General Forum

Won an auction on Sportlots and received the cards yesterday. The only problem is the seller must have been a smokers cause the bubble mailer and the cards had a smokes scent to them. Odd that is kind of lingered in my office. Very strong smell. Had to put the mailer outside.

It has been a while since I've had a package smell like a smoker's paradise. Some years ago I saw some techniques for supposedly getting rid of the smoke smell. I forget what they were or if they even work.

What I usually do is spread the cards out someplace where there is room, they won't be bothered, and I won't smell them.  Eventually the smell dissipates. 

I was continually getting that issue with one seller in particular on that site.  So i had stopped buying from them.  Sportlots is the wild west of not only packaging, but condition the cards will arrive in... Most experiences have been good, but lately so many over taped, ciggy smelling, non paying experiences have really soured me from the site. 

I haven't had this experience when obtaining cards, but did have a book that I purchased on ebay that reeked pretty bad.  I feel that smokers should disclose that fact on their listings or their profiles.

For once I feel lucky that I don't have a sensitive nose. I have never noticed a smoker smell on a card.

I buy a lot of cards and comics and when I find myself in this situation I put the items into a rubbermaid tote with my ozone generator and  it clears it up after anout an hour.

will edit with link... originally purchased for smell in the car daughter used to get carsick this was a lifesaver.

Ozone generator 2000mg/h

expander thanks, this is great advice, I'm going to look into getting something like that myself! avsbruins65 and parsley24, I bet I know exactly who you mean. I stopped buying from that seller as well partly because of the awful smoke smell and I believe also because they tended to take a long time to ship things out, then they'd give you an iffy sob story.

When I've run into situations like that, I've had pretty good luck using the technique demonstrated in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqLLAdatisU

The trick with cards is to spread them out as much as possible to let air get to their surface area.  Also, being patient with the process is critical.  In really bad situations, I've had to leave cards in the "decontamination chamber" for upwards of a week.

One additional thing I learned (not outlined in the video) was that you can actually "refresh" the rocks by putting them outside in the sun for a few hours.

All of my Minnesota Vikings cards smell of failure and defeat. They just reek of 6 decades worth of being just a missed field goal away from glory no matter how many quarterbacks we borrow from other organizations. I'll try that ozone generator thing but I have my doubts. At this point, I'll try anything though.

P.S. I swear I'm a Vikings fan, we just sound a little different than most fan bases.