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Those inventory/ID stickers are really annoying...

Wow! how exactly did you get that off so seamlessly?

It took about 5 minutes to get this off. There are 2 different kinds of stickers, ones with water based adhesive and those with other types of adhesive. The water based stickers, like this one, are the easiest. I dip my finger into water and dab the water on the sticker. After a minute or so, the paper starts to get mushy from the water. At that time, I use my finger to rub the mushy sticker paper and the mushed paper slowly comes off. It takes patience and a few more dips into water to get the paper mushy enough to rub all the way off. Once the paper is removed, the adhesive dissolves in the water and easily wipes away. Sometimes, the sticker will have a glossy type surface and the water tends to not soak into it. In that case, I lightly scratch the surface of the sticker until some of the glossy surface is scratched away and the water can get to the raw paper beneath and starts to make it mushy.

For other types of adhesive, I use Zippo lighter fluid. The lighter fluid doesn't have much effect on water based adhesives but it will dissolve most other adhesives very nicely, then the sticker can slowly be peeled off. A bit more lighter fluid and any adhesive residue can be wiped away. In most cases, when the peeled off sticker is removed, the lighter fluid evaporates and the adhesive becomes sticky again, allowing the sticker to be reused.

record labels themselves are generally made of very hardy paper and will not be affected by water of lighter fluid. One notable exception I've found is the late 78 rpm matte finish RCA Victor labels. Those are easily damaged by water. If a record label is scratched through the glossy layer, water can cause further damage to the label if it gets under the glossy layer to the raw paper beneath. The lighter fluid has virtually no effect on paper.

I posted a 'how-to' video on YouTube using a record that had both types of stickers, a water based adhesive sticker covered with scotch tape. That was a real challenge. It took several minutes to remove both stickers, but it came out just fine.

https://youtu.be/vPK6CtX2tn4

Thanks for the tip about trying Zippo fluid to remove the non-water based adhesive stickers and tapes.

The water based stickers are seldom a problem to remove with some warm water dabbed around and on the sticker and gently rolling (with finger tip) the loosened pieces of sticker off the label until the original record label beneath was exposed.

I've noticed that sometimes removal of a sticker, even very cleanly, tends to leave a shadow of the sticker on the label where some of the original label color was removed. Not always though.

I can remember one time many years ago that I found a rather valuable record with a couple (!!) of stickers on the label. I removed one of them very slowly and carefully only to reveal that the sticker was put on the label to cover a missing piece of the label! Oh GREAT... NOW what do I do...

I cannot recall how many hundreds of records I purchased over many years from a long time friend, the late Arthur Pare of Shelburne VT, who used to mail his record auction lists to interested buyers including me. But I will never forget a record auction that he mailed out that had MANY pre-dog Eldridge R. Johnson 3000 series Victor Monarch records. I bid high on all of them and subsequently won all of them. When I received the records every blasted one had its otherwise BEAUTIFUL original pre-dog Victor Monarch label severely gouged up by some buffoon who obviously used a sharp fingernail and nothing else (no water or other loosening agent) to remove the sticker. I was devastated at seeing such otherwise beautiful condition very early records with (now) awful looking labels. I mean...REALLY?? Who in their right mind would CONTINUE to scratch big pieces out of one record label after another after seeing how horrible the sticker removal job came out on the FIRST ONE? Wouldn't you just say "Ahhhh...I better leave the rest with their stickers on as this first one looks REAL bad." Nope. Just kept plodding along destroying one label after the other. Oh well. I'm hoping it wasn't Arthur who did it and I wasn't about to call and ask him after receiving the records. He was a great guy and was very honest and fair in all the years I knew him.

Thanks for listening.

Doug

Very inventive, Cliff! Thanks. And that is a real horror story Doug! I'm sorry about that.

The labels of white label DJ / promo discs can also be pretty flimsy stuff. I've seen the paper on those bubble with just a tiny exposure to water.

FellowCollector wrote:I've noticed that sometimes removal of a sticker, even very cleanly, tends to leave a shadow of the sticker on the label where some of the original label color was removed. Not always though.

The sticker tends to preserve the surface of the label beneath it. The shadow results from the label under the sticker not being exposed to the same sunlight and other deleterious environmental elements that can fade the rest of the label.

I was fortunate with this label as there is only the slightest hint of shadow.

CDBPDX wrote:It took about 5 minutes to get this off. There are 2 different kinds of stickers, ones with water based adhesive and those with other types of adhesive. The water based stickers, like this one, are the easiest. I dip my finger into water and dab the water on the sticker. After a minute or so, the paper starts to get mushy from the water. At that time, I use my finger to rub the mushy sticker paper and the mushed paper slowly comes off. It takes patience and a few more dips into water to get the paper mushy enough to rub all the way off. Once the paper is removed, the adhesive dissolves in the water and easily wipes away. Sometimes, the sticker will have a glossy type surface and the water tends to not soak into it. In that case, I lightly scratch the surface of the sticker until some of the glossy surface is scratched away and the water can get to the raw paper beneath and starts to make it mushy.

For other types of adhesive, I use Zippo lighter fluid. The lighter fluid doesn't have much effect on water based adhesives but it will dissolve most other adhesives very nicely, then the sticker can slowly be peeled off. A bit more lighter fluid and any adhesive residue can be wiped away. In most cases, when the peeled off sticker is removed, the lighter fluid evaporates and the adhesive becomes sticky again, allowing the sticker to be reused.

record labels themselves are generally made of very hardy paper and will not be affected by water of lighter fluid. One notable exception I've found is the late 78 rpm matte finish RCA Victor labels. Those are easily damaged by water. If a record label is scratched through the glossy layer, water can cause further damage to the label if it gets under the glossy layer to the raw paper beneath. The lighter fluid has virtually no effect on paper.

I posted a 'how-to' video on YouTube using a record that had both types of stickers, a water based adhesive sticker covered with scotch tape. That was a real challenge. It took several minutes to remove both stickers, but it came out just fine.

https://youtu.be/vPK6CtX2tn4

Excellent tip -- THANK YOU!

FellowCollector wrote:Who in their right mind would CONTINUE to scratch big pieces out of one record label after another after seeing how horrible the sticker removal job came out on the FIRST ONE? Wouldn't you just say "Ahhhh...I better leave the rest with their stickers on as this first one looks REAL bad." Nope. Just kept plodding along destroying one label after the other.

It seems like many people is not intelligent enough to see any difference. Pasting an adhesive sticker on the label is idiotic in first place: there is absolutely no need for that under any circumstance, and only a cretin would not understand that the label below will be damaged. Tearing off a label by removing a sticker and go ahead as if it was just all right as before is something that not even a diagnosed mentally deficient would do.

However, I can provide countless pictures of records damaged both ways by supposedly "normal" people.