I've read through the PSA grading guidelines, and want to ask about the grading of some cards per their guidelines.
First up is a 1974 Rod Carew #50. Focus on the one in the lower left in the regular-sized photo of 6 cards and ignore the others (I'm photographing them in groups of 6 to save time). A digitally-zoomed front and back of that card is also shown:
If their centering guidelines are followed by the book, this card has essentially 99/1 centering (just a hariline of border on the right side). It doesn't even meet the 90/10 centering of a 1.5-FAIR grade.
Does that override all other considerations, and the card is a 1-POOR?
All aspects of the card that were controllable by me as the the card owner (corners, edges, gloss, etc) would seem to put this card at an 8 (1 or 2 corners with slight fraying) or maybe a 7 (does that seem about right, ignoring centering?).
So when they grade a card, do they create a composite grade, for example 3 parts "handling defects" and 1 part "manufacturing defects?" Manufacturing defects like centering (which are by all accounts just a random spread), shouldn't count as much toward the grade as handling defects. If they counted equally, that would imply the two categories of defects were equally controllable, but they're not.
So 3 parts handling and 1 part manufacturing would be: ((3*8)+(1*1))/4 = 6.25 grade. Is some composite grade like that used instead? Beyond the poor centering from the manufacturer, it's an otherwise very nice card.
Or is there some other way PSA would handle the grading on a card like this? It just doesn't seem right that this card should grade at a 1. If I had a true grade-1 1974 Carew card with perfect centering but rough handling, I can't imagine anyone would consider that the equal of this card.