Interesting topic, thanks for starting the thread.
You are correct in that today, centering is usually viewed as one of the most important aspects of condition on nice cards. But it hasn't always been that way. Back when I first started collecting in the mid 1980's - centering as a consideration of the grade was much less of an issue. Today a lot of the cards that you included in your scans (nice, by the way; and I'm sure you did get them at bargains) would be considered duds because of the centering. It's increasingly common to see people that want only well centered cards - and even to see them give some on other aspects of condition to find those that are nicely centered. I guess it all comes down to what bothers you. For me, I don't like creases but other than that, I can deal with other condition problems as long as the cards retain eye-appeal. I went through a phase where I was buying and selling a lot of cards about 10 years ago - and got to where centering really bothered me. Interesting because when I was a kid - I don't recall being concerned about centering at all. And in looking back - many of the vintage cards that I treasured as a kid and got a ton of enjoyment out of - weren't centered that great. I will agree that on the whole - there is a point where truly bad centering can ruin the eye-appeal of a card if it's otherwise nice. But in recent years just focusing on my own collection - I've gotten to where I'm not as much as a centering fanatic as I used to be. I do know of other old school collectors who still care way more about sharp corners than they do centering at all - and I've got to think this is just a sign of the times in terms of how they grew up collecting. I really don't think centering mattered a tenth of what it does now when older cards were described for sale back in the 1980's. Remember when you could order single star cards out of magazines like Baseball Cards and just bought sight-unseen based on the grade advertised? NM, EX, VG...there weren't the "tweener" grades back then. Virtually nobody cared about the centering associated with the grade when they bought those cards. I know I was one of them as about a 12 year-old kid. I never cared.
21st century hobby problems, I guess...
-John
