HOW TO CLEAN SPORTS CARDS TO GET HIGHER GRADES!

what is good everybody welcome back to Joe's card  stache I had a little free time this week so I thought this would be a great time to make a video  about card cleaning um getting some cards ready to send off to PSA and I want to do like a tutorial  video of how I clean my cards what tools I use to get you know better grades from PSA uh I'm also  just going to talk about card cleaning in general it's kind of a controversial Topic in the card  hobby some people like it some people hate it we'll

go into all of that should be really fun so  as always do all the YouTube stuff uh subscribe if you haven't subscribed if you like this type  of content uh I'm going to be putting it out all year should be really good so please subscribe uh  like this video please right now before you forget hit that like button and comment I'd love to hear  you know what you guys think about all this do you like card cleaning do you hate it do you think  it's unethical just let me know in the comments love to g

et a conversation started but uh with  that being said let's get into it let's talk card cleaning [Music] so what exactly do I mean by card  cleaning for me card cleaning is one step above what you would normally do when you send your  cards off to PSA most people just you know take the card rub it down with a microfiber cloth try  to get off any fingerprints and then just stick it in a sleeve and send it off to PSA I take it  a step further I have uh tools that I use and polishes that I use to

clean the surface clean  the front the back I can fix any Corners that it might be pushed up a little bit fix any edges  uh stuff like that you know I'm I'm not altering cards at all I'm not trimming I'm not adding  you know ink or anything like that those are all strictly forbidden from um grading companies  they will be able to tell if you've done any of that and they won't grade the cards this type  of stuff is completely acceptable it's just making the card look like how it was supposed  to

look when it comes out of the pack I mean I don't know how many times you guys have had this  happen but let's say you're opening a pack pack of 2022 prism and you're looking for an ilot Toria  card he's your favorite fighter it's a one in, chance you're going to get one but you pull one  and he comes out and you look at it and there's a big you know piece of Gunk on top of the card  and you rub it with a microfiber and it won't come off and you're like seriously I hit a 1 in a  th000 card and I

can't get it graded now because there's some [ __ ] on it from the factory that  happened to me a bunch and it really frustrated me and that's when I started researching online  about you know what we can do to these cards to try to fix them to get better grades and I found  um a YouTube channel called Kurt's card care now I am by no means sponsored by Kurt's card care  I'm just a huge fan of Kurt and his products and I just want to promote him because he's just  amazing he's been doing this fo

rever he made this product uh it's a kit that he sells on his  website Kurt's card care kit and he has you know a YouTube channel that has thousands of videos on  it you know how to fix everything you can think of he works on you know really really old vintage  cards like babee Ruth cards he works on brand new prism cards he works on Pokemon so uh check  out his website highly recommend it and uh ever since I discovered that I've been doing this with  all the cards I send to PSA and it's really

helped I think my grades have been coming out better so  I'm a huge fan of it it's also something I really enjoy I have a desk set up at home where I you  know have a little light and all this stuff and right before I go to bed I'll spend half an hour  an hour just working on some cards and it's really like meditative and relaxing so it's another part  of the hobby that I really enjoy so I'm I'm I'm happy I found it and I I I do it pretty much you  know every day every other day and yeah so that

's it so that's what card cleaning is I will say that  this subject is a little controversial uh in the card hobby some purists think that you should  not touch a card like this when you send it in for grading it's cheating it's you know it it's  considered altering which it is not uh altering a card if you look on psa's website or beckets or  any of them is if you trim or if you add any type of ink or paint or anything like that anything  added to the card or you know remov from the card is alt

ering but just cleaning the surface  or trying to fix the edges push them down is not considered um altering the card it's completely  acceptable so that's where I lie on it I don't think it's a bad thing to do and you know if it  can get you a little bit of a better grade if it makes the card look better why not and again  I enjoy it so I'd love to hear what you guys think uh you know let me know in the comments you  know are you for it are you against it what do you think of all this now I'm g

