Eliminating Smoke Smell from Stamps

i have heard others do what you did .. put them in a box one layer at a time with a nice thick (1/4 inch or more) layer of baking soda in between and leave them for a while, i have also read that a nice dawn dish soap bath works wonders.

I cannot remember having many problems with smoke, but a few with that musty basement smell.  

Anybody try anything to cure that?

I have about a pound of stamps that have the cigarette smoke smell. I will have to try this....

Only you Kacyds, only you

So I received 564 Mint British Commonwealth stamps from an eBay seller and guess what? I opened up the bag and boy did I almost fainted. The bag of stamps smelled like a bag of cigarette butts.

I remembered we had a thread for this, so I will be getting some baking soda or talcum powder soon and hope to remove the smell from the stamps.

Hopefully by bumping up this thread, others will comment or can be helped with removing smells from their stamps.

Thanks for the heads up Dave. I bought some baking soda this morning and have the stamps in layers with the baking soda. I put them in a large plastic container, put it on a shelf and will forget about it for a month or so. The stamps are all mint with glue and there is a lot of good stuff in that bunch of stamps. Its just a shame that they came like that. I should have sent them back, but you know how that goes...

UPDATE....

So I bought a box of baking soda and had a Glad plastic container about 5"x10" or so.  I put down a layer of stamps poured a little baking soda on top and then more stamps.  I made several layers of stamps and baking soda and topped it all off with baking soda.  Every several days, I would give the container a gentle shake.  Dont know if this is needed, but I felt better doing it.

After two weeks, I opened the container and it smelled no better.  I started to think, we change the box of baking soda in the refrigerator every so often, because it absorbs any odors, so why not in this situation.

I took a bowl, put a colander in it and gentle poured the stamps and baking soda mixture.  I gentle shook the colander to get out all the baking soda.  Surprisingly the stamps came out clean without any residue of baking soda on them.  I smelled the baking soda in the bottom of the bowl, and did it smell bad.  I went ahead and discarded it.

The stamps still smelled, but not as bad.  I put them back in the plastic container and laid paper towel on top to absorb the smell.  Checking on the smell of the paper towel after 4-5 days, I changed the paper towels and continue to check it.  I probably changed the paper towels a half dozen times or so in the last month.

Well yesterday, I decided it was time to sort the stamps.  After taking the stamps out of the container, there was very little smell left, if any.  As for the plastic container,  I threw that out.  It absorbed the smell and decided it was time to throw it out into the recycle bin.

So last night, I sorted out the 564 Mint British Commonwealth stamps and was surprised of all the great stamps that were in that lot.  I'm glad that I took the time to invest in a box of baking soda and a dozen or so sheets of paper towels. For less than $1, I resolved this smelly situation.