← TCG Card Investor

Restoration Checklist

Cleaning a card goes wrong at a handful of predictable points. This checklist stops you at each one and marks the steps you cannot undo. Tick the damage at stage 01 and it skips the stages this card does not need.

DO-CONFIRM stages checks one card per run

Golden rules: they never come off the list

  1. 01The Base Set rule. Never start on your most valuable card. Build the muscle memory on commons of the same era and finish first.
  2. 02Surface hygiene. Work on the mat and keep it free of grit. Trapped grit dents the card under any pressure.
  3. 03Liquid discipline. Spray the applicator, not the card.

How to read this

Irreversible
Get this wrong and no later step recovers it: lifted ink, a permanent indent, a burnished surface, texture you can't put back. These are the killer items; if you only confirm a few, confirm these.
Conditional
Switched on by the damage inventory you tick at stage 01. A card with only surface grime skips the humidity, tool, and flattening stages entirely: they drop out of the count and Next jumps over them. Each stage says why it is in or out, and N/A / Include overrides it by hand; "follow triage" hands control back.
Pause before
The moment the stage is read. Do the work, then stop and confirm each item before you move on. Every item is written as an action you take, so you can follow it directly the first time and confirm against it once you know the stage.
Photos
Thumbnails sit on the item they illustrate. Tap one to open it full-screen and arrow through the rest of that stage's sequence in order. Videos open on YouTube, Instagram, or Patreon.

Compiled from the published restoration kit guides: Giovanni's Card Cleaning Kit (base), Card Tool, Flattening Kit, Humidity Storm, Precision Crease Tools, Holo Crease Thermal Pen, Holo Scratch Cream, Hyper Potion, Full Revive, Slab Crack Kit, and Grading. Structured on Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto: defined pause points, short DO-CONFIRM lists, killer items only.

Ticks and your place in the run are saved in this browser only. "New card" clears them. Nothing here replaces practice on bulk commons.

Get the Pokemon investing newsletter

One email every Saturday: the week's market moves and Buy / Sell / Hold calls. Free.