oing to give you a  little demo I have a couple cards I'm going to send out to PSA and I'm going to clean them and  show you what I do before I send them out and yeah let's do it okay let's clean some cards now  I'm going to try to give you the best demo I can uh this isn't the perfect situation to give a demo  like this um normally like I said when you do this I sit at a desk at home and I have a big bright  light right here and and that's the best way to work on these cards um this is my studi

o setup  with the lighting I usually use for my videos so it's not perfect and I also the cameras I have  can't really zoom in really close on the cards so I'm going to do my best I'm going to show you what  I normally do and uh just give you a general idea if you guys have any questions let me know but  uh I just want to show you the tools I use and exactly what I do to the cards before I get them  ready for PSA and I think you'll get a pretty good idea so let me show you my setup here this is

my  work area uh this foam kind of black mat is uh a very very good surface to work on this can be  purchased everything I have here basically can be purchased on kurts card Care's website which  is kurts card care.com and uh so the foam mat I put down because it's great surface to work on  cards and then I have his his card uh cleaning kit this is amazing this has been a game Cher for  me um let me show you what comes in this you have a Polish for um you know prism cards and stuff  like that to

get the surface nice and clean and shiny you have a cleaning spray that's if you  have like a really big piece of Gunk that you need to get off um this is The Edge tool this is  you know you it's basically just a piece of tube on top of a stick but it's really really good  for pushing down edges and um Corners to get them to lay down flat so that's that and then we  have some microfiber cloths uh another microfiber cloth and just some applicators to put the Polish  on and a cotton uh round thin

g that you can put the spray on and so that's what comes in the kit  and then I also have a magnifying let's put this over here I have a magnifying glass with a light  that is really good for looking you know really close up to see any kind of surface scratches or  um you know Gunk or anything like that uh I have some masking tape I use that to um I'll show you  and we have microfiber cloth which is always good for wiping off the surface uh these acrylic discs  uh you can also buy these on Kurt'

s card Care's website these are great for putting down on the  mat and to have a hard surface if you need to push down the corners and stuff like that and a  large Penny sleeve again you lay this down on the top of the card if you need to do some work on  it and you don't want to touch the surface and then I also have my uh card saver twos that  you know use these to submit to PSA and um I don't have any Penny sleeves I need to get some  Penny sleeves and these are the cards I'm going to be work

ing on I think I have four cards and uh  I'll talk about what I'm going to do to each one so uh wanted to give you an overall view of the  entire workstation now I'm going to zoom in more so so you just look at the card so I'll be right  back all right so we are nice and zoomed in now um as I said I have four cards here I'm actually  not going to do all of these uh now that I think about it it's going to take too long so I'm just  going to do these two I'm going to do this khabib and this Korean

zombie um I would be doing the  same thing to all four cards so it gets kind of repetitive and uh it takes a little while so I  don't want this video to be super long so we'll start with this Habib and I'm going to do my best  to not put my head down because uh normally I lean over as I'm doing this and I can't do that because  the camera so let's take out the [Music] card and I have this other piece of mat right here which  is really nice if you need to lift up and kind of move the card around

rather than having to  pick up the card itself uh so I just another piece of foam that I cut cut out that I use  and we'll take it out of the penny sleeve and the first thing that I do usually with  each card that I'm getting ready to send a PSA is I take some masking tape and I take  a big piece like so and I wrap it around my finger like that and what I do with this is  get off any fuzzies that are on the edge of the card a lot of times not so much with prism  cards but with paper cards you'l

l have these little fuzzies All Along The Edge and I like to  get rid of all that stuff it it just makes the card look cleaner I think so you just run the tape  along the edge just like that and I think it just kind of cleans cleans the card up so there's no  fuzz or hair or anything like that stuck to the edge um so that's usually the first thing I do so  should have a nice clean Edge all the way around now next thing I'm going to do is add a little  bit of Polish um so we're going to get out o

