How do rough cuts affect grades?

80sToyguy

Hey guys.
I'm sending off 15 cards to PSA today. Just wanted to know how rough cuts, if the rest of the card looks perfect and is well centered, affect the grades. Everything I'm sending in is OPC hockey between 69-85 and as you may know, they are notorious for at least 1 rough edge. Is there any way to get a 9 if the card has a rough cut?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jay

goodriddance189

PSA allows a lot of leeway with rough cuts for OPC issues from my experience

80sToyguy

So goodriddance, I have a number of gorgeous 81-82's that look perfect on the front but on the back, where it's blue, there is a white strip from one end to the other on the top from the cut--keep in mind the fronts look perfect. Any chance of a 10 on these, I've never actually owned an older PSA 10. I don't want to send these in to get 8's, so LMK what you think if you get a chance.
Jay

goodriddance189

do you have a scan? from what youre talking about it sounds like the backs have chipping (correct me if i'm mistaken). im not sure about how much chipping they allow, and the 2 81 9's i own both have a little chipping, but not a significant amount. if youre talking about the rough cuts extending to the back and creating white around the blue edges, i think theyll be a little more lenient. if you do get any 9's on the rookies, please let me know. i'll pay top dollar for them

ABBAdad

I've had great success with my rough cuts sent in. I have even received a couple of 9's on rough cuts that I was hoping to get an 8. The cards I'm referring to are early 70's baseball issues.

David

80sToyguy

Thanks guys for the advice. Goodriddance, I'm sending in a Coffey, Ciccarelli and a Moog from that year as well as most of the Gretzky's so I will let you know next month how I do.
Thanks again,
Jay

yawie99

I've seen the white stripe on the reverse of '81-82 OPC cards - including some 9's I once had - and it's not necessarily due to chipping. I don't know that the stripe would prevent a card from getting a 10, but there are so few 10's from that set that I wouldn't really worry about it.

I also actually like a mild rough cut on early to mid-'80s OPC hockey. It's kind of a badge of authenticity - a way to be certain that a card has its original factory cut. Given the tremendous volume of slabbed sheet-cut cards on the market, I'm quite skeptical of any O-Pee-Chee card with clean edges. All the BGS 9.0's and 9.5's* with the sterling subgrades for edges and centering are obviously very questionable, but I'd be willing to bet that a few of these cards have found their way into PSA holders as well.



* - Nothing pisses me off more about BGS than the '80-81 OPC Gretzky Record Breaker card (#3). The card has incredibly thin borders and is insanely prone to horrid centering/miscuts. Nonetheless, of the 36 submitted to BGS thus far, 14 have graded mint and another 12 have been "awarded" gem mint grades. I could list dozens of other examples, but this is the one that just makes me want to vomit.