Best card grades for the money

[cgjackson222]

My experience is that third party graders a) are not consistent enough to generalize from b) are not primarily concerned with eye appeal, and c) the population distribution of a given card's assigned grades holds a lot of weight.

PWCC, for all its faults did bring to the forefront/exploit the fact that some cards just have better eye appeal than others at the same grade.

A lot depends on the pop distribution. If there are as many 6s in a card's population as 5s then there will be a limited premium for a 6. But if 6s and upward are scarce, but 5s or below are not, then it will carry a heavier premium.

Another issue is that eye appeal is obviously in the eye of the beholder, which further complicates the ability to make broad generalizations.

For me, I am foremost looking for cards where the surface, color, and registration are excellent. I also look for cards that are centered from left to right, as top to bottom doesn't matter to me as much. Corners and the back are probably the least important thing to me. And if creasing isn't obvious, it usually doesn't bother me. I have some 2s and 3s that have creases you can barely see, or a stain on the back, that are otherwise gorgeous. And I have some 4s and 5s where the corners aren't great but everything else is. But to someone who cares about corners, these cards may not be appealing.

The attached Mays got dinged because of a small, light stain on the back, and the Clemente has unobtrusive creasing.