THE TROPHY COLLECTOR
Replica Trophy & Football Memorabilia Collection
TROPHY CLEANING TIPS
Nickel Plate Trophies
All of our metal trophies are nickel plated trophies and are anti-tarnish, and therefore do not require much maintenance. Just dust the trophy with a soft, non-abrasive dusting cloth, preferably 100% cotton. The typical cotton yellow dusters you find at the supermarket are fine. Do not use microfiber cloths of any kind. Do not use any commercial polishes of any kind.
If you do need to clean the trophy, firstly try to buff the trophy with a soft cloth. If smudges persist, clean the trophy with water and a tiny amount of ordinary soap. Dry with a soft cloth/towel and allow any remaining particles to dry naturally. Be careful at all times when cleaning as you do not want to end up with swirls or small surface scratches on the plating.
Handling: Special silver handling gloves should be used at all times when handling a nickel plate trophy.
Please Note: Pay particular attention to the Usage Do’s and Don’ts of maintaining your replica trophy. These trophies are essentially designed to sit in a glass cabinet, as collectors display pieces, nothing more. If used and displayed correctly, your trophy should not require any cleaning at all, save for the odd light dusting. It is not recommended that you use your trophy for anything other than display purposes, and should you choose to, you must understand the potential consequences and damage that this could do to your trophy and accept responsibility for same.
Silver Plate Trophies
Some older trophies might be silver plated as opposed to nickel plated. Most silver plated trophies are coated with a micro thin anti-tarnish lacquer, in which case polishing or cleaning is not really required. However, silver plated trophies that do not have this extra coating will suffer from natural tarnishing.
If your trophy has no protective lacquer and is tarnishing, you simply need to polish it with a silver polish such as Brasso or similar. Make sure you apply the polish with the soft sponge provided or a very soft cloth. Apply the polish slowly and evenly, in a circular motion. Remove any polish residue by buffing the trophy with a super soft cloth.
If your trophy does have a lacquer, but is still tarnishing or the lacquer has ‘crusted’, this means that the lacquer layer has been penetrated and the silver plate is no longer sealed or protected. In this case, you need to take your trophy to a specialist who will advise - usually it means the protective coating on the cup needs to be stripped and re-coated.
Handling: Special silver handling gloves should be used at all times when handling a nickel plate trophy.
Resin & Gypsum Trophies
Some of the miniature trophies on the website are made from resin/gypsum. Resin & gypsum trophies usually come with a painted or electro plated nickel finish. Painted finishes cannot be polished for obvious reasons, but it is not advisable to polish plated resin or gypsum either. These trophies should simply be buffed with a soft, non-abrasive dusting cloth. If cleaning is required, use ordinary soap and water. Do not use chemicals or polish.