ur Kurt's card care kit and get out um the I think  it's called polish the wax or yeah I don't know what exactly it's called but get out that and an  applicator which is those things right there and I'm going to add this to the surface of the card  and then wipe it away and basically what that does is clean off any kind of Gunk that may be on the  top of the surface and it also makes the colors pop and just makes you know the prism cards a  little shinier and just nicer looking I think you know

that really makes them look great in the  PSA slabs so when you first open your polish you take your applicator and you should just rub it  around real quick rub it up and down this makes it you want to make the Surface kind of like  a ChapStick so so that's the goal I usually do both sides and then once you got some on your  applicator then you do half of the card each you know you'll do one half and then you'll do the  other half so I put my uh large Penny sleeve over one half so I can hold th

e card down and  then I'm just going to apply the Polish to the card uh in C Small circular motions all around  trying not to hit the edges too much because you may push up an edge or something like that so I  kind of stay towards towards the middle without going too close to the edges so just like this I  know this is scary adding a substance to the top of a card but you know Kurt made this stuff so  it wipes away very very easily and cleanly and you'll never know it was on here once you wipe 

it away trust me so just kind of wipe it around it's like you're kind of polishing a car uh once  you got it on then you take your um microfiber uh towel I got these from the auto store but you also  can you come the the kit comes with a couple and you know you can buy little ones I just buy big  ones and cut them up because you only use them really once with one session then you throw them  away or use them for something else and get a new one cuz you don't want to use dirty towels for  this so

now you just wipe away the Polish like so and you always go towards the edges again so  you don't push up an edge and you know take your time with all this stuff go slowly you know it  you can wipe a million times it's not going to hurt the card so you may as well just try to  really get it off and make sure there's no residue and I don't know if you'll be  able to tell in the video but it really like makes a big difference in like the  colors and just the shine of the card so once you have one

side done done and you can  go over this again if you see some left over you go to the other side I like to switch  the card around because I'm right-handed and it's easier for me to work this way so  now we're going to work on this side of the card and do the exact same thing try to get  that in the middle here for you and add the Polish and one thing you do want to avoid is  serial number this card doesn't have a serial number but if it does have a serial number  don't put the Polish on top o

f it CU you can actually rub rub away the gold foil that's inside  of the serial number so just stay away from serial numbers obviously we're going to do an autograph  card next but obviously don't go over an autograph with this stuff either um but everything else it  can go over and um as far as paper cards versus prisms I haven't used the polish on paper cards  I tend to just use it on prism cards which is you know most of the cards I'm dealing with anyway but  um I may look at some of his vid

eos and see if I can do this on paper cards and what would be the  result but as of right now I just use it on prism cards let's see think we  got it off pretty good let's see yep that looks pretty good  and um now after that I will do the back same exact thing um maybe  I'll fast forward this a little bit so you guys don't have to watch me do  it but um you know just go over CES back flip around add a little B more of this I also use a new kind of part of the  towel as much as I can just so I'm

not using the same the same Parts over and over  again so kind of put my finger in a different place let's see that was pretty good okay so last step before I get it put it in  the card saver and get it ready for PSA is I like to go over the corners um usually what I'll do  is take a round piece of acrylic like this again these are great because they're um they're clean  and they're hard surface so you can press down a little bit more than this foam I'll put it on  the acrylic and I'll put the

big Penny sleeve over it and then I get out the corner and Edge  tool like I showed you before it's just like a a stick with a tube on it and what I'm going to  do is just very softly go over all the corners go you know this way this way with the corners  uh lost focus and um kind of just pushing them out just to make sure they're nice and sharp and  and and just perfect uh this card actually has really good Corners so this one probably isn't  even really necessary but I still like to do it anyw

ay um but you'll notice some cards especially  some paper cards will get a little soft on those corners and doing this just makes them a little  hard edged and you know maybe be the difference between a nine and a 10 so I like to still do it  anyway so like I said just very softly kind of go over the corner just like that just a few times  and then go up and then I'll just kind of go like that and then do this one and I will spin it around and do the other side put very press just just let you r

