What are "Mint" Corners on Vintage Cards?
scottsusor
Posts: 1,210
We all know that modern sports cards have clean cuts on all sides because today's cutting technology is 30 years advanced from the "vintage" area (i.e. pre-1970). As such, the corners on these cards are always ultra sharp, and obviously "Mint." But is the same definition of "Mint" corners truly applicable to vintage cards? When you put those cards under intense magnification, you can easily see that the edges are far from the perfectly sharp edges of modern cards, due to inferior cutting technology.
What I'm thinking about here is that such cutting can leave a corner looking non-sharp but only because it the two adjoining sides were cut with those inferior cutters. In other words, its not sharp but its non-sharpness was caused at the factory and not by human handling. Should such a corner still be considered "Mint" or should it be considered a factory defect even though lots of cards look like that?
Scott
What I'm thinking about here is that such cutting can leave a corner looking non-sharp but only because it the two adjoining sides were cut with those inferior cutters. In other words, its not sharp but its non-sharpness was caused at the factory and not by human handling. Should such a corner still be considered "Mint" or should it be considered a factory defect even though lots of cards look like that?
Scott
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Comments
I have number of PSA 9 cards from the "cut with a plastic knife days". Many are slightly rounded due to the cut. Some have a "chad" from where they were pulled apart. Under magnification, the cause is pretty easy to determine and it seems clear from my cards that that is taken into consideration. When I find a card with "vintage mint" corners that is in a lower grade holder, the registration is often the culprit.
Fuzz
<< <i>I think PSA grades a 1910 card the same way it grades a 1990 card, a 9 being a 9. I could be wrong. >>
Scott - I'm not nearly an expert, but my experience has been that the above is not true - I believe PSA takes into account the advances in cutting and printing technology over the years. Under a 10X, I see a lot of difference in 9's from the 60s and 9's from the 90's. Just my tusense....
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
<< <i>Under a 10X, I see a lot of difference in 9's from the 60s and 9's from the 90's. >>
That's what I thought too until recently because many of the "mint" corners I was seeing on vintage cards appeared to not be truly sharp but showed no evidence of rounding due to handling. But in the past few months, it looks like PSA may have started applying the modern rule of "mint" corners to vintage cards. Perhaps that's why so many people are questioning why cards they think should be 8's are getting 7's. I'm left wondering if applying the modern "mint" corner rule to cards made before 1970 is a good idea or not. If that's indeed the new standard, there are going to be lots of fine looking vintage 7's on the market soon.
Scott
Hate to necro post, but was doing a search on corner discussion and found this thread. I just wanted to say that although cutting technology is clearly advanced, this year’s Heritage baseball looks like Topps cut it on original cutting machines from ‘77. If you have bought many so far, get a 10x out and check the edges and corners. The majority of them look in the 6-8 range right out of the pack. Curious to start seeing graded ones in the coming months. Have not seen one clean Ohtani image variation on Ebay yet and I’ve looked at all of them. Every single one has a flawed corner.