'll work on everything, but it's worth a try. It *won't* repair any damage such as the glue seeping into the paper and permanently discoloring it, but it'll get the sticker off easily. The lighter fluid just evaporates, leaving your item completely unmarked. I used it to clean up my OCE earlier, squirting a bunch straight onto the cover of two of the books  I've gone through most of a bottle cleaning up books this month, and it works like a charm.

GraysonAC wrote:Just use lighter fluid, and gently rub off or peel off the sticker.

Gray, thanks for the info. A question for you: do you see this working well for mailing labels, too? Or are labels and stickers considered different creatures to lighter fluid?

I ask because I just came into possession of a bunch of neat old magazines (non-gaming; stuff like Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, etc.). And, of course, every single one has an unsightly mailing label (many from dentists' offices ).

Xaxaxe wrote:Fancy-schmancy new e-mail: Xaxaxe@acaeum.com

Wow!  8)  I forgot to ask for mine.

Not that anyone other than the geeks and freaks are going to be impressed!  :wink:

Yeah, Goo Gone is apparently popular as well, if you want to spend the bit of extra money.

I use lighter fluid (Ronosol) - not sure if the other stuff would work, but I wouldn't use anything that had colour in it, just in case. I'm sure lf would work for masking tape, and I can't imagine it not working for mailing labels. It would take quite a bit for a large label, but obviously, it's worth the bit of time  Thus far, it's worked perfectly for me to remove price stickers and caked-in dirt on fairly dense surfaces (like glossy magazine covers).

I'd recommend trying a little tiny bit of it on a corner of something before going hogwild with it, but I've had 0 problems, and I've never heard of anyone else having problems with it causing damage.

It can take some time to get things off cleanly, but what I ended up doing was lining up 5 or 6 books with stickers on them, squeezing some lighter fluid into a little bowl, and then using a q-tip to liberally apply the lf to the sticker. You need it to soak through so it can dissolve the glue under the sticker, which sometimes takes multiple soakings. Make sure you do the peeling when the sticker is still wet. Then use your nail to carefully lift up the corner, and slowly peel off the sticker. Then just add a bit more lf to the area and wipe off the residue with a paper towel or your thumb. All the excess lf will just evaporate, right off the book and off your fingers. It's almost a no-mess operation

I was about to ask this question, then searched an found this old thread with all the answers. I'm off to hunt lighter fluid and Goo-gone!!!

Aneoth wrote:Its actually called 'goo be gone'. And there is NO WAY I would EVER use it or lighter fluid on a valuable collectors grade item............

I would rather leave the freeking sticker on it and not risk damage.

The type of surface definitely affects how much the solvents remove. Hardbound books survive just fine.  Less durable surfaces like a softbound book or supplement can lose the price sticker and some of the printed ink.  Yeah, I hate the few items that I have . . .

Goo-Be-Gone is thicker and darker than lighter fluid, so it has a higher risk of staining or eating away at the ink.   Lighter fluid may evaporate easily without leaving a detectable stain.

Thanks aneoth, JohnGaunt and tigerking for those additional tips. No I certainly wouldn't risk using it on any very valuable items. I will experiment a bit with junk stuff first. Thanks.