Wanted to pose some thoughts / questions around that most interesting of middle card grades - "Excellent." AKA, "EX", "5", etc. etc.
EX seems to be that catch-all middle grade between cards that still looks pretty nice, and those that are starting to become distinctly worn. It's more difficult these days, what with professional grading and all the "tweener" grades. When I was a kid in the 1980's, the grades I was familiar with were NM, EX, VG, G, and F/P. At some point EX-MT and VG-EX got squeezed in there as acceptable grades. So for an Excellent card, that normally to me meant a card that still looked pretty sharp (centering was not much of a consideration) but where the corners were maybe not nice enough to be an NM card. To be clear when looking for vintage, "Excellent" condition was also an excellent find - as that meant a card without creases.
Is the definition the same today? What are your thoughts? Here is the PSA definition of "Excellent":
"On PSA EX-5 cards, very minor rounding of the corners is becoming evident. Surface wear or printing defects are more visible. There may be minor chipping on edges. Loss of original gloss will be more apparent. Focus of picture may be slightly out-of-register. Several light scratches may be visible upon close inspection, but do not detract from the appeal of the card. Card may show some off-whiteness of borders. Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back."
"Very minor rounding of the corners" to me is still a subjective thing. At what point (assuming the card has no other issues, corners are normally the main criteria for "EX") do the corners get bad enough to go from EX to VG-EX? For example I have this '58 Clemente which was sold as (and I would agree based on my standards) "EX" which shows that minor rounding of the corners, and a few other things, but still no "major" (wrinkles or creases) flaws. Is this an EX card? I think so, but also can compare it to a '58 Aaron that I have at home which looks very similar, but is in a PSA 4 VG-EX case.
Last anomaly I will mention for EX cards - you sometimes see otherwise NM cards (sharper corners) in PSA 5 slabs due to other, hidden imperfections. I once had a '55 Kaline that looked NM+, but had only the very slightest start of a surface wrinkle across the face of the card - which you could not see without twisting it around in bright light. It was graded PSA 5.
Curious as to your thoughts on this particular, maybe the middle of the middle - grades.
Thanks.
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