Centering or Corners

RoseInTheHall

If you we're putting together a raw vintage set and could only choose one, for value would you choose a card with shard corners and not centered or a card with decent corners and perfectly centered.

Not thinking of grading the cards/set rather thinking of having a really nice raw finished set

Thanks for the opinions

abcoltsfan

Nice corners for me. Centering has never been a major factor for me in collecting unless it takes away the overall appeal of the card. I know I am probably in the minority.

orioles93

Corners. Centering isnt a big deal to me, as long as its not miscut or way off.

Dboneesq

I'll be the first one to take the other side ... CENTERING.

lawnmowerman

<< <i>I'll be the first one to take the other side ... CENTERING. >>



Me too Doug!

DanBessette

<< <i>Corners. Centering isnt a big deal to me, as long as its not miscut or way off. >>



Same here

ashabby

I think it depends. Some years and cards look worse if off center. Then other times the corners matter more. But generally I like sharp corners

BunchOBull

Totally centering because it's indicative of the quality of the card at production. Corner damage on a centered card just shows that a well made card was well loved...that's part of the hobby for me.

cardcountry

Specifically since you're asking about value, my opinion (as well as my personal preference) is that well centered cards will hold their value better. If graded, they would be more likely to be "nice for the grade".

60sfan

<< <i>Specifically since you're asking about value, my opinion (as well as my personal preference) is that well centered cards will hold their value better. If graded, they would be more likely to be "nice for the grade". >>


100% agree.

elsnorto

Centering for me as well... by a large, but symmetrical, margin.

Snorto~

psychump

I think it depends on the year. 1971 Topps I like sharp untouched corners over centering. 1963 Topps for instance I enjoy a nice centered card over corners.

mattyc_collection

Centering all the way, for me. For a few reasons...

1. Cards are looked at and admired, not unlike a painting on the living room wall. I would not like a painting hanging crookedly, nor would I buy one that is permanently set in the frame incorrectly. Poor centering simply mars the the eye appeal, the way the central subject image-- the thing being looked at-- strikes my eye.

2. The makers of the vintage card intended it to have perfect centering, ideally. It was not designed to be off centered. If the original makers of the card were to select an example to show as the ideal example, it would have perfect centering, not be OC. Whereas the cards were intended to be handled with love by kids, and thus surely some wear due strictly to handling was expected, and considered acceptable. Centering is a factory miscue or error, whereas corners are evidence of love and handling.

3. In terms of rarity, I look at certain cards over many years of collecting and just know that centering is far rarer than a sharp corner. Whether it is an e90-1 Jackson, a 1952 Topps Mantle, or a 1963 Rose, a sharp corner or three is far easier to find than dead centering.

4. Lastly, corners can be worked on and "slipped past the goalie," so to speak, much easier than centering; true, trimming can be done to improve centering, but the extent to which that trimming would have to take place to impact a poorly centered card would routinely make that trimming pretty easy to detect.

For these reasons I personally go with centering every time, but whatever floats ones boat is best.

RoseInTheHall

Thank you for the input. 1972 baseball is very tough to find really nice centered cards.

I just bought some raw that were advertised as NM .... And they had VERY sharp corners but in some cases were 75/25 or 80/20. Not sure these would grade NM but I'm not getting these graded.

Got a Reggie that could cut your finger the corners were so sharp but the centering was not great

Just not sure that's the Reggie I want in my final raw set.

Asking the question a different way, if you were buying a raw vintage set would you personally turn your nose up at cards not well centered or not razor sharp?

mattyc_collection

For a raw vintage set to look through and admire in a binder from time to time, I personally go with centering. I like all the images to hit me uniformly centered with no tilt. In contrast, looking at nine images per page that all have different centering-- some high, some low, some left, some right, some tilted-- it looks like a mess to me. If the images are squarely centered I hardly notice the corners as I flip the pages, but that's just me. In general, I believe consistency makes for an attractive set, be they all centered well at least one way, or all sharp cornered, etc. Consistency can go a long way to making a set attractive.

aconte

It does depend on the card and how bad the corners are or how off center it is.

