How Much More Will You Pay For Great Centering?

[jchcollins]

I led off the response to this thread last year with a story about paying a premium for a centered, midgrade card. However, just last week I bought this:



I do think it’s interesting that PSA will lead you to believe that the half grade “plus” is usually reserved only for nearly perfectly centered cards. In practice, I have found this not always to be the case. I digitally measured this guy at 68/32 left to right (55/45 T/B). ‘67’s can be difficult to judge, because they have overall thinner borders (borders with less total area) when compared to other vintage issues.

This stuck me as a sharp card for the grade regardless, and when the seller discounted it more than I had been anticipating - I pulled the trigger. I think it really does depend on the individual card…


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[Tere1071]

My 53 Bowman color set would only be about 35-40% centered, the majority of my cards have borders favoring the tops of the cards. Corners, wrinkles, and creases bother me far more than centering. Sometimes I will upgrade for a better-centered card if the price is right, but I'm mostly happy with what I have.

[jb67]

For certain cards finding the right blend of grade/eye-appeal and centering is important for me. Here is a good example. Not sure I will ever own this card in a higher grade but more than happy to have this low grade Mantle in my collection.

[Vegas Cards]

I paid a little more than market for this one last Fall. One thing no one's mentioned so far is that even for cards we may have felt we paid up for in the past, the market seems to have risen to meet us

[puckpaul]

Originally Posted by puckpaul

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.

Here is a card i recently purchased. It came at an ex-mt+ price. The centering doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, i dont understand the need for a qualifier. But it helped me be very satisfied with a great price for the card.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

I led off the response to this thread last year with a story about paying a premium for a centered, midgrade card. However, just last week I bought this:



I do think it’s interesting that PSA will lead you to believe that the half grade “plus” is usually reserved only for nearly perfectly centered cards. In practice, I have found this not always to be the case. I digitally measured this guy at 68/32 left to right (55/45 T/B). ‘67’s can be difficult to judge, because they have overall thinner borders (borders with less total area) when compared to other vintage issues.

This stuck me as a sharp card for the grade regardless, and when the seller discounted it more than I had been anticipating - I pulled the trigger. I think it really does depend on the individual card…


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So would you rather have that card as a 5.5 or 7(OC)? Or does it matter?



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[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Gorditadogg

So would you rather have that card as a 5.5 or 7(OC)? Or does it matter?

This is one of those technical gray areas due to published standards. My Seaver did not get a 5.5 due to centering; at least it shouldn't have. (It's due to corner wear). At not quite 70/30 s-s, it's technically good enough to get up to a straight 8 with that centering if nothing else is wrong with the card.

The standard to have an OC qualifier for a 7 would be worse than 75/25. So, an otherwise mint card like that if qualifiers were left off would ostensibly top out at a straight 6 - since the standard for a 6 is 80/20 or better. Make sense?

If given the choice, I'd rather have the straight grade with no qualifier. But no, in terms of eye appeal of the card - it doesn't really matter.

[Fuddjcal]

I've always been a corners guy, but this one seems pretty special in retrospect