[SllX]

Foil weighs more than paper. Don’t think I could do it now, but when I was a little kid with little kid arms, I could slightly perceive the difference in weight between Yu-Gi-Oh packs. Had a pretty good success rate too, but it annoyed the folks at Blockbuster watching me rummage through the box at the register doing this so the real challenge was finding a store that would let me pick my packs.

[barbazoo]

This reminds me of my grandma who claimed she could tell if a Kinder Surprise egg had a plastic toy or one of the, often more desired, figurines in it by shaking it a certain way. That always impressed me. I wonder if that's why she did it or if it was to amuse me. I miss my grandma.

[throwaway894345]

In general, it's easier to approximate a difference in the weight of two objects by shaking them rather than merely holding them in either hand.

[kizer]

Are Yu-Gi-Oh cards worth much now? Have a huge collection. Unfortunately my we’ll-meaning mom wrote my initials in sharpie on the back of a bunch of the cards so that people wouldn’t steal them, LOL. I’m wondering what kind of cleaner will take the sharpie off but not damage the cards.

[lstodd]

Isopropyl alcohol would do it. Extremely unlikely to do any damage, but try on one first just in case. Use cotton pads. And get some 99.99% stuff, not this "rubbing" crap.

[syntheticnature]

Probably merely having played with them will nick a big chunk of the value; collectors are looking for perfect condition, mint cards.

That said, I found https://yugiohprices.com/ if you wanted to take a look; there are some super-valuable ones, but it sounds like they were extreme rarities for special events, and otherwise the top card is just $444.44.

[mistersquid]

> I’m wondering what kind of cleaner will take the sharpie off but not damage the cards.

If you ever were established as a go-to knowledge source for Yu-Gi-Oh or an adjacent domain, those sharpie initials could actually increase the value of those cards…

[kizer]

...good point. If I’m famous one day, the cards could be significantly more valuable.

I’m not strapped for cash (knock on wood) right now so I plan to hold on to them indefinitely, until an obvious reason to sell or give them away appears.

[lotyrin]

Try a dry-erase pen or dry-erase solvent

[tablespoon]

Rubbing alcohol dissolves sharpie ink, but it's probably only worth trying if the surface is coated and nonporous. I use alcohol prep pads for this.