What do you prefer, off-center with sharp corners or?
 

What do you prefer, off-center cards with sharp corners or perfectly centered with slightly blunted or rounded corners?

I'm definitely in the OC sharp corners camp, but I'm thinking I'm in the minority.

Not the best examples but you get the idea.


<img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3666/8853550284_d89ebd1b1e_z.jpg" width="455" height="640" alt="63T_Koufax">
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<img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7307/8834354040_3680bbe0d1_z.jpg" width="640" height="464" alt="60T_B Robinson">

its all about eye appeal..going with centered.

I concur. Although some off centered cards still have good eye appeal.

Eye appeal all the way. Even if they were the same price, I'd take a PSA 6 centered over a PSA 8 off center every day of the week.

Besides, qualitatively, they are two different beasts. Rounded corners are the result of good honest wear, which I find gives the card a bit of character. You know some kid once owned that card, looked at it, got it in a trade, loved it.

Centering, or a lack thereof, is a manufacturing defect, and rather unsightly.

Now, when I can't get perfectly centered, I'll give some leeway on the top to bottom centering, but it's the left-right centering that's a killer. If a card doesn't have that, the eye appeal is shot for me.

+1

Recently, I was flipping through an old binder of cards I have had for a while...many of these were the first cards I collected as a kid 30+ years ago. These cards absolutely meant the world to me as a kid, however, in looking back through them, I never realized how OC some of them were. But all of the creases and rounded corners were just how I remembered them.


So I guess that puts me in the "I can deal with less than perfect centering" camp.

I still scratch my head when I see a grade sticker that points out the very flaw that should keep the card from even being graded an 8!! Of course, I'm kind of a centering nut, so .... :D

'61 Topps Mantle All Star
 

I think this is what you are talking about.....a great example of 95/5 centering with 4 relatively sharp corners. Wonder what this would grade out?

Z Wheat

How does that work, does PSA give you the option of the higher grade with the "OC" designation or a lower grade without the "OC"?

I have to agree. It's been a process for me, but centering and general eye appeal has come to mean a great deal to me. For a while, I fell into the trap of buying the holder and not the card.

OC
 

Well... I will join the minority. My #1 priority is 4 sharp corners.

Others disagree, but I remain adamant there ought to be some kind of grade for centering. Or heck, just make it a qualifier. PSA 8 centered.

This would be invaluable when it comes to assessing populations, and what percentage of a card's population comes graded as centered.

I'm a centering guy. I don't mind some corner or edge wear-- for me, that comes naturally with time. It can even add character.

Eye appeal is what I go for, and an OC card is a non-starter for me. Some cases in point in the "centering but wear" category...

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...-mickey-mantle

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...-hank-aaron-rc

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...lie-mccovey-rc

All relatively cheap buys compared to their higher-graded brethren, but good centering hits the eye nicely. And some corner wear means it doesn't hit the wallet too hard, either :)

Beautiful cards...couldn't have said it any better. I have the same outlook....

Exactly. There is something about finding a sharp card that looks the way it did fresh out of the pack. Off-center or not.

That being sad I understand the appeal to 50-50 cards.

Always take the factory flaw over owner flaws. There is nothing wrong with an off centered card if that was the way it was distributed. I honestly don't understand the 50/50 centering idea. I have never looked at a 70/30 card and thought it looked bad if it had sharp corners and looked pack fresh.

Going with the centered posters

Centering for me. OC cards stick out like crazy to me.

Well as it stands its roughly 7-4 for the centered cards. Not as lopsided as I would have thought.

On a side note, what's the provenance of that Brooks Robinson autograph? It doesn't look anything like any of his autos that I have ever seen. Maybe it's very old or something?

I'd take wear over centering any day, but I am not all that picky. If one of the few cards I am still looking for popped up for sale, and it was off center, I'd still buy it.

I personally got that auto from him at a local card show in Glenn Burnie, MD. I would say way back in 80', 81', 82'. I've thought about sending it in for authenticity but I have know idea how that works.

I also have a Mantle auto from his rookie year. Thinking of sending that in too.

