SGC grading on centering
 

I know SGC grades tough on pencil marks and that sort of thing, so I was curious how this card got an SGC 40 with the 100/0 centering:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1911-T205-Mordec...item1c1ce92c43

I'm not asking specifically about this card, but more on the methodolgy they use. Their Grading Scale clearly states that the only possible grade for a card with less than 90/10 centering is an SGC 10 (or A, I suppose). I don't have a lot of graded cards, so I'm curious if this is just one that was overlooked, or does SGC not follow their own guidance on centering? If they did, this would be a 10 in my mind.

Cheers,
Geno

100/0 centering? Hell, it's got part of the photo from another card...

no, that would be like 120/-20... and then it would actually become more valuable. :confused:

Thats right and it's an interesting phenomena. I guess a printing oddity so bad that it is collectible. I wish all my 95/5's that I upgraded were 125/-25 and I would have a ready made market. :rolleyes:

Well aside from the centering the card is nice, probably a 50 or 60, so the centering brought it down like it was supposed to. In a PSA holders is a 5 or 6 MC.

Not sure what else you would expect the card is nice and appears to have minor wear and no creases.

James G

sgc 40
 

Grade looks right to me...... Not like it is a 6 or a 7 with awful centering or a spot of stock loss on the back. That would be a different story....

Cheers,

Go Bruins!

The grading of centering on tobacco cards may be a bit different from say Topps/Bowman cards.
I've seen some oddball centering with tobacco cards.

Grading philosophy
 

James --

I agree it's a nice enough card other than that- and it's priced fair from I guy I've bought from successfully in the past, so don't confuse my question with one about this particular card/sale. My question is more general, about SGC's grading philosophy. It clearly states to get an SGC 20, 30, or 40, the card needs to be 90/10. This one is certainly not, so it should have maxed out at an SGC 10.

So I guess my question is, if I send in a card that would get a "PSA 4 (MC)" that had 100/0 centering, what would I expect SGC to grade it? I always figured it would get an SGC 10 - I thought their grading scale was pretty rigorous. If it was a nice card with a pen mark on the back, it would certainly get a 10 from SGC, from what I've seen.

Take Care,
Geno

Much like anything else centering is just part of the grade and they grade on a case by case basis. So it's not a firm rule.

If you sent in a mint card with a stray pen mark on the back it would not get a 10 I don't think.

I have several nice SGC 40 cards with some minor paper loss and they are graded right, it just depends. I feel those "rules" are general guidelines and not the end all be all.

James G

I believe SGC changed their criteria on centering a while back. Maybe someone from SGC can chime in. They seemingly had almost no centering standards before, but in recent years they implemented standards similar to PSA's. My guess is the grossly off-centered cards are older grades.
JimB

This isn't that old as it has the most recent label, so it was graded in the last year or two I forget when they moved to teh plastic logo on the back).

Anyway nuf said :-D

James G

Wow, James. you must have gotten an SGC grader on a good day like his birthday or something because I have tons of otherwise 60s, 70s and 80s with minor paper loss on the back which were crucified. Likewise some beautiful Zeenuts, just gorgeous with a tiny number in ink on the blank back near the top and they plunged down to 10s and 20s. I continue to use SGC but go in knowing what will happen with any paper loss or writing on the back.

I'm just going to say that I think it's stupid that SGC doesn't clearly state their qualifiers (MC, OC, etc.) like PSA does. Why are they leaving it up to interpretation as to why a card got a grade? If this card gets a 5 or 6 from PSA with the qualifier, at least there is no debate as to WHAT the qualifier is.

What if you send SGC a card with great corners that is heavily off-center, AND it has a small pencil mark, and it comes back, oh, at 20. Well, which one was the larger determinant in getting that low grade? I hate having to interpret this, and IMO, it's the reason they'll always be inferior to PSA. People paying thousands of dollars for cards want to know EXACTLY what they're buying.