Free Resources
Why This Page Exists
CardConservation.com is built and funded by The Cardboard Alchemists Patreon members, and most of the 120+ technique guides are members-only. That's what keeps the lights on.
But a fair amount of this wiki is open to everyone, and it wasn't easy to find. This page fixes that. Everything below is free and always will be.
Free Guides
The complete beginner's guide. Covers the four pillars of card restoration — cleaning, polishing, scratch reduction, and flattening — what each one actually does, when to use it, and the order to do them in.
Best first read if you've never restored a card.
Chemical handling, ventilation, heat equipment, and the techniques that carry real risk of destroying a card permanently.
Read this before you touch a card you care about.
The full equipment and supply list — presses, plates, clamps, sprays, polishes, humidors, microfibers, sleeves, inspection gear — with direct buying links for every item.
The most-used page on the wiki. Bookmark it.
The wiki's complete heat press guide, all on one page. It opens with what not to heat press and why. Part 1 is the science by Matthew Musick of Shiny Asset Exchange: card anatomy, stock tiers by game, the Hydro Pump method, hydration timing, pre-wicking, press temperatures and layering order. Part 2 covers community methods: blotter stacks, cooling, the fridge set, IPA vapor crease work, troubleshooting.
Includes a free 31-slide PDF download.
Restoration Service Agreement Template
A free, copy-and-paste liability and scope-of-work agreement for anyone taking custody of other people's cards. Also contributed by Matthew Musick.
If you restore cards for other people and have nothing in writing, fix that today.
A six-panel conservation record that folds to card size and rides inside the toploader with the card. Intake condition maps, a full process log, disclosure tiers, and a defect marking system.
Free and open source — CC BY-SA 4.0. Print it, or fork the HTML for your own shop.
Free Downloads
| Resource | What it is | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Hydration & Drying Matthew Musick, Shiny Asset Exchange |
31-slide presentation on moisture, heat, and structural recovery — with before/after restoration examples | PDF, 13 MB |
| Conservation Tech Sheet CC BY-SA 4.0 — open source |
Fold-out conservation record that ships inside the toploader with the card | Print · PDF · HTML source |
| Restoration Service Agreement v1.1 — editable Word document |
Liability and scope-of-work contract template, with a per-card tier authorization schedule tied to the Tech Sheet | DOCX, 22 KB · About |
Free Video Tutorials
Step-by-step restoration tutorials hosted off-wiki, free to watch:
What's in the Member Wiki
For transparency — here's what the login actually unlocks. Around 120 pages, all written and maintained by working restorers.
Technique guides
Cleaning, pressing & flattening, heat press methods, surface repair, polishing, scratch removal, crease removal, indent removal, edge & corner work, delamination repair, rebacking, humidity treatment
Card type deep-dives
Every major TCG and sports card category, broken down by cardstock, era, and manufacturer — with the specific handling each one needs
Grading & authentication
PSA, BGS, CGC, SGC comparisons, pre-submission inspection, what graders look for, counterfeit detection, altered-card flags
Storage, sourcing & business
Long-term storage and climate control, display options, finding restoration candidates, eBay buying and selling strategy
Community Research
Member-run experiments and documented results — and the ability to publish your own findings to the wiki
Video library
Public and members-only episodes covering each technique in practice, plus the Discord community
Contribute a Free Resource
The free section of this wiki grows when people donate work to it. The Hydration and Drying guide and the Restoration Service Agreement Template are both here because Matthew Musick chose to make them public rather than keep them proprietary.
If you have a guide, template, checklist, or reference sheet you'd like published free under your own name and credit, see How to Contribute or reach out through the Patreon.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some pages linked here contain affiliate links. We may receive a small commission on purchases at no additional cost to you. This helps fund the wiki.