You gotta have the solder sucker. Have the iron just got enough to melt the solder, then suck it up. Industrially made boards usually require a very high iron temp which makes it a little scary.
Discussion
Yeah, I have a solder sucker. I think it's me not getting the board hot enough and I'm paranoid about burning it out.
You can get up pretty hot. Hotter than you think. I replaced all of the lights in my keyboard and have done other desoldering too and I've had to go up to almost the hottest setting on my iron.
I also don't really have the greatest soldering iron, it's an old radio shack one that only has a 20 watt and a 40 watt setting.