How Much More Will You Pay For Great Centering?

[puckpaul]

Originally Posted by irv

When I first rejoined the hobby back in 2016, I purchased many 52 Topps cards that weren't exactly centered, if you know what I mean? That has changed now once I became more educated and read on here numerous times how important centering was. I have now, for the most part, become fairly anal when it comes to centering, but then again, since most of my remaining needed cards are pricey, I won't be as anal with those if and when the time comes.

A fairly recent upgrade for me, and if I happen to come across a more centered copy of other cards in my collection, I will also give them a shot if the upgrade is significant enough.

The color and clarity of the off center version makes it look much better to me. I like centering but it really depends. Many off Centered cards are great if they have eye appeal.

[dio]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfpsTO4q3o&t=937s

go to start at 13:00
check the mantle and russell, see which one you guys think would rather have

[puckpaul]

Originally Posted by puckpaul

The color and clarity of the off center version makes it look much better to me. I like centering but it really depends. Many off Centered cards are great if they have eye appeal.

Here is a card i recently purchased. It came at an ex-mt+ price. The centering doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, i dont understand the need for a qualifier. But it helped me be very satisfied with a great price for the card.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

I led off the response to this thread last year with a story about paying a premium for a centered, midgrade card. However, just last week I bought this:



I do think it’s interesting that PSA will lead you to believe that the half grade “plus” is usually reserved only for nearly perfectly centered cards. In practice, I have found this not always to be the case. I digitally measured this guy at 68/32 left to right (55/45 T/B). ‘67’s can be difficult to judge, because they have overall thinner borders (borders with less total area) when compared to other vintage issues.

This stuck me as a sharp card for the grade regardless, and when the seller discounted it more than I had been anticipating - I pulled the trigger. I think it really does depend on the individual card…


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So would you rather have that card as a 5.5 or 7(OC)? Or does it matter?



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[WA_HOF_rookie]

Every card I buy is for the PC. I look for low grade and centered. I'm okay with creases as long as they're not right across the middle. Centering is the most important.
Chris

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[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Gorditadogg

So would you rather have that card as a 5.5 or 7(OC)? Or does it matter?

This is one of those technical gray areas due to published standards. My Seaver did not get a 5.5 due to centering; at least it shouldn't have. (It's due to corner wear). At not quite 70/30 s-s, it's technically good enough to get up to a straight 8 with that centering if nothing else is wrong with the card.

The standard to have an OC qualifier for a 7 would be worse than 75/25. So, an otherwise mint card like that if qualifiers were left off would ostensibly top out at a straight 6 - since the standard for a 6 is 80/20 or better. Make sense?

If given the choice, I'd rather have the straight grade with no qualifier. But no, in terms of eye appeal of the card - it doesn't really matter.

[Fuddjcal]

I've always been a corners guy, but this one seems pretty special in retrospect

[Leon]

Originally Posted by sycks22

Don't think I've owned a more centered card.

Yeah, so you got to me on that one and thanks for the sale
I guess it's debatable which is nicer.

[UKCardGuy]

Originally Posted by DeanH3

I will definitely pay a premium for centered cards. How much? Depends on how hard it is to find centered examples that particular card.

+1

For me it about balance. Sharp corners and a good surface are first. Then centering. It also depends how bad the centering is. I can handle 70/30 but 90/10 probably not.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by sycks22

Don't think I've owned a more centered card.

Man, that E90-1 Young has incredibly wide borders on both sides. Compare them to the miscut Thomas card below that shows the border width between 2 cards. It looks like Cy got more than 2/3 share of the border space on each side. Off-center cards do have their uses...

Brian

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by UKCardGuy

+1

For me it about balance. Sharp corners and a good surface are first. Then centering. It also depends how bad the centering is. I can handle 70/30 but 90/10 probably not.

I'm with you. Centering is important, but not sure I'm on board with it being exponentially more important than every other aspect of condition that hobbyists have been judging for decades now. I've been known to occasionally keep a worse centered card with nicer corners and better color over a perfectly centered one with lesser attributes elsewhere. The last time I recall that definitely happening was with my '73 Schmidt RC.

In general, I can tolerate mild OC simply because it was so prevalent in cards that came out of postwar packs in the 1980's and before. 70/30 one way usually doesn't bother me. If I have to look at a card twice to determine whether or not it's miscut - that and things like 90/10 centering or "sliver" borders - usually do bother me.

On the whole I kind of chuckle at the centering craze that has enveloped the hobby post year 2000 or so. It's really just cognitive bias. I don't recall anyone at Topps ever coming out and saying that the "perfect" Topps baseball card had to be cut perfectly centered. Why do we believe this today? Because of hobbyists (and ahem, graders...) drumming that into us at every opportunity for the past 20 or 25 years, probably. Yes, a well centered card is a thing of beauty, I won't deny that. But just because that is true does not mean that a mildly OC card is inherently ugly / a pure factory reject from the word go, owing only to our modern day biases.

[GeoPoto]

Trigger Warning: My intent is to surface two ongoing auctions that may be of interest to followers of this thread/poll. In doing so, I intend to mention PWCC and discuss the two auctions as though PWCC is just another auction house. In doing so, it is not my intent to endorse the past, present, or future business practices of PWCC.

PWCC currently has two 1953 Topps Jackie Robinson #1 PSA 6 EXMT on auction. One closes on the 11th; the other on the 14th. The first one has full borders, but is badly centered; the latter one is close to perfectly centered. At present the first one is at $1,575; the latter is at $3,600.

It looks like as good a "vote with your money" poll on centering as you are likely to get.

[tkd]

In the past I would pay a premium but today the premium seems far greater in most situations. In this market I'm much less picky. For example I'm looking to collect the goudey Ruth's again and I'll take a bit off centered with nice eye appeal, color, focus and so on.

[Tere1071]

On the "Certified, Qualified, and Glorified" thread in the Watercooler discussion board the emphasis is on having the card, rather than looking for perfection. Yes, there are certain cards that don't have an appeal if they're off-center, but if one takes a good look at the cards displayed on this thread, there's nothing wrong with having them in one's collection. It comes down to what pleases the individual collector and perhaps affordability.

[dio]

Bold color and registration over centering for me. Check out all these 52 topps mantle psa 1. Some great centering one with faded and beat up you can hardly see Mantle's face clearly. I rather have clear picture with him with bold color. Psa OC is a great buy

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by tkd

In the past I would pay a premium but today the premium seems far greater in most situations. In this market I'm much less picky. For example I'm looking to collect the goudey Ruth's again and I'll take a bit off centered with nice eye appeal, color, focus and so on.

Yep, most collectors aren't that picky, so if you are looking to buy cards as investments you are much better off buying something that you can resell at VCP. Just a lot more buyers out there at that price point so the liquidity is better.

[conor912]

For my PC, I won’t typically pay a huge premium. That said, I will pay a hefty premium for great centering if I am buying for resale, knowing a lot of guys go gaga over 50/50.

[GeoPoto]

Badly Off-Center: $3150
Perfectly Centered: $9142