When one starts getting into the nuts and bolts of what drives the value of any given card, it is an understatement to describe the process as nuanced. To be fair, a lot of weight rightfully goes to the “in your face” factors that those with even a basic understanding of collectibles connect with. Ask anyone with even the slightest amount of hockey awareness, as basic as picking up on pop-culture references to current and past stars of the game, and at some level they recognize that a Gretzky rookie card is quite valuable. Likewise, they could probably infer that a card containing game-used memorabilia and an autograph out values a more basic card. Assumptions based on the most obvious factors.
To be fair, inferences stemming from some generally common knowledge can get us to a certain point in assessing the general value in a card. At the same time, this basic knowledge can at best take us only so far, or at worst see one making faulty assumptions that result in significant over or undervaluing of the item. Let’s take this comparison for instance: rookie cards of Jaromir Jagr vs Jake Guentzel. Guentzel is no scrub. He’s quite the player and has a solid resume already in his career, sporting regular 20+ goal and 40+ point seasons, and a cup to his name at the young age of 26. At the same time, even he would admit that he is not the player Jagr was! Averaging over a point per game on his NHL career with two cups, a Hart, five Art Ross, three Lindsay’s, a Masterson, seven-time first team all-star, second to Gretzky in NHL points all time, and a shoe-in first ballot hall of fame inductee whenever he stops playing professionally, which he continue to at the age of 49. He is a legend.
This then begs the question within the context of cards: who has the more valuable rookie card? Jagr or Guentzel? If we equate those shiny capital “F” factors such as fame and career with value then Jagr is the obvious answer. It would also be, except in some specific instances, the wrong answer. Taking it a bit farther, the extent to which it is wrong (in other words, “How much more valuable is card X than Y?”), or what dictates situations where the Jagr is actually worth more, rest on the more subtle and nuanced aspects of the hobby. These include factors such as:
a) card condition
b) appearance
c) which set it belongs to
d) rarity (e.g., “junk wax” vs short-printed)
e) graded versus ungraded
f) current market
g) And on, and on, and on…
This isn’t to say anyone has to pay attention to any of these things to have some fun with the hobby! If your end goal is to treat the hobby as an investment that can provide a financial payoff down the road, however, you have no choice but to. The hope with this series is to shed some light onto these key factors and support your understanding of what these mean and what to look for in your own collection and/or purchases in this regard. As us ‘80s kids are aware, “Knowing is half the battle”, and in this case it’s about informed financial decision making.
Card Centering
For step one we’re going to take a look at the idea of the centering of a card. This refers to the degree to which the card aligns with the edges when comparing top-bottom and left-right sides. Does it appear centered in the provided space? This is something that may be readily evident to the human eye or perhaps requires more detailed measurement. Either way, it can and will impact the market value of the card.
Ideally, you want to see an equal distance from the border of the card to the physical edge when comparing the top to bottom and left to right sides. For many cards assessing this is relatively straightforward as it has been quite common from the past into the modern era of design to have a blank border surrounding the edge of the card, be it white or another color (sometimes varying depending on base or parallel version). On some cards, perfect centering would see measurements being equivalent on all four sides, while at times the top/bottom and left/right distances may differ somewhat, and as such the equivalence one is looking for is between the opposing sides (e.g., left and right equal, top and bottom equal).
