How to Measure Vintage Baseball Cards
 

Hello everyone, new member of the forums here. Active part of the hobby with my youtube channel eliteco3 and ebay store Cardboard Futures. I would like to know how to properly measure vintage cards to increase the chances that PSA will slab them.

I have had many older 50's and 60's cards come back in the past Minimum Size Requirement. You essentially lose out on getting the card slabbed and the grading fees when this happens. What is the lowest size that is acceptable by PSA as the correct size. I am also aware that many cards from the vintage era were miscut and cut in slightly different sizes.

Any help on this would be awesome. Cheers, Nolan

PSA does not charge for Minsizreq (or factory miscuts aka cards that aren't rectangular), so many people just submit them again until they get a number.
AFAIK, they also don't release their minimum size per issue. And it seems obvious they don't measure submitted cards unless they seem off to the grader. Hopefully they will improve their process in the future.

Someone should make those clear plastic devices up again Alan Rosen used to sell to measure cards and show their centering.

Actually, I think it was Alan Hager--at least those are the ones I remember.

EDITED TO ADD: I was not aware that untrimmed 50's and 60's cards were prone to measuring short, although some presentation sets from the early 60's are known for it.

Vintage cards from all eras can measure slightly different, in my experience. This can be seen if you try to use One Touch mag cases or Pro-Mold magnetics or one-screw cases. Even from the same sets, some cards will slide slightly from side-to-side or up and down in the cases, and some will not. Since the molds for each of these cases are exactly the same, I think this is indicative of the cards being slightly different in terms of cut, or thickness that may have changed over the years. Recall that many higher-priced vintage cards in the 1980's and 90's lived in pressed-down 4 screw cases for a long time. PSA and other graders will reject some of those cards, but that doesn't mean that plenty with still reduced thickness don't make it into numbered slabs on a regular basis.

As far as measuring individual cards, if I'm trying simply to discern whether or not a card has been trimmed, it's easiest for me to meaure using another card from the same set or even the same size just from the same era. (Talking mostly 3.5 by 2.5 cards...) Most cards with an amateur trim job will stick out like a sore thumb when measured this way. What can be difficult is early 1970's cards that were routinely printed either with tilt or a diamond-cut. Some of these were not trimmed at all, but appear that way upon first glance before you do careful measuring.