*Many of the games I buy from flea markets have the classic WHITE, sun damage in the corners of the cartridges... The weird white "crud" that disappears when you wipe it down, then dries looking the same as it already had. Has anybody perfect a way to get rid of this white gunk? Or is it impossible to achieve... Many of my bulks deal games have this, and if I could clean the white gunk off - the labels are great and the carts would appear new! Any pro advice for this, or does a solution not exist? My games do not have the wavy, warped damage (shown in this photo below). My damage is just the white...

IMG: http://img225.imageshack.us/img22...

yeah, goes away when wet , no idea here, have a couple with that, we don't get much sun up here though

try vegetable oil on a cheap cart. maybe dilute it a little with water?
or theres that retro bright stuff. We ge ALOOOOT of sun down here.)

can you elaborate on why vegetable oil would work?

I have a few carts with the same white residue, and would love to know how to get rid of it.
I'd try the vegetable oil idea, but wouldn't it just leave an oily residue?

wow i was just going to suggest that. vegetable oil can restore somr dryness to your carts. i recently picked up about 50, dollar sport titles and they were clearly from a flea market seller. 

Just use a very light amount and avoid the label. Let it sit by itself for a few days and a significant but not all of the white dryness damage can be fixed. Make sure to wipe it clean.

Also it can help remove stickers on sealed clam shell games. Test a cheaply out first for both things.

This is relevant to my interests... I can try a few things out for you right now and report back, it is a lazy Sunday after all...
ETA: I can attest so far that none of the normal cleaning agents worked (Alcohol, Goo Gone, Weiman's) but I didn't expect them to. Vegetable Oil doesn't seem to work if you rub it in and wipe it off quickly. I'm now letting one sit with some vegetable oil soaking in for a few days...

@AceEbb = That's awesome of you to experiment brother! Something has to work to remove the white, even if it leaves a little blemish where the white once was. I know every collector has a few games with this "crud", and a solution would be amazing. Literally half of my games are in awesome condition other than that...

I've seen two distinct types of this damage. The one like in the photo, with the pock marks in the plastic - that is clearly heat/melt damage. You can even see further down the left side of the cart where the plastic is wrinkled from the heat. I've got a copy of Super Dodge Ball like this, which I find hilarious, because it's the only game I know of that actually has the "Do not store in extreme temperatures" warning on the end label as well.

It's definitely heat damage, because if you take the cart apart, the inside is bubbled and warped in the places the pock marks appear on the surface.

I've got a copy of Kings of the Beach that's a serious, severe case of this, the whole front of the cart is nearly white, and the plastic is very deformed.

The other variant of this I've seen, is where the plastic has white lines in and along the sides of the cart, on the end, etc - like the grey coloring faded out of it. But without the pock marks or warped plastic - just a marbled weird pattern to the fade. It might be related to moisture too - I found that if I leave a cart front in water overnight (a method I tried to make removing labels easier when making repros), I can get a bit of that fading to appear near the ridges in the cart. I will have to try leaving one for longer to see what happens.

The former, melted plastic damage is going to be irreparable. But the other fading? I'm not sure. I know that some people have figured out how to reverse the yellowing of old computer plastics, but I don't think this fading is the same type of problem. So, I really don't think there is any fix other than finding better copies of the damaged games, and to try to keep your games out of direct sunlight, avoid storing them in extreme temperatures, and don't feed them after midnight.

-Ian

No problem, all I had to do was go to my pile of crappy carts, plus I love experimenting. I found a good (or should I say "bad") candidate: ripped label Metal Gear with two equally whitened corners. I'll post a pic so we can see how it worked, I'll wait until tomorrow and let the veggie oil soak in nicely...

I really think it's something to do with the pigments in the plastic deteriorating or otherwise leaving the plastic. It looks OK when wet because of the way the water "lenses" the light. Kind of like how a wet car always looks great, because the water hides the paint fade and all the little scratches.

Oil might make it look good, but I have a feeling that once the oil is wiped off/removed, it'll look exactly as it did before. Or, you'll simply have an oily cart.

Worth experimenting on though.

Someone just needs to make the equivalent of shoe polish in NES grey.

-Ian

@RetroHacker - It's funny you mention the shoe polish, because I've considered 'taping off' my labels and repainting the carts entirely. I actually work for Sherwin-Williams and do color matches every single day. The only issue I have with painting my carts is - paint scratches incredibly easy... I'm not worried about my NES "getting hot", because we have paints that are temperature resistant. I'm just worried about how easily the carts will scratch - and looking worse than before. If I do decide to paint a cart, I'll post pics on my color match etc!