[MattyC]

Snowman, I totally agree. I, too, first assess a card's framing— if it feels right to me, and I know right off the bat, then my eye is drawn inwards from the even framing to the central image. Then that image has to be focused with good color. At that point I go for it.

For example, a 51B Mick can have very rare centering, yet those dreaded print lines or a registration/focus issue (which is so prevalent on that card) will totally kill the card.

Sidenote: a case can be made that the 51B Mick is an even more brutal card to find with great centering and image quality than the 52T Mick.

I also agree about the amount of truly dead centered 1952 Topps Mantles in existence.

I have been tracking them probably very similarly to how you have been over the years.

My number was also ~20 what I would call "best centering available" examples of the card. I like to phrase it this way: there are 1951B and 1952T Mantles, and then there are centered examples of those cards. The population of the latter is very, very low. And relative to demand for those examples, fugghedaboutit.

One specimen of the ~20 that comes to mind was that gorgeous PSA 3 that Heritage sold last year and went for $162,000; that card definitely was better than the recent SGC 5, which was certainly no slouch compared to the usual examples that surface in any grade.

By the way, truly gorgeous Jackie right there! Well chosen!