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A different take on centering
Many have acknowledged the recent premiums centered cards are receiving respective to their assigned grades. However, the trend seems to be shifting where the expectation is all cards (any grade) should be centered and off-centered stuff shouldn't be touched with a 10-foot pole.
This might be a positive thing for collectors if you can find a good deal. But, it's as if folks want to hang a OC qualifier on low-grade stuff, regardless of the grading guidelines. So, we've gone from sharp corners to centering; What's the next OCD to sweep the hobby? Color? Registration?
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An$on Lyt!e |
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#3
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I don't know if it is the next "OCD" but registration has always been the most important factor for me. I'm nearly done putting together the 1953 Bowman set with an emphasis on focus and registration. It has been a nightmare to find several of the cards reasonably focused/registered. There are a few that I am convinced do not exist focused, such as Whitey Lockman (please email me if you have one to sell anyone...)
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#4
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My take has always been corners, and I am a corner junkie. Having the cards I purchased as a kid (in the late 60's and early 70's), my personal preference is for the cards to be as close to the condition they were in when they came out of the pack.
Straight from the factory issues such as centering and registration have always been secondary or tertiary to me, versus willful (or unwillfull - sp? ) damage. However, I will admit I now do look at centering and (to a lesser degree) registration when making a decent dollar purchase. I have this forum to thank for bringing these factors into my current buying habits.
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I'm just glad us off-center people aren't judged so harshly...not to our face(s) anyway. (proper emogi inserted here ___)
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. "A life is not important except in the impact it has on others lives" - Jackie Robinson “If you have a chance to make life better for others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth.”- Roberto Clemente |
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“Hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue” - Francois de La Rochefoucauld. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other. - Ulysses S. Grant, military commander, 18th US President. |
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#9
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I gladly jumped on a bunch of beautiful cards recently (post-war) that were either 8's or 9's with the OC qualifier, simply because the centering wasn't bad at all (they probably came within a hair or two of not receiving the dreaded Q) and they only cost a fraction of the price of straight 8's and 9's.
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#10
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#11
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Cobb looks like Leona Helmsley there. Interesting effect.
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#12
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Cobb is sad you're making fun of him. His makeup is running.
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An$on Lyt!e |
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I don't mind as long as the criteria is consistent. Plus, card fixers cannot fix the centering so probably a natural progression because of technology.
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#14
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Poor centering is not a big deal to me as that is how the card(s) were packed out. Same with registration. Soft corners and creases are far less tolerable to me as those were caused by collectors, not printing machines. I'll never deal with paper loss, residue or trimming.
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#15
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For me, #1 is focus/registration, #2 is centering and #3 is corners/edges.
I also agree with Prince Hal regarding 1953 Bowman. I'm working on the HOFers in the set, and have been at a standstill for months, trying to find focused and centered cards of the last seven HOFers I need. Steve
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#16
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I will agree that with so much nit-picky focus on centering over the past decade plus, it's interesting to me that registration and color issues aren't highlighted more. Last year at one point I had 2 copies of a PSA 6 1967 Topps Clemente #400. One was centered very well and had perfect color and registration. The other was centered a little worse, and the image had a very light blur effect to it; Roberto's teeth had almost a 3D quality. Putting the cards side-by-side, it was a no brainer which was the more desirable card - yet they were both PSA 6's and in the absence of a comparison - the one with the worse registration would not have anything officially "remarkable" to be said about it in an auction listing. This is difficult to understand. I can tolerate an OC card or a dinged corner for a lot longer than I can a card with overall poor registration.
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Postwar stars & HOF'ers. Bowman / Topps Cubs team sets. Last edited by jchcollins; 11-20-2018 at 12:25 PM. |
#17
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For what is most important, I would say equal tie between centering, focus and printing (marks, dots, the color job). If all three aren't really good I won't even consider the card. I have too little money and there is too much nice stuff to buy a card that is little too "off" in a category. Now, about corners, they have to be simply decent for the grade. The corners kinda sorta have already been taken into account with the grade on the slab. But the grade on the slab doesn't always take into consideration the centering (60/40 vs 55/45 vs 50/50), focus, and factory slight print blips
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#18
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I expect the trend to be toward prizing cards with more (overall) border ahead of perfect centering. For example, two cards same grade: Card 1 is perfectly centered with medium to narrow margins all around; and Card 2 is centered a little high and right. But Card 2 has two sides that have borders very similar to Card 1 and two borders that are bigger, hence the off center. Wouldn't you suspect Card 1 is perfectly centered because it was trimmed,
making Card 2 more attractive because it wasn't? Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk |
#19
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Centering
I agree that centering does and should bring a priemium. Many of the BSF E98s that were untouched for over 100 years can even be found with severe off-centering / issues. That said, a few appear to have perfect centering, corners and registration. Very rare to find pre war cards with these attributes.
Last edited by LincolnVT; 10-21-2019 at 03:48 PM. |
#20
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Centering
If one of my cards is off-centered, I just move over a bit. The registry thing usually goes away after I wake up and take the bottles out to the recycling.
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#21
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Maybe this is just me, but: my thing has always been that if it's a flaw that happened before it came out of a pack, like wax stains or centering or print lines, then it's less concerning to me than if it's a flaw that happened afterwards, like creasing or writing or surface wear. I'll take better centering over worse if that's the only difference, but as a general principle that's what I work with.
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#22
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Seeking very scarce/rare cards for my Sam Rice master collection, e.g., E210 York Caramel Type 2 (upgrade), 1931 W502, W504 (upgrade), W572 sepia, W573, W575-1 E. S. Rice version, 1922 Haffner's Bread, 1922 Keating Candy, 1922 Witmor Candy Type 2 (vertical back), 1926 Sports Co. of Am. with ad & blank backs. Also T216 Kotton "NGO" card of Hugh Jennings. Also 1917 Merchants Bakery & Weil Baking cards of WaJo. |
#23
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Postwar stars & HOF'ers. Bowman / Topps Cubs team sets. Last edited by jchcollins; 10-21-2019 at 04:54 PM. |
#24
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I borrowed this pic from another thread. I would take this Aaron card over one perfectly centered in the same condition any day of the week.
Centering means almost nothing to me. Just no major creases or paper loss though the players face and I am OK. |
#25
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For me, most important is the appearance of the image area. Clarity, surface abrasions or creases are big negatives, especially if they impact the player’s face. These same faults on the borders mean much less. To me, east-west centering is very important, north-south less so. Corners don’t mean a lot and back damage, especially on blank back cards, means virtually nothing. I’m picky on cards where I have multiple copies to choose from. On many things I collect the cards are rare and then I take what I can get and upgrade if a better copy comes along.
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#26
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I'm still a centering snob and I don't expect that to change. Give me soft corners and centered any day.
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