Archival tape 0

[Dark Knight]

Does anyone know if archival tape can safely be removed? If so, would it grade out as a universal blue label or would it grade as a PLOD? Thanks!

[Tony S]

Archival tape should safely come off. You would use a solvent. How safely it is to remove depends on the quality of the paper the tape is attached to and how good one is at using solvents to remove tape.  Overall, it's best to leave it alone. 

Speaking of leaving it alone....

Tape - archival or regular - does not by itself get a PLOD.  CGC's treatment of tape is to not allow it to ever improve the grade of a  book. If the tape repairs a defect - say a detached staple or a tear - the book will be graded as though the staple is detached or the tear is still there. If the tape serves no repair purpose, it is treated as a defect. 

But tape itself doesn't result in a restored grade. If your only concern about the tape is the PLOD, you don't need to get the tape removed. 

Edited March 4, 2017 by Tony S

[Dark Knight]

35 minutes ago, Tony S said:

Archival tape should safely come off. You would use a solvent. How safely it is to remove depends on the quality of the paper the tape is attached to and how good one is at using solvents to remove tape.  Overall, it's best to leave it alone. 

Speaking of leaving it alone....

Tape - archival or regular - does not by itself get a PLOD.  CGC's treatment of tape is to not allow it to ever improve the grade of a  book. If the tape repairs a defect - say a detached staple or a tear - the book will be graded as though the staple is detached or the tear is still there. If the tape serves no repair purpose, it is treated as a defect. 

But tape itself doesn't result in a restored grade. If your only concern about the tape is the PLOD, you don't need to get the tape removed. 

Thank you very much Tony for the insight on tape. All this time I thought regular scotch tape is the only kind of tape that would get a book on a blue label. Glad to hear that no matter what kind of tape it is, the book can still grade out in a blue label which makes sense to me.

I'm not a big fan of tape at all because of the long term harmful effects it has on the book and it just looks ugly to me. I guess it's best to get a taped book evaluated by a professional to see what the best course would be.

[Tony S]

If there is a problem (as far as PLOD goes) is that archival tape can sorta look like a repair tissue and archival paste repair. Which is considered restoration.  But person good at recognizing restoration should be able to tell the difference. 

There are several Restoration pros that could remove the tape.  My own experience is that for restoration removal (and this tape isn't restoration, but removing tape would be similiar) that CGC's in house service (CCS) is convenient and quicker than most (for removal). Once done they can send it on over to CGC. 

CGC's pdf submission form - that you download off the website - now can be used to send books to CCS as well.