About 6 months ago I managed to get my hands on Matrox Parhelia, brand new in box. It is the later "bug fixed" AGP 8X version, with higher clocks. The listing however, did not have picture of the box... just generic picture of the card taken from the internet, so it was a gamble, and the price was, although high, still lower than other two options I had at the time. Once the package arrived, I was a bit underwhelmed. The box was in great condition, but it had a very large sticker (white inventory sticker), right on the front side. Very large... it was about 1/5 of front side actually, so it really bothered me.
Yesterday I decided to take a risk and try to take off that annoying sticker. Took a hairdryer, some precision blades and after about 1.5 hours I finally managed to take of the sticker without damaging the box or the paint. What remained as a problem was the glue, a large quantity of it across the whole area where the sticker was. I googled a bit, and found about three solutions. The first was the scotch tape and lifting the old glue with it, the second was isopropyl pads, and the third was Zippo lighter fluid. At first I though scotch tape is the way to go, however it is sort of mechanical method, and since the area is large, the chance for damage was very high, Isopropyl also seemed like a more aggressive chemical method. So in the end I decided to go for lighter fluid.
I was skeptical at first... but it really proved to be a miracle method. Fast evaporation, no damage to cardboard or paint... it just needed patience and a dozen of cotton swabs. Took about 30 minutes, but the result was amazing... Never really tried something like this before, and I am so happy I managed to restore the box back to decent condition. To protect it from other items in the drawer, I've also put it in a new cellophane wrap, non-stretchable so it won't stick or take paint off in the future. For some unknow reason I have failed to take a picture of that annoying sticker, as I was so focused on getting rid of it. But at least, you can take a look at cleaned and wrapped box, tucked away with other goodies. I fully recommend this lighter fluid method btw... it's literally magic at work.
