Condition perils of early 70's cards

[jchcollins]

I don't know why, but for some reason a few months ago when I decided to focus in more a bit on 1970 through about '73 Topps cards - I thought I would have an easier time finding affordable cards with less obvious condition issues. Boy was I wrong. Is it just me, or did QC at Topps noticeably go down after the 1960's? Sure, it is easier to find cards with sharp corners in the '72 set than with 1956, but here is a list of various and sundry other issues that I've found (mainly '72 Topps is going to be my example because they seem to be the worst...) that I wasn't necessarily expecting:

1. Horrible centering. This was no surprise, but gosh did it get worse in the '70s?
2. Centered cards, but ones with sneaky diamond cut or extreme tilt issues upon second glance. I got burned on a '72 Carew that had the latter but for some reason was still graded a PSA 8. Also I have a slightly diamond-cut '73 Schmidt - it doesn't really bother me, but it's there. I went online and looked at the PSA 5 and 6 Schmidt RC's for comparison - and more than half of them had some degree of that issue.
3. Edge dings! The borders on '72 and '73 Topps seem particularly fragile - say in comparison to another set with white borders - like '65 Topps. Even cards that are otherwise in super high grade can have an easy to miss edge ding if you aren't being careful. Older sets it seems to me that the white borders are smoother and glossed better or something. Some '72s and it's like the edges and corners are a thin coat of white-out that can easily be chipped away!
4. Print spots that hide until you've bought the card, and random stray ink (roller marks?) and other common PD issues, like fish-eyes. Unless it's really bad, TPG's seem to go pretty easy on the fish-eye type things, but still - they are noticeable.
5. Card stock in general just seems crappier - and thinner. I've noticed that in comparison to other issues, 1972 Topps cards often slide around noticeably in their PSA holders. A trait which usually quickly earns their liberation from those holders when in my collection.

On the whole I'm not complaining because this timeframe is still cheaper for me in collecting than say - '62 Topps. And by my own description I'm not a "high grade" collector. But I will admit the condition issues I've continually stumbled upon in terms of what I see for the grade have been eye-opening and a bit unexpected.