How Much More Will You Pay For Great Centering?

[Leon]

Many collectors don't care that much about centering. We all have our own things we want in a card. For me, centering has always been very important and I will pay significantly more for the same grade, with great centering, as opposed to 80/20 or 70/30 type cards.

[jchcollins]

I'm not a total centering freak, but will admit the prevailing attitude of the hobby on this matter over the last 20 years or so has swayed my opinion at least somewhat over the years. I don't usually mind a card o/c moderately one way - say 70/30. I do not like cards that are miscut or close to appearing miscut - 90/10 in most cases is going to be a non-starter for me, but really it depends on the individual card and the overall presentation.

I once overpaid for a '61 Mantle All-Star PSA 5, because it was nearly perfectly centered. It always seems like the majority of those that I see are close to miscut.

[bnorth]

Beautiful card Leon. Personally I won't pay more for centering. With more expensive old cards not having any problems on the players face is most important to me. I collect lower grade examples though.

[notfast]

I will pay 50% for something centered “perfectly” if its a card I’ve been looking for.

[packs]

I didn't pay extra but I waited extra long to find and buy a centered copy:

[MikeGarcia]

Originally Posted by notfast

I will pay 50% for something centered “perfectly” if its a card I’ve been looking for.

..

..Some of us have been known to sell our blood and then pawn the full-size spare tire from the Park Avenue ULtra to get some centered cardboard...

..

[Touch'EmAll]

At what point going down the centering % scale will you simply not even pay at all? These days, if not 55/45 (absolute worst 60/40) or better I probably don't even consider the purchase. There are exceptions for a notoriously poorly centered issue, but those are few and far between. For instance, the 1941 Ted Williams & the 1952 Bowman Willie Mays are extremely tough to find superb 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

[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.

[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.

[Gorditadogg]

I don't know about you but I would never buy a card just for the centering.

[topcat61]

I have to say that it depends on the rarity of the card. If I cant get the card normally, I'll take what can and perhaps upgrade when or if I can

[brob28]

I chose 10-20% for the poll, but for the right card will pay-up more. For post war a card has to have corners and centering. Pre-war, I'll take centering over corners all day.

[IgnatiusJReilly]

Originally Posted by brob28

I chose 10-20% for the poll, but for the right card will pay-up more. For post war a card has to have corners and centering. Pre-war, I'll take centering over corners all day.

Wow, that’s a nice Gehrig!


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[pokerplyr80]

I answered over 100% and it could be much higher depending on the card, and the quality of recent same grade sales. As others have said it really depends on the card, how hard it is to find centered, and the overall eye appeal. A nice dead centered 4 of iconic card hard to find centered could easily sell for more than twice what other off center cards have sold for.

These are the kind of sales people will start threads about because they don't understand the market and assume the sales were manipulated.

[MattyC]

The Ted Williams, Cy Young, and Lou Gehrig cards pictured here are gorgeous. What a treat to see them. Thanks for posting those, owners!

[IgnatiusJReilly]

Originally Posted by MattyC

The Ted Williams, Cy Young, and Lou Gehrig cards pictured here are gorgeous. What a treat to see them. Thanks for posting those, owners!

Thanks! I love that Ted Williams too!


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[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

[WA_HOF_rookie]

Every card I buy is for the PC. I look for low grade and centered. I'm okay with creases as long as they're not right across the middle. Centering is the most important.
Chris

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