<img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7448/8835591482_2d865cc3a9_z.jpg" width="640" height="438" alt="Mantle Auto">

I'm in the sharp corner camp. That said, eye appeal always plays a role for me. So, any card that could be classified as OC, would still have to have reasonable eye appeal and not be grossly OC.

Weird. I got these two in person at a show on Long Island in the 80's and they look nothing like yours. I forget specifically what year it was, but I'd guess around 1983.

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...onperryozx.jpg

When I was starting to collect, most of the cards from 1985 Topps are so off-centered, I did not give it much thought how important centering is. With collecting as polarized as it is, I've seen large differences in pricing between off-centered and centered cards. For the most part, I'm in the sharp corner, off centered preference camp. However, with a few cards like '52 Topps high numbers, with all prices being equal and condition about the same, I'll choose the centered one over the off-centered one.

Craig H.

Pretty much everyone will go with the centered card

Centered cards
 

I have to go with the posters preferring 4 square corners...however the caveat is that the card can't be that far off center.

Z Wheat

I ll take 4 sharp corners OC for the cards from the pre-war to @ the mid 70's all the time, knowing they didn't care how the cards were printed and cut and who cared about collecting back then. My thoughts fewer cards with sharp corners OC then rounded.

When I look back at cards I collected in the past, sharp corners were what everyone seemed most concerned about. I know I bought raw cards as NM/MT that had 4 sharp corners that were off center. The nice thing is that now you can pick up some cards at bargain prices that have been deemed OC. As long as the whole card is there a little OC doesn't bother me too much, as long as the card has good eye appeal. Here are a couple of examples I picked up for less than normal because of the OC designation. Sorry the scan of the Reese looks a bit off.

Choice
 

I believe that since we are dealing with easily damaged cardboard, sharpness of corners means more to me.

Out of the pack a card can be OC, but will almost always have razor sharp corners. As collectors, we cannot preserve centering, but we can preserve sharp corners.

So if I have a choice of buying a sharp, yet OC card or a centered card with touched corners...I will usually choose the sharp OC card.

Curt

Generally focused more on centering, but I am much more particular on L/R centering than T/B. Particularly for horizontal cards.

Anyone else like this?

Here's an example I could live with. This was my card, actually...

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1956-Topps-Ha...tfw~~60_57.JPG

That Aaron and that Whitey are fantastic examples of OC creating value. I can totally see the point of cards like that being nearly exactly how they were out of the pack.

Horizontals with perfect l/r but OC t/b can look great.

I suppose in the end every card presents its own unique case, and the right example could get us to stray from our usual preferences.

I store all of my cards raw and in binders so unless the card is really off center I barely even notice the OC on the page. I do notice bad corners, however.

I'd take that Aaron in a heartbeat

I definitely agree with Curt's approach as a general rule. But in the end for me, it all depends on the specifics of a particular card. Some o/c cards don't look too bad at all, while others just make me cringe. When I'm seeking 1961 high numbers, for instance, so many of the All Stars are waaaaay o/c and still have ridiculous BIN prices. I just pass and would have a problem adding them to my set even if they were incredibly cheap. No eye appeal, as others say.

Now, for my 1969 set, it's almost impossible to find a centered Roberto Clemente. There are 8 billion Clementes available out there, but they are all tremendously o/c. So, I eventually found this one with nice, sharp corners and, of course, o/c, but not enough to be too troubling. Not too bad in my mind at all. I have since removed the wax/gum stains.

Attachment 102035

O/C cards
 

I don't mind slightly off center cards..to a degree...I wouldn't want a card cut off so much as to chop the cap off the player...almost to make it appear he had no hair..or the hint of possibly wearing a wig or something

Why do you keep mentioning hair, wigs and toupees in your posts?????? What the heck are the rest of us missing?????

Actually, for a 1969 Clemente, that card is very nicely centered. I remember buying mine, and the dealer had pulled a bunch of stars from a vending box and all of the Clementes were all OC. I just picked the one that I thought was the best of the group. After that, I noticed all of the 1969 Clementes I saw were always off center.

Agreed. Every one I see is way o/c, so I was happy to pick this one up for about $20.

