What grade is this card?

[Jeff Alcorn]

Hi,

Well, to begin with, I see 4 corners with wear to them. Corner wear is always increased when a card is diamond cut and this card has the lower left border and the upper right border wider than the other 2 corresponding borders on each side.

Also, there appears to be white wear marks on the sleeves and by the light pole, and it looks like a crease from the lower left border across to Mays' hip. Finally, the picture is out of registration, best noticed on the uniform & hat lettering along with his face that clearly shows the blurred image.

I personally do not like the diamond cut cards- and 1966 Topps suffered from them a lot (I have a number of them in my set I would like to replace), so when combining the miscut with the crease and the picture registration problem I would grade the card no better than VG or VG-EX. If the card is not creased, then your assessment of EX-EX+ is probably right. This card is definitely not near mint.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

[vintagebaseballcardshop]

Nice observation Jeff! I really appreciate you taking the time to properly analyze the card... Would you believe that I was so distraught over the card, that I didn't even notice the crease on the bottom left above the W.. Nice eye! So yeah.. that makes it even worse! wow.. so yeah.. VG at best! Nice call!