Makes me want to go raw

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Posted By: steve yawitz

Strange. I looked at that card and thought that it probably had a relatively high technical grade - say an SGC 50 or 60 - but that it looked horrible because of the weak registration. Turns out it has a relatively low SGC grade and that most people find it quite appealing.

Doesn't necessarily make me want to go raw but it does make me want to keep looking for cards where there's a gap between numeric grade and my own visual preferences. Case in point:



On one hand, it's just an accurately graded SGC 20; but on the other, I find the overall visual appeal stunning. I'm not at all bothered by minor paper loss like that and my eye is not drawn to the crease in the lower left. I'm sure many collectors would rather gouge their eyes out than look at this card, but I love pieces like this. I've taken just about every approach on the raw-graded continuum before finally figuring out what works best for me: avoiding the numbers game and simply maximizing appeal to my own eye while hopefully minimizing cost.