What do you prefer, off-center with sharp corners or?

[horzverti]

I believe that since we are dealing with easily damaged cardboard, sharpness of corners means more to me.

Out of the pack a card can be OC, but will almost always have razor sharp corners. As collectors, we cannot preserve centering, but we can preserve sharp corners.

So if I have a choice of buying a sharp, yet OC card or a centered card with touched corners...I will usually choose the sharp OC card.

Curt

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by horzverti

I believe that since we are dealing with easily damaged cardboard, sharpness of corners means more to me.

Out of the pack a card can be OC, but will almost always have razor sharp corners. As collectors, we cannot preserve centering, but we can preserve sharp corners.

So if I have a choice of buying a sharp, yet OC card or a centered card with touched corners...I will usually choose the sharp OC card.

Curt

I definitely agree with Curt's approach as a general rule. But in the end for me, it all depends on the specifics of a particular card. Some o/c cards don't look too bad at all, while others just make me cringe. When I'm seeking 1961 high numbers, for instance, so many of the All Stars are waaaaay o/c and still have ridiculous BIN prices. I just pass and would have a problem adding them to my set even if they were incredibly cheap. No eye appeal, as others say.

Now, for my 1969 set, it's almost impossible to find a centered Roberto Clemente. There are 8 billion Clementes available out there, but they are all tremendously o/c. So, I eventually found this one with nice, sharp corners and, of course, o/c, but not enough to be too troubling. Not too bad in my mind at all. I have since removed the wax/gum stains.

69clemente.jpg

[hangman62]

I don't mind slightly off center cards..to a degree...I wouldn't want a card cut off so much as to chop the cap off the player...almost to make it appear he had no hair..or the hint of possibly wearing a wig or something

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by hangman62

I don't mind slightly off center cards..to a degree...I wouldn't want a card cut off so much as to chop the cap off the player...almost to make it appear he had no hair..or the hint of possibly wearing a wig or something

Why do you keep mentioning hair, wigs and toupees in your posts?????? What the heck are the rest of us missing?????

[GasHouseGang]

Actually, for a 1969 Clemente, that card is very nicely centered. I remember buying mine, and the dealer had pulled a bunch of stars from a vending box and all of the Clementes were all OC. I just picked the one that I thought was the best of the group. After that, I noticed all of the 1969 Clementes I saw were always off center.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

Actually, for a 1969 Clemente, that card is very nicely centered. I remember buying mine, and the dealer had pulled a bunch of stars from a vending box and all of the Clementes were all OC. I just picked the one that I thought was the best of the group. After that, I noticed all of the 1969 Clementes I saw were always off center.

Agreed. Every one I see is way o/c, so I was happy to pick this one up for about $20.

Originally Posted by hangman62

I don't mind slightly off center cards..to a degree...I wouldn't want a card cut off so much as to chop the cap off the player...almost to make it appear he had no hair..or the hint of possibly wearing a wig or something

That would be a miscut

[JollyElm]

Ron, he knows they're miscut and he's just screwing with us. A nice guy, but personally I think Ral G. is losing his mind. Here are his posts from various threads just from today (titles in bold). Notice a common theme??

72 T set
I agree it was quite 70s " hip mod" style when they came out..as a kid..I thought they were pretty cool.. that was around the time when some players like Joe Pepitone started wearing a toupee during the games

O/C cards
I don't mind slightly off center cards..to a degree...I wouldn't want a card cut off so much as to chop the cap off the player...almost to make it appear he had no hair..or the hint of possibly wearing a wig or something

odd card
It also appears that he is wearing some sort of hair piece ??

Vince
OK, OK, lets not get....." wigged out" over this thread !!

?
Does Tony LaRussa wear a toupee ?

cutting
Yes, thats true..in the early days Topps factory did you a "jig saw" type blade to seperate the cards. It was very similar to a " wig saw" blade that they use to cut and shape mens hair pieces

Vin
Oh yea.. Vin come up with some classic lines..what about the call on the Koufax perfect game..".2 and 2 to harvey Kueen".... but the silence on the Puig HR call, Im not sure, with a lot of that toupee adhesive they reccomend no movement or sound during the application.... it helps the wig adhere to the bald scalp

sets
Yes, I agree the atachment to cards and sets is a strong bond. They make a bonding adhesive that men use to hold their hair pieces on their heads also..but I think the baseball card bond is stronger

team
Yes, those Cubs team around that era had quite a few All Star players, that infield was solid with Kessinger, and Santo. Santo later did Cub broadcasts, He had an awful hair piece that was clearly visable on the air

storage
I know the best price on card savers in avail from a dealer at the Philly Show, he usually has the corner booth,Im pretty sure he wears a wig too

Topps photos
Yes, I see that, another tell tale sign of re-use of old photos, it looks like Mays is wearing a toupee, and in the other pic..three yrs later....you still see the toupee peeking out of the batting helmet

dull knife
54T, 55T, 56T,..Im pretty sure a dull cutting knife could also have a negitve effect on a mans hair piece, the horse hair tends to curl at the ends

Vince
Isnt that wig he wears absolutly awful,the guy is like 90...and its a huge pile of orange and red racoon on his head

lots of stars
How about that 1962 T Mgrs Dream of Mantle and Mays..and in the backround I think you see Aaron,Banks, there is another player in the shot also..might by a coach , from a distance it looks like he is wearing a hair piece

[mintacular]

I am moving towards being a centering snob but do still have quite a few o/c cards before I started appreciating this aspect. But the third spoke nobody has mentioned is pack-freshness/color/image, etc which transcends both centering and corners. For example, I think this Maris is better looking than a centered one that is faded and/or banged corner, some of which could get a 5.5. My Maris: