Poor Register - Blurry Cards

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Posted By: Mr. Met

This is now only my second post on this site. I wanted to sound off about the failure of most grading companies to account for poor register within the given grades they assign to cards. To me, I would rather have an SGC 60 (or a PSA 5) that has perfect register than an SGC 84 (or PSA 7) that is blurry. In my opinion, we are collecting cards mostly for the visual appeal thereof. Therefore, why would I want to own a blurry card????????? It drives me nuts when I see a high-grade card for sale with a blurry card. Why bother?????

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Posted By: leon

Almost all collectors, except the "number on the plastic" folks agree, especially in 19th century sepia type cards (N172,n175 etc). The photo is always the most important thing and the grading companies won't take it into account. I have had PSA and SGC cards that were high grade and they looked like a shadow of a player....yet I have had cards graded a 1 with almost perfect photos, absolutely gorgeous, and some damage to the blank back.....I doubt it will ever be corrected to have the photo taken into account as it's too subjective....regards

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Posted By: barrysloate

I think it would be reasonable for grading services to subtract one grade for a blurry card or for a photographic card with a light photo, and to add one grade for a card with an absolutely pristine photo. And that's at the minimum.

Leon and I once owned the same card at different times- an N172 portrait of Del Darling. The front was best described as gem mint- no visible wear and a deep, rich, perfect photo. But because of some miniscule paper loss to the reverse, it was graded Fair. We both felt that card should be the poster child for why the grading services still don't know how to grade certain issues.

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Posted By: Mr. Met

I agree about the Old Judge and vintage photo cards. I really notice the bad register issue on 1950-1952 Bowman baseball and football - beautiful cards, but when blurry, no reason to even own them.

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Posted By: steve yawitz

I'm also fanatical about registration - to the point that I'd probably prefer a pinholed or tape-stained SGC 10 with near-perfect registration to an SGC 60 that might have one color just a skosh off. But it certainly seems like the grading companies pay it no mind. (Does PSA even still use the OF qualifier?) Nor do some collectors. I don't understand it, but to each his own, I guess.

http://imageevent.com/yawie99

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Posted By: davidcycleback

If the graders don't include registration in the grade (and I don't know that that is true), I think it's a good thing. It forces collectors to realize that they have to rely on more than the number grade to evaluate a card, and that two cards of identical grade can sell for different prices.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

The appearance of a card is only evidence substantiating its grade. The slab is proof.

It is the collector who must realign his thinking here, not the grading companies who should alter their criteria. The slab is the proof. The card is only evidence.

Ask any registry collector about grading, and see how many blank stares you get. Who cares about the method, what counts is the result! Who cares about the evidence, the only thing which matters is the proof.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

IT'S THE SHARPNESS OF THE CORNERS....STUPID" ! ! .......

GIL

What does Registration have to do with it, anyhow ?

I have seen quite a few graded cards that have high grades and poor registration....and, I'm not kidding
when I say "where's the 3-D glasses" to look at these cards. These blurry cards are across the spectrum;
but, most of the ones I've seen are T-cards, Bowman's and Leaf's.

TED Z

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Posted By: Joe D.

check out the hands on the bat... very hard to look at them for too long.



Grading companies do seem to ignore registration, eye appeal, and photo quality. All things that are extremely important to me.


...I find it funny with photo cards, like the T200 Fatimas or the Old Judges, when I see high graded examples that are blurry or light faded brown - yet they still receive a high grade because the corners are sharp. These are photographs - and the photo quality seems to be ignored.

...poor registration - graders should be just as harsh on that as they are with paper loss.

...eye appeal - every little bit of the card is looked at, but do the graders ever step back and just look at the card as a whole?

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Most Pre-War to Modern card collectors, SGC to PSA to Beckett collectors, agree that registration is important. So it's not just a vintage thing. 15 year olds don't want their Ichiro refractor out of focus either.

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Posted By: Steve f

I agree, registration is the paramount criteria... Did anyone else find the dolphin in that Coan?