The flip is the commodity
 

This made me smile.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225042549483?

Pete, someday Altman or Karpathy or some other egghead may perfect AI that scours eBay for cards as effectively as you do, but today is not that day. Today you are the master of eBay.

Haha. I had a search for a 59 Mantle and it just happened to come up. Truly hysterical though. It looks even better on this screenshot.

The image of the flip is a little blurry, but I believe in person those bar code lines on the label are sharp enough to justify the label receiving the EX grade.

Brian

Peter's Delta nickname is "Marshall McLuhan".

As someone who doesn't prioritize centering as much as surface and image clarity, I can attest via decades of bidding/buying that while the flip does set the base price there are a notable amount of people who will bail on a card if the centering isn't there no matter what the flip says.

Centering is a money killer for mid-to-low grades.

Almost all my "great deals for the grade" on cards with an established market involve centering issues.

Although the optics are certainly bad - who puts the flip as the first image!!??? - I suspect the reality is slightly less damning.

My experience is that it is often hard to read the flip, including the cert #. I suspect this seller just wanted to make it easier for the buyer to check out those details.

And -total wild leap here- I’m guessing that the seller isn’t particularly sophisticated when it comes to managing the images for eBay, so just sort of stuck it wherever and didn’t really pay attention to the fact that it was front and center.

Now if the seller had only included 1 picture, and just the flip in that picture, then I would be a lot more inclined to agree with your jaded conclusions.

I didn't come to any jaded conclusions, I am sure you're right, it's just funny especially the screenshot in light of what we often discuss here. Chill!!

Fair enough. Please let the record reflect that I have chillingly withdrawn my presumptions about your inferred conclusions.

I'm with you. My focus is on corners and whiteness/brightness while I'm easy on centering. In fact I'm delighted to get certain cards much cheaper if they're well off center.

:)

So if anybody has any sharp, white but off center 1954-65 Baseball cards that they're willing to sell CHEAP, I may well be interested.

;)

Dear hobby, protect this man!

Just take a look at this absolute kryptonite to centering-centric collectors.

Sharp surface, sharp image, the overlay of all the printed colors done well (notorious issue for uneven color overlay), and centering that would require a fainting couch for over half the hobby...

I'll take it...and the discount that came along with it.

Nice Leaf Pafko card...to me registration and good color are keys to me in identifying a card as aesthetically desirable. Centering is not much of a consideration.

Looking at your card, I just realized that Andy Pafko should be in the Hall of Fame, being that he was able to accomplish so much as a batter while swinging an incredibly tiny bat.

Brian

I am actually surprised that the flip isn't the only picture!
.