1969 Alcindor PSA 8 (OC) question

[russkcpa]

What would this card grade with no qualifiers ?

[Peter_Spaeth]

6 I think. I don't think it properly could 7 but I suppose it's possible.

[russkcpa]

Too bad. What a beautiful card. Looks pretty close to being acceptable at bottom (but not close enough I guess)

[esehombre]

Yeah i am wondering how far that one is off from a straight 8. I have one in similar condition as well. I still think it is really close to a straight 8

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

.

[russkcpa]

Here is my 6
Wonder if this is an 8 with no qualifiers....or if it just made the NQ grade as a 6 ?

[swarmee]

PSA's normal policy in these cases is to award the higher grade with an OC qualifier if the centering would drop the grade by AT LEAST 2 grades. So the grader *at the time* would have given it a 6 or lower.
However, PSA is well-known to be inconsistent in this. It would be easy to determine the centering of this card top-to-bottom just by taking the measurements and dividing. Then you can compare against the PSA grading standards (which we know they don't really follow very well) to see what it SHOULD be given on a regrade.
However, PSA has supposedly tightened up their centering standards this year because of the ridicule they've been getting on message boards, IMO. Although I still believe they're eye-balling it rather than truly determining it.

OP card: Top 263 - 242 pixels = 21. Bottom 829-823 = 6 pixels. So slightly worse than 75/25.

russcpa's card: Top border: 290-269 pixels = 21 pixels. Bottom border: 877-870 pixels = 7 pixels. That's 75/25 centering by my count. According to the Grading Standards page, that is the dividing line between a 6 and a 7. So if you want to try for a PSA 7, you can. Might have had a better shot last year.
https://www.psacard.com/resources/gradingstandards

NM 7: Centering must be approximately 70/30 to 75/25 or better on the front...