How Much More Will You Pay For Great Centering?

[Jcosta19]

Figured since we are all showing off our centered 51 Mantles I would join in.

I only pay extra for centering in sets or cards that are notoriously poorly centered personally.

General eye appeal is more important to me, centering included but.not necessarily crucial.1951_Bowman_253_Mickey_Mantle__SGC-Grade-1_Auth-0753745-front.jpg

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[DeanH3]

I will definitely pay a premium for centered cards. How much? Depends on how hard it is to find centered examples that particular card.

[Touch'EmAll]

That '52 Bowman Mays is a dandy.

[irv]

Originally Posted by skelly423

This may come across as a cop-out, but my answer is it depends. Centering is a big part of my evaluation of a card, but I also look for bright colors (no fading or staining) and good registration. I won't buy a card if it doesn't have all 3 elements.

I'm quite happy to pay a premium if I can check all 3 boxes, but the amount of the premium depends on the scarcity of the card, the number of issues with the particular card/set. For example 1933 Goudey doesn't have a lot of centering issues, so I don't pay much of a premium for well centered cards. By contrast 1952 Topps can be difficult to find well centered examples of certain cards, so I'm comfortable with a bigger premium for centering.

When I first rejoined the hobby back in 2016, I purchased many 52 Topps cards that weren't exactly centered, if you know what I mean? That has changed now once I became more educated and read on here numerous times how important centering was. I have now, for the most part, become fairly anal when it comes to centering, but then again, since most of my remaining needed cards are pricey, I won't be as anal with those if and when the time comes.

A fairly recent upgrade for me, and if I happen to come across a more centered copy of other cards in my collection, I will also give them a shot if the upgrade is significant enough.

[Doc]

Most of the time I am just glad to own the card. There is always a chance to sell and upgrade later.

Doc

[G1911]

Nothing. I will pay a premium for a heavy miscut, but centering is both a natural defect from the techniques of a century ago, and doesn't really impact a cards visual aesthetics to my eyes. I don't do high grade, but things like registration, brightness, etc. have a much greater impact on how a card looks.

I will take a creased up, pinholed and wildly off center Old Judge with a bright image over a PSA 6 with 50/50 centering that's fading.

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

For me, it depends on the card. If it is a high dollar card that is notoriously off centered (i.e. the majority of the cards are off centered like the 52 Bowman Mays) then I have no problem adding an off centered version of that card to my set...I will not pay a premium for a rare centered copy.

However, if a higher dollar card can be found fairly easily with decent centering, I will NOT try and save money by finding an off centered version...I'll buy a reasonably centered card for market price.

And for common cards to fill my set...centering is not an issue. While I wouldn't want an entire set of off centered cards, i don't mind my commons being a mix of centered and off centered...and sometimes I will intentionally pick up a cheaper common that is very off centered to allow me to check it off the list at a lower price.

The 1952 Bowman set is great example. I'm fine with an off centered Mays (because the majority of them are off centered....but I held off on buying a Mantle until I found one with decent centering (not 50/50, but not bad)...here are my copies of both of those cards from my set...and I'm very happy with each one):

Mays.JPG

Mantle.JPG

[puckpaul]

Originally Posted by irv

When I first rejoined the hobby back in 2016, I purchased many 52 Topps cards that weren't exactly centered, if you know what I mean? That has changed now once I became more educated and read on here numerous times how important centering was. I have now, for the most part, become fairly anal when it comes to centering, but then again, since most of my remaining needed cards are pricey, I won't be as anal with those if and when the time comes.

A fairly recent upgrade for me, and if I happen to come across a more centered copy of other cards in my collection, I will also give them a shot if the upgrade is significant enough.

The color and clarity of the off center version makes it look much better to me. I like centering but it really depends. Many off Centered cards are great if they have eye appeal.

[dio]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfpsTO4q3o&t=937s

go to start at 13:00
check the mantle and russell, see which one you guys think would rather have

[UKCardGuy]

Originally Posted by DeanH3

I will definitely pay a premium for centered cards. How much? Depends on how hard it is to find centered examples that particular card.

+1

For me it about balance. Sharp corners and a good surface are first. Then centering. It also depends how bad the centering is. I can handle 70/30 but 90/10 probably not.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by UKCardGuy

+1

For me it about balance. Sharp corners and a good surface are first. Then centering. It also depends how bad the centering is. I can handle 70/30 but 90/10 probably not.

I'm with you. Centering is important, but not sure I'm on board with it being exponentially more important than every other aspect of condition that hobbyists have been judging for decades now. I've been known to occasionally keep a worse centered card with nicer corners and better color over a perfectly centered one with lesser attributes elsewhere. The last time I recall that definitely happening was with my '73 Schmidt RC.

In general, I can tolerate mild OC simply because it was so prevalent in cards that came out of postwar packs in the 1980's and before. 70/30 one way usually doesn't bother me. If I have to look at a card twice to determine whether or not it's miscut - that and things like 90/10 centering or "sliver" borders - usually do bother me.

On the whole I kind of chuckle at the centering craze that has enveloped the hobby post year 2000 or so. It's really just cognitive bias. I don't recall anyone at Topps ever coming out and saying that the "perfect" Topps baseball card had to be cut perfectly centered. Why do we believe this today? Because of hobbyists (and ahem, graders...) drumming that into us at every opportunity for the past 20 or 25 years, probably. Yes, a well centered card is a thing of beauty, I won't deny that. But just because that is true does not mean that a mildly OC card is inherently ugly / a pure factory reject from the word go, owing only to our modern day biases.

[GeoPoto]

Trigger Warning: My intent is to surface two ongoing auctions that may be of interest to followers of this thread/poll. In doing so, I intend to mention PWCC and discuss the two auctions as though PWCC is just another auction house. In doing so, it is not my intent to endorse the past, present, or future business practices of PWCC.

PWCC currently has two 1953 Topps Jackie Robinson #1 PSA 6 EXMT on auction. One closes on the 11th; the other on the 14th. The first one has full borders, but is badly centered; the latter one is close to perfectly centered. At present the first one is at $1,575; the latter is at $3,600.

It looks like as good a "vote with your money" poll on centering as you are likely to get.

[tkd]

In the past I would pay a premium but today the premium seems far greater in most situations. In this market I'm much less picky. For example I'm looking to collect the goudey Ruth's again and I'll take a bit off centered with nice eye appeal, color, focus and so on.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by tkd

In the past I would pay a premium but today the premium seems far greater in most situations. In this market I'm much less picky. For example I'm looking to collect the goudey Ruth's again and I'll take a bit off centered with nice eye appeal, color, focus and so on.

Yep, most collectors aren't that picky, so if you are looking to buy cards as investments you are much better off buying something that you can resell at VCP. Just a lot more buyers out there at that price point so the liquidity is better.

[Tere1071]

On the "Certified, Qualified, and Glorified" thread in the Watercooler discussion board the emphasis is on having the card, rather than looking for perfection. Yes, there are certain cards that don't have an appeal if they're off-center, but if one takes a good look at the cards displayed on this thread, there's nothing wrong with having them in one's collection. It comes down to what pleases the individual collector and perhaps affordability.

[dio]

Bold color and registration over centering for me. Check out all these 52 topps mantle psa 1. Some great centering one with faded and beat up you can hardly see Mantle's face clearly. I rather have clear picture with him with bold color. Psa OC is a great buy