A Simple Poll. What is Your O/C Preference?

[rsdill2]

That's some pretty slick photoshopping there. Kudos.

Never really thought about it but it's neat to see them all in a row like that. Suppose if I had to choose I'd go with the last one (pushed to the bottom) but I'm not real sure why. I suppose when I first analyze a card, that's the last direction I mentally measure so to me it's the least obvious.

[Bill77]

I went with pushed to the top, because my art degree tells me that matted photos are supposed to have a larger bottom boarder and small top boarder. It was just something hammered into me every semester while cutting mattes for my photography class finals for four years. But honestly speaking I have cards that are off center in every direction because sometimes the price is too good to pass up.

[riggs336]

For some reason (maybe because I'm a moderate liberal) my eyes tend to concentrate on the center and left parts of cards.

[Neal]

4 ... and then 2

[Tere1071]

Originally Posted by riggs336

For some reason (maybe because I'm a moderate liberal) my eyes tend to concentrate on the center and left parts of cards.

This brought a smile to my face.

[Casey2296]

For left/right I would take #1 based on the image, Mantle is facing left to a more open space because of the skinny border and allows the eye to flow off the image and leave the card. #2 he is facing a wall with nowhere for your eye to leave the image. The diagonal red border on the left also helps balance against the heavy border on the right.

Up down would be #4 pushed to the bottom since the large red name border balances with the large top border.

[Jim65]

Pushed to the bottom
Pushed to the top

Never liked cards OC side to side.

[Tere1071]

On my 53 Bowmans, which are notoriously oc, my preference is pushed to the bottom and to the right. It also depends on the image, some cards don't display well oc especially if it's side to side.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

For left/right I would take #1 based on the image, Mantle is facing left to a more open space because of the skinny border and allows the eye to flow off the image and leave the card. #2 he is facing a wall with nowhere for your eye to leave the image. The diagonal red border on the left also helps balance against the heavy border on the right.

Up down would be #4 pushed to the bottom since the large red name border balances with the large top border.

Agreed. I would go with #4.

[jchcollins]

I generally prefer slightly OC top to bottom, but also care way more about how bad the OC problem is over and above what the direction of the problem is. I can usually live with 70/30 one way, cards worse than about 85/15 usually tend to bug me, though I will say in cases of really "bad" off-centering - it usually depends on the individual card. For example because of the way the borders were designed - some '53 Topps cards can be waaaay OC and not bother me at all. But for a set with background contrast and white borders where the centering is going to be very obvious (most '57 Topps cards, for example) that doesn't work.

I will say that I still kind of look at the sudden explosion of "centering as the number one condition criteria" only in the 21st century as kind of humorous. Sure, centering is important - bad centering beyond a certain point can totally destroy the eye appeal of a card - but to me it's still just one aspect of condition and grading. I'd much rather have a mildly OC card with perfect color and registration than a perfectly centered one that is slightly faded or has print problems. I will admit about a decade or so ago I kind of hopped on the centering train as it were, and was very picky for a period of time. Then at one point I had two different copies of a '73 Schmidt which matched what I just said. Comparing them side by side to me it was a no brainer which dupe to sell - I sold the better centered one that had worse color and slight print snow, and kept the slightly OC one that to me looked better. The cards were raw, but both arguably in the EX-MT range.

[frankhardy]

Originally Posted by riggs336

For some reason (maybe because I'm a moderate liberal) my eyes tend to concentrate on the center and left parts of cards.

I voted pushed to the top. However, with the above logic, I think I want to change mine to severely miscut to the right.....like so....