Are you tired of big unsightly stickers on your favorite games? What if you could just get rid of them? Fear not! Pull out your trusty electronic cleaner and some cotton pads, because we’re going to clean these bad boys up. Please, share some satisfying before and after pictures!
Nothing more satisfying. I regret not taking a before pic of the Pet in TV we got last year. You can’t tell now, but it had like three real big nasty stickers with residue all over. You could barely see the cover art.
I love this idea for a thread. These are beautiful and I’m going to sully it with the absolute worst version of the sticker – when they put it on the inside, below the protective film, on the actual cover/insert:
I am also very interested in this. I have a fair few games I bought at gamestop, the main culprit for this, and I haven’t yet attempted to remove any because it’s intimidating. I THINK I did it back in the day like right when I got a game “new” as they liked to call it, and at that time you could just peel it off. but with games I got on ebay or in other used stores or whatever, who knows how long that adhesive has been there. I’ve been thinking of experimenting with something cheaper… if nobody else has experience maybe I’ll do that.
I’ve had a few in my time over the years, while it’s very time consuming I could always get it off perfectly with a scalpel blade. There’s no special method to it, just very very slowly. Try using a clamp or two to keep the insert flat and some paper either side so it doesn’t get damaged and you should be good to go. Eventually.
Oh and on plastic cases, this was a tip given to me years ago by someone in a video game shop - hairspray. Remove any paper inserts, a few sprays on the case, let the sticker soak it in and while it may take a bit of rubbing, it will remove the adhesive every time. Just leave the case to dry fully before putting the sleeve back in.
I got this at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo last year and it’s one of the very few examples of an object I have that I think is “fun” just to have. I’m not really a collector, but I do irrationally like the PocketStation!
It’s this kind of stuff, but really anything with a high amount of alcohol should do the trick. I’ve used some isopropal alcohol on more tricky sticker residue.
I use Goo Gone for cases! I assumed everyone used this. looks like not! It is a bit oily so you have to do a lot of wiping for cleanup, but it works. It’s not great for using on paper though, like manuals or record sleeves - but I assume nothing is??
As for using a scalpel for removing labels on paper inserts, that sounds dangerous as heck! Feels like I’d damage the art by accident basically every time. I’ll try it on one of my cheapo xbox games. Gamespot was really dedicated to ruining game art for whatever reason. They really went out of their way to do it!
If you use the blunter side of the blade and go very slowly by pushing it along as you go, there’s no danger at all. Having the sharper side helps if there’s a really stuck bit. I haven’t done it in a while luckily but it’s like riding a bike.
Now doing that while riding a bike… That’s the Danger Zone!
I use 99% isopropyl alcohol for all my label and sticker removing. Cheap and leaves no residue behind. Also good for wiping down controllers and remotes. Also also good for cleaning cartridge contacts.
I have very relevant information! I too use orange oil based goo remover for stickers. But also plastic razors! Yes they exist, and they’re pretty soft and flexible so you can use them on all sorts of things. I usually spray on some orange oil, let it soak a bit and then scrape that badboy off easy. I think a little more care would be required with DVD style cases though?
I’ve tried these myself - do they work for you? I find they’re not thin enough to work on most of my stickers, so I kind of returned to the goo gone scraper tool. still can’t figure out what to use on the actual paper sleeves though…
I mostly use them on appliances/electronics. Like laptops and chargers and things like that. They do work in that application, but you need to let a solvent or orange oil do the hard work first.
I couldn’t find a picture of this before, but now I finally found one. So I present to you all the dreaded disc sticker, the bane of all collectors. I don’t know how common this was elsewhere, but there were at least two different Swedish retro sellers back in the day that plastered these abominations on their used discs.