That would be a miscut

Ron, he knows they're miscut and he's just screwing with us. A nice guy, but personally I think Ral G. is losing his mind. Here are his posts from various threads just from today (titles in bold). Notice a common theme??

72 T set
I agree it was quite 70s " hip mod" style when they came out..as a kid..I thought they were pretty cool.. that was around the time when some players like Joe Pepitone started wearing a toupee during the games

O/C cards
I don't mind slightly off center cards..to a degree...I wouldn't want a card cut off so much as to chop the cap off the player...almost to make it appear he had no hair..or the hint of possibly wearing a wig or something

odd card
It also appears that he is wearing some sort of hair piece ??

Vince
OK, OK, lets not get....." wigged out" over this thread !!

?
Does Tony LaRussa wear a toupee ?

cutting
Yes, thats true..in the early days Topps factory did you a "jig saw" type blade to seperate the cards. It was very similar to a " wig saw" blade that they use to cut and shape mens hair pieces

Vin
Oh yea.. Vin come up with some classic lines..what about the call on the Koufax perfect game..".2 and 2 to harvey Kueen".... but the silence on the Puig HR call, Im not sure, with a lot of that toupee adhesive they reccomend no movement or sound during the application.... it helps the wig adhere to the bald scalp

sets
Yes, I agree the atachment to cards and sets is a strong bond. They make a bonding adhesive that men use to hold their hair pieces on their heads also..but I think the baseball card bond is stronger

team
Yes, those Cubs team around that era had quite a few All Star players, that infield was solid with Kessinger, and Santo. Santo later did Cub broadcasts, He had an awful hair piece that was clearly visable on the air

storage
I know the best price on card savers in avail from a dealer at the Philly Show, he usually has the corner booth,Im pretty sure he wears a wig too

Topps photos
Yes, I see that, another tell tale sign of re-use of old photos, it looks like Mays is wearing a toupee, and in the other pic..three yrs later....you still see the toupee peeking out of the batting helmet

dull knife
54T, 55T, 56T,..Im pretty sure a dull cutting knife could also have a negitve effect on a mans hair piece, the horse hair tends to curl at the ends

Vince
Isnt that wig he wears absolutly awful,the guy is like 90...and its a huge pile of orange and red racoon on his head

lots of stars
How about that 1962 T Mgrs Dream of Mantle and Mays..and in the backround I think you see Aaron,Banks, there is another player in the shot also..might by a coach , from a distance it looks like he is wearing a hair piece

Color
 

I am moving towards being a centering snob but do still have quite a few o/c cards before I started appreciating this aspect. But the third spoke nobody has mentioned is pack-freshness/color/image, etc which transcends both centering and corners. For example, I think this Maris is better looking than a centered one that is faded and/or banged corner, some of which could get a 5.5. My Maris:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/q...pse871b410.jpg

I am going to go with centering, but I would also like to add registration or focus to this. I hate blurry cards.

The OC of that 58' Maris doesn't bother me in the least. I would purchase a card like that without hesitation.

I'm in the centering camp as well. Its the very first quality I look for on any potential purchase.

Centering on certain years of cards doesn't bother me . 1960 is an example they seem to look good even if they are off as much as 90/10 top to bottom . Others much less 1962-1964 look bad to me if they are off by 80 /20 .Registration is the one that bugs me the most I would care less if the card had four razor sharp and was dead on center if its not in focus pass on it every time. But bottom line usually comes down to price. Brett

new member, long time lurker... I myself would rather have sharp corners and OC than a worn down card. Just my two cents!!

Lower grade with a bit of wear, especially if the card has a white border that contrasts with the color fields.

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...%20Jackson.jpg

Corners vs OC?
 

OK, here's a wrinkle... I'm in both camps!
For my sets I definitely prefer centering way above corners.
UNLESS
the card is mc, and then I want it because I love these weird looking hybrids, but not just with a sliver of another card on the front, I want a big chunk of whatever was next door!
I am currently collecting mc cards and trying to get at least 1 of every number. Doesn't matter what sport, what year, what condition...the more mc the better!
brightair@msn.com

Agreed. An off centered card flairs up the OCD in me. :D

Being a low budget collector,I'm happy when I get cards that have corners!!