Removing the Ugly EB Games/Gamestop stickers

[FatCobra]

How do you get rid of those annoying stickers on any used games you buy? I hate seeing "trade in and save!" on my copy of Gradius III&IV.

[Andi]

If it's on the plastic case, use rubbing alcohol.

[crithit5000]

Um, peel off as much as possible, then get a rag that's lightly soaked in dilluted rubbing alcohol to get the pain in the ass adhesive off. Of course, be careful not to get the cart's label all messed up...

Fun Fact:This technique was mentioned in an issue of Nintendo Power. After they had released some sticker set that you could apply to your controllers, some people wanted to know how to get that damn sticky adhesive off. NP suggest doing exactly the opposite of what Nintendo's own manuals say, and I find that vaguely amusing.

[Damocles]

I find the easiest way is to simply peel off as much as you can, then use the largest piece and reapply it to the parts left on the case. Eventually, all the adhesive and leftover tag will come off. If not, simply grab some scotch tape and do the same thing.

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, rubbing alcohol works quite well at label removal. Scotch tape works on some types of adhesives, but not all. I've been told that the "orange magic," "goo-gone" and other citrus-based cleaners work well but I've never tried them.

The sticker type I can't remove at all are the silver "rental only" tags that seem to be stuck on a lot of used cartridge games. When you pull them off, they leave behind the "void void void" crap in silver plastic covered with some super sticky crap that -nothing- seems to remove. I tried rubbing alcohol, tape, steel wool... nothing. I just put some scotch tape over it and ignore it now... looks like crap, but I have no idea how to remove the stupid stuff.

[iatneH]

Personally I use the scotch tape method. I have disgustingly sweaty hands, so I can't use the original label to remove the rest for very long before it becomes unusable.

I haven't tried using rubbing alcohol, but if you're using Goo-gone or Goof-off or some kind of special adhesive remover, my advice is to test it out a bit first, because those solvents are known to dissolve certain types of plastic (make sure your game cases aren't one of them).

The sticker type I can't remove at all are the silver "rental only" tags that seem to be stuck on a lot of used cartridge games. When you pull them off, they leave behind the "void void void" crap in silver plastic covered with some super sticky crap that -nothing- seems to remove. I tried rubbing alcohol, tape, steel wool... nothing. I just put some scotch tape over it and ignore it now... looks like crap, but I have no idea how to remove the stupid stuff.

I know those... I've had some success with those on my Hellfire Genesis cartridge, although it involved fingernails and a LOT of time and patience...

[llabnip]

I use a hair dryer on low setting. Be careful to not melt any plastic (and on CD cases, always remove the CD and place it in a safe spot temporarily). Heat up the label which will re-activate the glue and then it should peel right off with very little residue.

Any remaining residue: I use Goo-Gone (commercial Citrus-based goop remover). Use sparingly, get the glue off and then use a lightly damp cloth to wipe any remaining Goo-Gone and adhesive off the cart. Try not to get any Goo-Gone on the label - if you do and don't get it off with a good clean moist cloth, it will stain it (but I've had good luck with wiping down the cart afterwards with a moist cloth and then patting dry...).

Try it on a cart you don't care about first - once you get the cleaning pattern down, you can safely remove just about everything (including those nasty VOID silver stickers... those will come off with heat and Goo-Gone treatment).

While I recommend Isopropyl Alcohol (91%, not the 70% rubbing kind with nasty mineral oils) for cleaning contacts, it may be a little too destructive to labels.

[icycalm]

You could also buy a bunch of DVD cases and swap them.

[Acid King]

Goo gone is the way to go. I used that at the video store I worked at and it worked perfectly.

[roushimsx]

another vote for goo gone. Doesn't work for cd cases (stains them), but for DVD Cases and carts, it works awesomely. If the sticker goes over the label then you can still use the goo gone, but you'll need to dab it with a q-tip to ensure you don't wipe the color off of the label.

Recently restored a Hybrid Heaven cart that was covered in rental stickers and now it looks awesome.

Don't really recommend swapping out with regular DVD cases since xbox/ps2/gamecube games all use different cases than regular DVDs. If you can find someplace selling amary cases then stock up on 'em though.

[Capt. Takehiko]

You could also buy a bunch of DVD cases and swap them.

That's what I do.

[FatCobra]

You could also buy a bunch of DVD cases and swap them.

That's what I do.

All the new "hip" stuff gets the cases my shmups came in, so my shmups have a nice new case while the "garbage" games get the ugly sticker covered ones.