How important is centering to you

[Hordfest]

Happy Easter friends!

Just had a question to help me understand you guys better as buyers. When you are shopping for vintage to add to your collection or resell, how important is centering to you?

Would you buy a lower grade card with nice centering and presentation, vs. a higher grade card with better corners and surface, but with worse centering?

Personally, bad centering kills a card to me...just bothers me so much on most cards

[cgjackson222]

For me, by far the most important aspect of a card is the surface. I care more about the image on the card than anything else. I avoid cars with significant "snow" or and print issues on the face of player, and seek out cards with strong color and registration/focus.

Next important is centering. I find that if a card is centered well from left to right, that it is more important than top to bottom. I think this is because some cards (think '54 Topps) don't even have a top border, so it doesn't seem unnatural to me to have a small top (or even bottom) border.

Next important is corners, and last is edges.

[Carter08]

Originally Posted by cgjackson222

For me, by far the most important aspect of a card is the surface. I care more about the image on the card than anything else. I avoid cars with significant "snow" or and print issues on the face of player, and seek out cards with strong color and registration/focus.

Next important is centering. I find that if a card is centered well from left to right, that it is more important than top to bottom. I think this is because some cards (think '54 Topps) don't even have a top border, so it doesn't seem unnatural to me to have a small top (or even bottom) border.

Next important is corners, and last is edges.

This sums it up for me too. I’d rather have a slightly lower grade with strong centering and registration versus a higher grade that is not as strong on those fronts. A big distracting crease is a problem though - would rather have iffy centering if necessary to avoid that.

[Casey2296]

I have centering OCD so that along with registration and color are the most important factors to me. Add those three together and you get "eye appeal", like this.
_

[rugbymarine]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I have centering OCD so that along with registration and color are the most important factors to me. Add those three together and you get "eye appeal".

This is the way.

[ClementeFanOh]

Centering is vital when I consider buying a card- Trent King

[benge610]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I have centering OCD so that along with registration and color are the most important factors to me. Add those three together and you get "eye appeal".

Phil and Ian, speak for me as well.

This is the way; I can open up my Zion cases with a smile, as I flip through each row of nice looking old cards.
I am a Pre-War bottom feeder (Raw, 1's, 2's, etc,) but it does count; even at these low depths.

Ben

"I love baseball history backstory; especially when it involves cards."

[Orioles1954]

Centering is a factory flaw and as such is not a very big factor. Hell, some T206 people will give massive premiums for oc cards. Handling AFTER a card leaves the factory means much more. Creasing is a major factor for me and paper loss, residue, pin holes or writing is a deal breaker. So bring me your 90/10 and gum stained stars!

[Leon]

Personally, I generally buy on eye appeal and one of the biggest components, if not the biggest for me, is centering. I will take a small flaw or two, but centering is what my eyes focus on. And of course with many cards I/we collect we have to take what we can find (hence the beater thread).

I really like cards with somewhat of a wow factor, so to speak...
They have to be paid up for but I don't think I have ever regretted it.

[DeanH3]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I have centering OCD so that along with registration and color are the most important factors to me. Add those three together and you get "eye appeal".

100% agree with this.

[Dandor]

It depend on the card for me. 50's to 70's I Chase centering. The print quality is typically decent for those years and the cards are more numerous than people realize. What separates the cards in collectability and makes them special is often times centering. Finding a perfectly centered 1979 Ozzie Smith sets it apart from the high volume of off centered cards. Prior to 1950 I really go after print quality and color over centering.

[MattyC]

Centering and image quality must be there for me to buy a card. Corners are a factor that ideally brings down the price for me. I’ll pay a hefty premium for centering/image on a card that is rarely centered, but hate paying for corners lol.

[butchie_t]

As close as I can get to centered the better. And that depends on the set too. Some sets, you are just going to get close, and close is better than falling off one edge of a card. That is where I will pass on a card or replace it if it is in my sets. Needless to say, all of them have been replaced.

Diamond cuts are a pass too or a filler until I find a better specimen as well.

Cheers,

B. T.

[pcoz]

I need a solid image and registration for Prewar. Centering would come next. Some staining and creasing can give a Prewar card some character in my opinion. For Postwar, centering definitely comes first. Many Prewar are rare in general, but Postwar with perfect centering are rare too, which I’d need in buying a high priced Postwar card.


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[Lucas00]

Centering in my PC is pretty important to me. Just because I like them to look the best they can for my favorite players.

But on set builds I love having lots of different cuts and variation. It's more fun to look at to me. I like the natural look of how cards would've come out of a pack for one kid vs another back in the day.

[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

It's everything for me

[joejo20]

I like side to side centering to be as good as possible but it depends on how tough the card is to find. The rarer the item is on my want list the more tolerable I am but still with the hopes of upgrading later.

Here are some of my best centered examples












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[steve B]

I don't really worry much about condition on its own, especially centering.

To me it's the overall look, combined with the price.
A worn card I like priced at a worn card price (Or less if I'm lucky) is fine. A worn card at a premium price? not for me.

[BCauley]

For me, centering is the one trait of a card that I get hung up on for whatever reason. With that said, I know some sets just seem to have a knack for not being centered so I just try and get the best looking one I can get.

[LEHR]

Centering is the number one most important factor when I buy cards. This is part of the reason why I've never been much of a set collector as it's painstakingly tough to pull together 300+ cards with 55/45 or better centering for a vintage set.

[frankbmd]

I'm quite sure at this point that the forum's opinion on centering is a key factor for the "card doctors'" financial success in cahoots with the TPGs.

Crack, snip, snip and resubmit.


Footnote: I believe this is the first time I have ever used or seen '" used consecutively in the same sentence