I suppose a collector that collects newer cards will not understand this idea, but to those of us that do collect vintage - how do you feel about overall grade vs. centering... MY point is that there are many cards and MANY sets that are notorious for horrible centering - but every now and again you find that "gem" that defeats the status quo - a card that is known to be notoriously off-centered then you find one that is centered perfectly but it's just in VG, perhaps some soft corners or other issues but the centering is perfect etc.... Now my question is - do you place a premium on a card like that? - in short instead of being perhaps a PSA 5 or 6 or do you give it "extra credit" because the card is rare to find centered?

And I suppose the opposite argument er question could be made as well...

My point is how important is centering to you with vintage cards? and should vintage cards that are notoriously off-centered which are centered get a special "sub-grade" if they are centered just due to the rarity of the card?


And I ask this question because there are some cards/sets where it's notoriously difficult to find a centered example of a card... like 95% of the examples you will find will be O/C - but then you find that one card that IS INDEED centered but it has soft corners - should that card get precedent over the ones that may have nicer corners, edges er "lesser flaws"?

So do you find cards that are way rarer to find centered with small issues above those that are more easier to find off-centered?

Me personally - I will take the centered card all day because it's the 1 in 500 card... So what it has soft corners. 9.5 times out of 10 you're not going to find this card centered ....

So I wonder if PSA or Beckett even takes those determinations into their grades or just accepts the facts that card X is notoriously O/C and disregards that fact entirely and gives it a 9 anyway because the card is "known" to be off-centered so centering is no issue because it's "expected"....

I find those vintage off-centered cards that known to be o/c but are centered extremely desirable..

Doesn't matter now for me because I'm liquidating my collection but this idea has always been on my mind --- I know some collectors absolutely do value those rarer cards that are notoriously off-centered and love them - I'm one of them myself but just how much do you care about it?.

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