Oh heck no! Don't replace the staples! Its like antiques. An antique is worth more if its still original. That is why even a old 18th century beat up furniture can command higher prices than one that had its legs changed, paint changed, etc.  Leave it the way it is. Many of the items are so old so its natural to have rusty staples. Let nature run its course but do not attempt to change the staples. I know some collectors here may object stating that rusty staples may affect the paper.

Gotta agree - leave well enough alone. Although tempting to change them out, you'll have someone out there that WILL recognize a swingline 440 from a bosticth series staple...  Paper damage can be a problem....

I guess I'll play devil's advocate on this one!  Change those rusty staples!  Once they have started oxidizing they will continue to do so and spread their dirty little yellow stain so long as there is still staple to rust!  I have seen staple stains as big as a silver dollar and have seen the paper entirely eaten away around the staples!  Changing the staples instantly stops the process.  It is easy to change the staples too!  Open the book gently to the middle, take a pair of tweezers and straighten the ends of the staples one at a time and then pull them out from the back.  Fire a couple of staples out of your stapler and slip them into the holes and press the legs together inside and your problems are solved!  It only takes about a minute with some practice.  As for affecting the price?!?!  How much do you think the module will be worth if you have stains covering the printing and the pages falling out where the paper rotted from the staple rust???  Or to use the antique table analogy, how much would that table be worth if the first time you sat down to dinner it fell over because all the bolts rusted through!?  Good luck!

Much obliged for all your help.  Your point on getting professional help makes a lot of sense - esp. on the rarer ones.  Will let you all know what I find out. Ta. sm

I know this is an old thread, but what the heck, why not bump it back to the top.



One thing you could do is find a module from the same era as the one you have with the rusty staples. Heck, an old B2 would work. Just take the unoxidized staples from the common module and carefully transfer them to the more rare one. The only evidence would be the rust stains from the old staples as to the fact that the staples have been changed (if there are any stains). That is actually a common practice in restorations as I understand it. However, finding identical hand-turned drawer knobs for a piece of 18th century furniture can be a daunting task. At the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem they have a chest from the 1680's (I think its the 1680's anyway). The lid was replaced in the 1800's and drops the value of it down to about a hundred grand from what would have been at least one million dollars (in my best Dr. Evil voice). You could probably count on two hands the number of museum quality American furniture pieces from the 17th century.

Yup, Antiques Roadshow is fun to watch. My favorite one was where a woman brought in a table (one of the ones where the table surface is on a hinge and lifts up so you can have more space) and spoke about how much research she had done and that she was sure it was American and probably from the late 18th century. Now the standard rule of thumb for an American 18th century piece of furniture over British furniture is a factor of 10 (Brit $10,000 American $100,000 and is an issue of rarity and not quality. The same goes for silver pieces from that period.). It was in excellent condition so this woman was expecting a quoted value in the range of about $150K. The appraiser lifted up the tabletop, pointed to the central column and said "This block of wood that forms the inner part of the center is yew and the table is from England." Now, I am not one to take pleasure in anothers misfortune, but it was something you would expect in a textbook on body language. Her face just went all tense, lips pursed, methodical nodding of the hed...while she tried to contain her disappointment (maybe even anger, like she wanted to scream at him that he was wrong but had no way to prove otherwise). I think he appraised it at about $20,000...heck, if she didnt want the table I would be happy to have it.



NOW, BACK TO THE SUBJECT...I should imagine that a staple is a staple is a staple. However, printing companies may use different brands but I think they are pretty much uniform in size. The question is, do you want a nice shiny, new, looking staple in that 25 year old module; or do you want a staple that looks 25 years old but is free from rust (maybe a little tarnished, but nevertheless free from rust)?



-PD

Doug Williams wrote:
We should take our D&D collections on the show and see if they can come up with an "expert appraiser" to tell us the values.  



Ah well, staple schmaple.

I have entertained the thought of taking a couple items in for fun. I am sure I would be sent over to the line that deals with trailer home merchandise....



On to staples however, if I was buying something rare and the staples had been replaced. I am certain my eye would always gravitate towards the staples every time I pulled it out of storage to look it over. I have noticed that if some items have rusty staples it doesn't mean all of them do. I would be tempted to sell off or trade off the item with the rust and pick one up that doesn't.



Later.

Adam

There is a big collectible magazine shop in London and their advice to me was to remove the staples (avoiding further damage and discoloration) but not to replace them...   They do this with old mags from the 60s/70s.  



Myself, I am not so sure.  I rarely buy modules worth more than $100 so I do replace staples.  I also do not especially value shrink-wrapped items for the aforementioned reason.



Thinking about the furniture analogies people used, you could look at replacing rusty staples as restoring the item.