In instances where we are working with borders, there are two situations we can commonly run into. The first is basic degree of imbalance. Take a look at this guy:
Mr. Derlago here is a prime example of a non-centered card typical of the pre-90’s card production where stacks of sheets were cut into individual cards by wire (generally OPC) or blade (generally Topps) in a manner that did not always result in great balance between the sides! Speed was prioritized over accuracy and the “good enough” rule was in place. When we talk centering, you will hear terminology such as “50/50” as the ideal you’re looking for. This figure (50/50) tells you that a particular card has the same distance on each side, or that the total “amount” of border is shared equally. Eyeballing Bill’s card it is obvious that this is NOT a 50/50 centering, but rather somewhere in the 60/40 to 70/30 range. So what is the implication? Well first, all other factors being equal, it would be less desirable/valuable than the same card with 50/50 centering. Second, if you wanted to submit this for grading there would be an impact on how high you could expect the final grade to be. Let’s take PSA Grading standards as an example. To receive a grading of 10, the highest level, the centering on the front of the card needs to be between 50/50 to 60/40, and the back no worse than 75/25. Our card above, even if every other aspect were pristine, would likely not be eligible for a 10 rating based on the centering alone. Depending on the card this could be a decent value drop, especially if there is a decent amount of higher rated versions of that card available.
As an example of how crazy centering issues can be, take a look at this bad boy:
This is what is known as a “diamond cut”. These occur when the cut happens at an angle that is not parallel to the actual image. Nevermind whether the left and right sides are the same distance away! In this case the top and bottom of the right side may not even be the same! In the example above the miscut is very obvious, but in others it may not be so apparent at first glance. As such, literally measuring distances at the top and bottom of each side is likely necessary to confirm whether this has occurred or not.
Now these two possibilities as outlined above will not cover every scenario. In fact, more modern releases (e.g., 90’s on) can often lack borders altogether or have what approaches a traditional border on only a single, two or three sides. Complicating matters in those situations is that each side may be working with a different idea of what being centered might look like, meaning the measurement for left/top may be different that for right/bottom, and vice versa. At this point then, it becomes more about gaining a general sense from other samples from the set as to what constitutes “normal” and going from there, which may involve varying measuring points for the different sides. We could disseminate these possibilities until the end of time, so I’ll leave these scenarios with an all-encompassing “we don’t neglect centering but become more creative about assessing it”.
Hope this was an informative first peek into the details around what goes into judging the value of your collection! Plenty more to come, and I would very much welcome any questions that might drive future topics, so feel free to send them along!
Well wishes and positive energy to you all. Please put some care into you and yours and look out for one another where possible! Even the smallest of actions can lead to far bigger impacts than we realize. Cheers!
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Do you have a piece of treasured memorabilia that has a great story behind it? Let me know and you can be featured in an article. Doesn't matter how big or small the piece is, how valuable it may be, or whether it's a common item or more oddball. If you think it has a story, contact me via the information below and we'll chat. In the meantime, check out some previous "Display Case" articles via the links below to see what others have submitted in the past...
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Shawn Gates
[email protected]
Facebook: ShawnMcShawn
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80-81 Base
20008 UD Champs
Champ’s Mini Signatures
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2017 Upper Deck Toronto Maple Leafs Centennial
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Previous “Ultimate Set Build” Articles
1980-81 O-Pee-Chee
80-81 Base
20008 UD Champs
Champ’s Mini Signatures
2017 Upper Deck Toronto Maple Leafs Centennial
Maple Leafs Marks
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#2: Your desk has the right to remain collectable!
#3: Have Pads, Will Travel
#4: Pick a Pekka (Rinne) Autographed Mask
#5: Ted Lindsay Gets Kronwalled?
#6: The Only Thing We Have To Fehr Is Fehr Himself
#7: “Hungary” For Team Canada Swag
#8: The Soldiers Kid and “The Kid”
#9: Fan Appreciation & Player Humility Via The '72 Series
#10: Bobby Orr and....Birth Control?!?!?!
#11: Johnny Bower The “Portrait” Of Health At 88!!!
#12: Scotty Bowman – Stick Detective!!!
#13: Touch 'Em All Joe!!!
#14: Joey and Sergei's European (Lockout) Adventure!!!
#15: I’d Give The Jersey Off My Back For You…
#16: The Case Of The 1940’s Era Leafs
#17: Scrapping The History Of The Isles...
#18: Gretzky “Re-Signs” in Edmonton
#19: Gilmour Is Such A Caricature!!!
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