[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by 3arod13

Myself, if a card is graded a 9.5, I won't buy it unless all subgrades are 9.5 or better. If it has one 9, I won't buy it. I want perfect centering. If not perfectly center, I won't buy it. I tried to overcome both, but it just didn't work. Have you passed up on something you really wanted, because it didn't meet your expectations?

Tony, I collect all three eras, pre-war, vintage and modern. When I started out buying modern cards again (pretty much exclusively Bowman Chrome prospect autos), I picked up the best cards I could find, but if the centering was off slightly, I still bought it. Now, I have a few cards in my collection that are slight off, like my Manny Machado auto, and I want to sell it, and buy another with perfect centering.

I have to blame Matty C for this. When he began on his Mickey Mantle run, every card was perfectly centered. The centered cards looked better, to me, than examples technically a grade higher (or more), but with lesser centering. I think that, of all the subgrades, is the one I'm now most picky about.

If I buy a Beckett graded card, yes, I want all 9.5 subs. My Bryce Harper Chrome auto is perfect, and it commands a premium. However, my ungraded Mike Trout Chrome auto has a scan line down the middle, and that would likely lower it to 9. Everything else is perfect, and it might still get a 9.5 overall. But the surface grade would bother me. I would literally sell mine, and then buy another with all 9.5 subs.

So, I understand where you are coming from. With vintage, centering is really important. I've been working on the 1975 Topps set for a while, and I'll take a PSA 8 with superior centering over an off-centered 9 any day of the week. The '53 Bowman set I am (slowly) working on, centering is much more difficult to deal with. But it's the first thing I look at now.

Damn you, Matty C!