However, I will pick corners. I prefer a pack fresh card with sharp corners.

aconte

itzagoner

centering by a longshot - with raw cards, you need to sidestep the grading system in favor of eye appeal, quite simply. a vintage notebook set with uniformly centered cards in EX condition would look much nicer to me than a notebook set of razor sharp 80/20 cards.

you might be surprised by how challenging it is to find those uniformly centered cards if you need almost 800 of them. maybe tougher than building a set you could call NM-Mint with the aforementioned O/C cards.

i do absolutely agree with consistency. one or the other, but not a combo of both.

MooseDog

Balance in all things.

Centering for me.

ldferg

centering for me.

ThoseBackPages

Centering.

CocoaBeachDodgers

Personally, part of my collection are autograph baseballs, Dodgers of course. They are in ball cubes with their rookie card on a stand sitting on top of the cube. Some are graded & some are not, but many are VG or EX. But what is really important to me is that when you scan over the 50 some displays, all the cards are well centered. Especially from a little distance, poorly centered cards would be very noticeable, but weak corners are much harder to see. Many of the EX's look near mint unless you move much closer, but the main focus is on the autograph ball. I know that's a little different than you were asking, but centering is much more noticeable to me.

BLUEJAYWAY

I try to find a balance between both condition considerations. 60/40 or 70/30 centering with average or better corner wear is adequate for me, over 50/50 with poor corners. Don't prefer an extreme either way.

thunderdan

For me, this is an easy answer. Centering.

BPorter26

<< <i>For me, this is an easy answer. Centering. >>



+1

TheMick6

There's a reason the main criteria for a half grade is noted as the cards centering. I think most love good centering in a card and I for sure am one of them. I hardly ever hear anyone say the centering is horrible but the razor sharp corners make up for it. It's usually the other way around. Plus dont mostly all cards start out with nice corners, same thing can't be said about centering, we all know of specific cards where centering is notoriously bad. For me it's a common in my 56 topps set. Dale Mitchell a nice centered copy of that card carries a higher premium that a mays same year in an eight!

elsnorto

Matty made a great point in that the cards were designed to be centered, so those that aren't are essentially defects.

The first thing I notice is centering with the second being any registration issues, another defect.

It is only once those two criteria are met that I start to look for signs of wear be it on corners, edges, or surface.

It seems most often when a card goes for well above the normal market price range, it is because of superior centering, especially on problematic issues like 1948 Leaf.

No doubt those of you who don't put such a premium on centering can find some great bargains.

Snorto~

RoseInTheHall

I asked a friend the other day this same question and his response was appropriate (and funny)

He said it's all based on personal preference ...... like waking up next to your wife.

Some men like waking up to a wife's beautiful face and average body (well centered and decent corners) and some men like waking up to an average face and beautiful body (average centering but sharp corners). LOL

I myself like the beautiful face so I guess I have to give my final answer of preferring centering over corners.

Rick

billwaltonsbeard

I've always appreciated cards that were as close as to their original factory condition as possible. Bad corners almost always come from secondary handling.

That being said, I do avoid badly OC cards. Anything worse than 70/30 is just too ugly

mattyc_collection

<< <i>I asked a friend the other day this same question and his response was appropriate (and funny)

He said it's all based on personal preference ...... like waking up next to your wife.

Some men like waking up to a wife's beautiful face and average body (well centered and decent corners) and some men like waking up to an average face and beautiful body (average centering but sharp corners). LOL

I myself like the beautiful face so I guess I have to give my final answer of preferring centering over corners.

Rick >>



Love this.

Would add that a beautiful face is tough to acquire, even with the best plastic surgeons. But a pretty banging frame can be had with a great trainer and dedication in the gym. Hence, the case for centering!