A Simple Poll. What is Your O/C Preference?

[Casey2296]

For left/right I would take #1 based on the image, Mantle is facing left to a more open space because of the skinny border and allows the eye to flow off the image and leave the card. #2 he is facing a wall with nowhere for your eye to leave the image. The diagonal red border on the left also helps balance against the heavy border on the right.

Up down would be #4 pushed to the bottom since the large red name border balances with the large top border.

[Jim65]

Pushed to the bottom
Pushed to the top

Never liked cards OC side to side.

[Tere1071]

On my 53 Bowmans, which are notoriously oc, my preference is pushed to the bottom and to the right. It also depends on the image, some cards don't display well oc especially if it's side to side.

[Leon]

A majority opinion if pushing to the bottom is this. I want all of my T206s to look like this one, condition-wise.

[Empty77]

Either top or bottom are better problems, because it is less obvious to the eye/brain psychologically that a card isn't just designed that way (even if intellectually one knows the border is supposed to be even all around on that issue). Between those, pushed down looks better to me since the top-center is typically the main section of the card, in the sense of where the player face/torso usually is, so having what passes as an adequate border in the area where one first (and perhaps only, if taking just a quick glance) looks seems more soothing to the eye.

(Not sure if my opinion counts since I might buy a card that's a little off, but never one designated o/c).

[Oscar_Stanage]

When I think about top/bottom OC, I think about the 1954 Topps set, which is designed with no top border... since I really like this set, I think I prefer 'pushed to the top"

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

For left/right I would take #1 based on the image, Mantle is facing left to a more open space because of the skinny border and allows the eye to flow off the image and leave the card. #2 he is facing a wall with nowhere for your eye to leave the image. The diagonal red border on the left also helps balance against the heavy border on the right.

Up down would be #4 pushed to the bottom since the large red name border balances with the large top border.

Agreed. I would go with #4.

[jchcollins]

I generally prefer slightly OC top to bottom, but also care way more about how bad the OC problem is over and above what the direction of the problem is. I can usually live with 70/30 one way, cards worse than about 85/15 usually tend to bug me, though I will say in cases of really "bad" off-centering - it usually depends on the individual card. For example because of the way the borders were designed - some '53 Topps cards can be waaaay OC and not bother me at all. But for a set with background contrast and white borders where the centering is going to be very obvious (most '57 Topps cards, for example) that doesn't work.

I will say that I still kind of look at the sudden explosion of "centering as the number one condition criteria" only in the 21st century as kind of humorous. Sure, centering is important - bad centering beyond a certain point can totally destroy the eye appeal of a card - but to me it's still just one aspect of condition and grading. I'd much rather have a mildly OC card with perfect color and registration than a perfectly centered one that is slightly faded or has print problems. I will admit about a decade or so ago I kind of hopped on the centering train as it were, and was very picky for a period of time. Then at one point I had two different copies of a '73 Schmidt which matched what I just said. Comparing them side by side to me it was a no brainer which dupe to sell - I sold the better centered one that had worse color and slight print snow, and kept the slightly OC one that to me looked better. The cards were raw, but both arguably in the EX-MT range.