Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwolf1963
I’ve seen cards with centering issues and no qualifiers worse than some marked as “OC“.
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People never seem to understand that centering is on a sliding scale. A PSA 8 has a stricter centering requirement than a 4 or a 5. That's the reason for the phenomenon you are describing. A card could be centered 75/25 s-s on the front and get a PSA 8 (OC), but if it were only a 5 it would not get the qualifier.
I would agree it can certainly seem random. I understand the reason for qualifiers; if a card is otherwise a 7 and the only thing wrong with it is centering, it can be misleading to call it a 4 or 5 when other things can be inherently wrong with cards in those grades. So 8 or 7 (OC) is more informative. I would agree with you that I don't like qualifiers on the whole though, which is why I prefer SGC. Just give me a number that accounts for everything that might be wrong with the card. Especially since SGC has tightened up on centering this year, that can lead to more confusion. I have several '72 Topps cards that were given 5's or 5.5's just due to centering, otherwise glossy surfaces and crispy sharp corners. And it's questionable. I think some of them may have been PSA 7's.