How do you remove cigarette odors from collectible porcelain dolls and boxes that you acquired for resale?

4 Responses to “How do you remove cigarette odors from collectible porcelain dolls and boxes that you acquired for resale?”

1. Comment by sue

   Wipe the dust off the boxes with damp towel after using canned air or an air compressor with controlled blow.

   Spray the dolls with Odo-Ban. It is not at all harmful to dolls, fabrics, etc. And it does indeed get rid of the smoke scent.

   I use Odo-Ban on my dogs to get rid of skunk odor, drapes and my wools, weavings and yarns, before sales. I haven’t harmed any of the delicate silks or the super fine wools at all.

2. Comment by idealab25

   Activated charcoal would “pull out” the smell but it will be a slow process.

   I would contact my local disaster cleaning company. Yeah, the ones that come in after your house has burned down or you finally found that cat that was missing for a few decades! I believe that they will be able to remove most of the smell by exposing the boxes and dolls to ozone. Damage should be minimal.

3. Comment by vieille poupée

   I feel for you I have been selling Dolls on ebay for 10 years and have stayed with a 100% rating. They will not buy from you if they are smokey, Most of the Franklin Mints and other newer dolls are not even selling if they do a very small amount.

   I have repair and restored dolls for 20 years and one area of work for me is large fires and the dolls come in from the different companies. The dolls have to be striped hand washed the hair dipped and all of the clothes washed by hand as well. I do then by the box lots and get 55.00 per doll. I wear gloves because the stain from the smoke gets all over my hands. I put grease remover on a rag and wipe all of the stain from the boxes.

   Then I have a special machine that I put everything in for 4 days solid with out opening any doors. This machine is very expensive.

   Other suggestions are nice but once you have damp weather the odor comes back and even if it closed up in a box dryer clothes spray nothing works, it has to be totally removed. Dry Cleaning does not do for the doll and it wrinkles the clothes. I do this professionally for very large company’s through out the southern USA.

   If you sell items like this one ebay you will have your reputation ruined, because they will want their money back. You are selling very damaged items.

   My best advice is to return them to the lady. You will have so much time in something for the 10 to 20.00 you will get on ebay. Go to ebay and check out your competition and look at closed auctions.

   Best of Luck

4. Comment by Kathy L

   I restore antique furniture for a living and often deal with having to remove odors from fabrics. There is a great new products called Room Shocker. From a company called biocide systems the website is http://www.BiocideSystems.com. It will completely eliminate any odors and decontaminate an entire 500 square-foot room. When I have furniture with odors, I stick them in a room the size of a closet or a bathroom and set one of these room shockers off. They really do a nice job without harming any of the fabrics. It even takes a smell out of the wood. you should give it a try I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
   Good luck.