un over and get back as well this one  really justy you an idea what dowi hands just a littleit just one okay now that  that's done I'm going to take the card off give it one more once over uh usually at this point I  will just give it a quick rub with a you know um I don't know what they call these things just a a  lens cleaning cloth and just try to get any dust off actually I still feel like  there's a little bit of Polish right there okay and then at this point I'm going to go  have my penny

sleeve and this is like completely getting it ready for PSA put it in my penny  sleeve then you get your card saver uh for any of those who haven't submitted to PSA you have to  submit in these things they're called card Savers they're rigid card sleeves uh usually what I do  to kind of help out The Grater is I will take a little tab like this and put it on the back of the  card ah this is hard to do with gloves put it on the back of the card like that that makes it much  easier for the The Gra

ter to get the card out and anytime you can do stuff for greater they're  probably pretty happy about it put them in a better mood and then you just kind of push these  in as much as you can about right there and that is how I get something ready for PSA um this is  ready to go now uh I will be submitting it and it should do well the this card looks really clean  the edges look really clean Sur surface looks good um you know hopefully that polish makes it you  know so there's not a bunch of stuf

f on it and uh it's ready to go so we'll do one more card this  Korean zombie Auto from Chronicles I pulled this and actually had um a viewer hit me up about it  and say you know if you get that graded I'll buy it off you uh so you know I want this to find  a good home somebody who wants this card so it looks really clean so I'm going to get it graded  and send it over to to him once that once it comes back so let's do the same thing we'll take it  out of the uh top loader and out of the penny s

leeve and um like I said before we'll  start off doing the tape on the edges of the cart and again this this card really doesn't need  this this is mainly something I do for older like older tops cards really helps doing this  I just submitted a Jon Jones rookie and it had a ton of little fuzzies on the edge so uh  these newer prism cards don't have as much of an issue with that so that is done and  now we will do some Pol polish now like I said the Polish you do not want to go near  the autogra

ph so we're going to go around the autograph uh same thing just kind of  wipe get some polish on there and small CES and our cloth and wipe away okay now we're F around  do the other side again just cover the autograph no reason to  go near the autograph get Focus so okay now time to do back same exact  thing a little bit so you guys have to focused there we go so you guys  don't have to sit through all this okay and let's flip it to the  other side a little bit more polish okay let's take a loo

k  sure have any residue left over this looks really clean up I think  I did I saw a little bit yeah right here come off all right let's check out the other  side that looks good as well only thing I worry about with this card is there's a  little dot right there on his chest and I think that's in the card so hopefully they  don't ding me too much for that but uh we will see it looks like other than that it  should be a 10 um let's do our edges real quick thises use much do a couple just kind  o

f show you so if this was like you know a 2009 round one card probably want to do  this corner stuff a lot more you don't want to go too crazy cuz you can you  know overly bend the card but um you can really get some of those soft  Corners to be a lot sharper doing this and all you're doing is just  rubbing down what's already there it's just these cards being in top  loaders they can be pushed up just ever so slightly which makes them a bit  rounded so there's that and do other side okay and la

y that down put our plate over there  and like I said just give it one last rub with this and on the back as well and let's take a look at it real  quick yeah this card is really clean all right so [Music] now same thing  as before put it back in the penny sleeve and we'll put our little uh pull tab right there and get the card saver and that is ready to go to PSA so that's it that's what I do uh I know it's  not the the craziest thing in the world uh but for me it's just a matter of just you kn

ow these  cards that I want to send in PSA I want to get good grades and I do find that this really helps  you know a lot of these cards come with crap all over them Corners get pushed up a little bit from  being in a Toploader and this stuff really helps so let me know what you think hope you guys  like the video I hope it was informative and uh let me know if you have any questions and  again go out go check out Kurt's card care to learn all about this stuff and uh that's it so  I'll see you g

uys next time thanks for watching