Centering vs Corner Wear
GreenSneakers
Posts: 908 ✭✭✭✭
I have been on this board long enough now for you guys to know something about me. Its a confession I don't think will go over well. But when choosing between two cards to buy of the same grade, I will often take one that is 60/40 with sharp corners over a 50/50 with a ding. I know that will make me an outcast to some but in the spirit of transparency I thought I would share. I guess my condition stems from how I ripped packs as a kid. If a card was slightly off center or had a tilt, there wasn't much I could do about it, its how it came from the factory. But the corners were on me - it was my duty to protect the cards as best I could. While other kids put rubber bands around them or "flipped" them, mine went into plastic pages for safekeeping right away. To me, the "condition" of the card was a testament to the card's provenance. Was it always well kept? ... if so, it should have a higher value.
There was a time I even saw severely OC and MC cards as an "error variation" ... not unlike a misprint that was later corrected, OC and MC were quality control issues that escaped the factory. What a prize!
My affliction will make me a leper I am sure. But I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on a major purchase, and if shared on the "recent pickup" thread, I wanted you all to be aware of the condition of which I am afflicted.
Thanks you. My name is GreenSneakers, and I have a centering problem.
Comments
I hear ya, man. I like corners, too. If I had to choose between two cards of the same grade, I'd choose the centered one. Here's how I see it, a perfectly centered card with no surface issues, but with dinged corners was probably once a 10. But an off-center card with perfect corners and perfect surface never was a 10. I also think of it like this: if the card manufacturers put borders around cards, then the frame of the picture was factored into the aesthetic, and therefore value, of the card.
Andy
Andy
I guess it’s all what you find esthetically appealing. I don’t find a 60/40 card that is properly cut (not tilted) to be ugly, but I do find corner wear ugly. Obviously others feel differently.
As far as perfect centering being so hard to find, I would submit that for most cards from the 1950s and 1960s, a card that is structurally perfect and undamaged is likely rarer than one that is perfectly centered, since the centered cards never get “ruined.” But that obviously depends heavily on the card.
Since I'm one of the relics here.
In the 50s, best I remember, cards had no monetary but rather personal value.
I'd gladly trade the a 52T Mantle for a Snider back then since I was a Brooklyn fan.
The hobby changes and so do tastes.
When I opened 2 boxes of 83F - I believe - last year - I admitted the first thing I noticed? Centering.
IMO, there may always be discussions about centering, e.g., but - hopefully - no reason for argument.
I routinely go through my raw sets with newly acquired raw cards, comparing, and making decisions on which ones are deserving to be in the album, and which ones don't quite make the cut. It depends on a case by case basis, but more often than not, the cards with the sharper corners with centering just a little off will get to occupy the slot over a perfectly centered card with a corner ding. 60/40 probably gets a spot, but 65/35 might be pushing it, though.
Given this specific scenario of 60/40 centering w/perfect corners vs. 50/50 centering with a corner ding, I'll take the least costly one. If they are both the same price, I'll take the 60/40 one with sharp corners. This is my answer as a 40-something adult today.
Geez Nick - got that so far in the rear view mirror - hard to see.
Me too - equal value? the sharp corners.
If I may jump in...the most important quality to me isn’t centering or corner wear but rather registration. If an image isn’t clear I just don’t want the card period.
Some of my favorite cards are PSA 9-OC
Sometimes sharp corners and edges can over come a little off-centering
Ask me again tomorrow and who knows what my answer would be
I go for centering and overall eye appeal when picking a card since that imo is what makes a card appealing. When I first started collecting I was a corners and buy the holder snob - I was always about the number on the flip early on. As I have grown as a collector and learned from other follow collectors on here (Matt, Jeff, Brady...) I now focus on eye appeal and centering and then progress other aspects of a card. I have been able to find cards that imo look like an 8 but only cost me a fraction of the price.