For all vintage trading cards, those printed in the mid-1970s and earlier, the number one characteristic in determining value is centering — basically the relative width of each card border. If the borders are equal in width, the card could be worth as much as 30-to-50 percent more than an average card in the grade. If they are close to equal (60/40 or better), it will be a top card for the grade.

But why is centering so valuable? Because it’s rare. We’re going to take a look at the vintage cards that are most notoriously off center. Note that most vintage cards have white borders, which makes even slight centering issues easy to spot. Today’s cards are mostly borderless and modern printing technologies make cutting cards far more accurate and uniform. Cards are also more expensive now, even adjusting for inflation, and not viewed as disposable or a means to sell gum like back in the day – so quality control is better. 

Collectors of vintage cards embrace the relative rarity of a perfectly centered card. Some will buy them regardless of the grade, confident their main attribute will never go out of fashion.

I’m noting the eight toughest-to-find centered cards across all sports in the vintage era of Topps (1951-73), though not all the cards are Topps cards. Opinion on the toughest centered cards vary and this is by no means a complete list. Feel free to include others you believe qualify in the comments. 

Also, we’re not getting into back centering, which grading companies are far more lenient on officially. Back centering is the relative width of the borders on the back of the card, ideally being 50/50. PSA allows up to 90/10 back centering on Mint (PSA 9) cards and 75/25 on the back for Gem Mint 10s. But cards can be perfectly centered on the front and badly centered on the back (and vice versa) because fronts and backs were printed separately and were often misaligned vs. today when they are perfectly registered and printed front and back in the same pass. Sticklers for centering want backs centered, too. The Topps 1968 Nolan Ryan rookie card is a notoriously difficult card to find centered on both the front and the back. 

1954 Bowman Ted Williams

This card had to be quickly pulled from its Bowman print run because in 1954 Williams was exclusive to Topps for baseball cards (he has the first and last card in the 1954 Topps set). Additionally, the Williams card is almost impossible to find centered (or even close) both side-to-side and top-to-bottom. A centered one will get as much as a 50 percent premium for the grade. Going back to November, using Card Ladder, five of 22 of the 1954 Williamses qualify as well-centered (though not perfectly centered). That’s 22 percent. There are only 2,044 graded. So there’s maybe 550 well-centered ones in existence. 

1954 Topps Ernie Banks

Many of the 1954 Topps cards have centering issues. But few have them as commonly as Banks’ rookie card. The major issue is the top-to-bottom centering. There is no top border in this design, but most of these cuts are way off with oversized bottom borders and the top bordering on a miscut. If you survive that, you have side-to-side centering to worry about, too. A survey of recent sales shows about 25 percent of the Banks cards are well-centered in all grades. But finding one in mid-grade that’s well-centered is about twice as hard, with centered 4s going for close to $2,000. Of the 3,000 or so in mid-grade, maybe 400 would have great centering. 

1958 Topps Bobby Hull

Another rookie card and highly coveted, especially in the very rare centered condition. Hull was the first player to top the 50-goal threshold and is an iconic player. I went back a year in sales in all grades and found one card out of about 20 I would call well- centered. This may be the hardest card to find centered across all sports in the Vintage Era. If you ever see one, buy it. A PSA 2 centered will cost you about $1,700, or about a 70 percent premium over the standard off-centering. 

1959 Topps Bob Gibson

These rookies stand out because all serious collectors seem to want one, so we all know how hard they are to find well centered. The most common problem is right to left centering. Even in poor condition, a rare centered variant is 40 percent above average price in the grade. Only 20 percent of the last 20 sales had any eye appeal for centering. There are probably 1,500 to 2,000 well-centered rookie Gibsons across all grades and graders, way below the card’s demand. 

1961 Topps Jim Brown Highlights (#77)

This is not Brown’s base card (his personal card in the set), which is also tough to find centered this year. This is his in-action highlights card, commemorating his rushing yards in 1960. It’s a horizontal cut and has white borders all around. Most graded variations have the OC qualifier (for off-center, meaning that without the qualifier the card would be two grades lower). The big problem is top to bottom. Many are miscut (meaning no border). Others are miscut on the back (no border, which will not be forgiven by graders). But if the customer asked for no qualifier, an off-center or miscut card will be docked about two grades. So not having a qualifier doesn’t mean the cut is good. (PSA no longer gives qualifiers.) 

I went back 20 PSA sales over the past year and found one well-centered Brown Highlights card and it was a PSA 8 (about $1,000). But the only perfectly centered one the past year is an SGC 7 that was bought for $310, a bargain. I got this one in October for $180 in an SGC 7. It’s not perfectly centered but close. (I try very hard to find well centered cards that don’t carry that general premium.)

1961 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain

Just an impossible card. It’s Chamberlain’s rookie. There are only 3,155 graded. At most, being generous, 15 percent have good-to-great centering. So we’re talking 400-to-500 Chamberlains across all-grades with great eye appeal for centering. And in grades 2-to-4, out of about 700 graded, maybe 75-to-125 pass a tough centering test. A centered 2 is about $2,500-$3,000, or 67 percent to 100 percent over a typical poorly-centered one in the grade. Note an SGC 10 recently sold for $1.7 million. 

1971 Topps Thurman Munson

Not a rookie card (that’s 1970), but a dreaded horizontal card, which were more prone to centering issues in all directions. Also one of the best photographed cards ever. It’s highly prized and a cornerstone of the 1971 “black beauties” set that has the rare all-black border and thus shows even the slightest wear. One of my favorite hobby stories is a dealer who came across a vendor case of 1971 Topps where they were dispensed in vending machines. He immediately went for card No. 5 and there were hundreds of them. Every single one was way off center, either top to bottom or left to right. 

1972 Topps Roger Staubach

The Staubach rookie is the key card in the 1972 set that is famous for its hard-to-get high numbers. (Cards were released then in series and try telling a candy shop owner that he needed to buy new boxes of cards with new players when he had unsold boxes on the shelves.) I looked this up expecting data similar to the 1958 Hull. A well-centered PSA 6 just sold for $666 — the mark of the devil for a satanically centered card. That’s an insane 266 percent premium over an average PSA 6; that’s how tough it is to find a centered rookie Staubach. Typically the premium is 50-60 percent, or about a grade bump in price. But they are so hard to find and it only takes two people in an auction to really juice the price. But don’t pay more than a 50 percent premium if you are lucky enough to find one.  

Again this is not a complete list. There are MANY 1957 Topps baseball cards, especially the Sandy Koufax (third year) and rookie Frank Robinson that are tough. Like all oversized cards, 1969 Topps basketball are hard to find centered, but especially the rookie Lew Alcindor (before he became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). 

The 1963 Fleer rookie Lance Alworth and Len Dawson are almost impossible. The 1968 Topps Willie Mays is very tough. Most 1967 Topps baseball have borderline miscut issues on the left back border, even if you happen to find a rare centered front. The 1964 Topps Roberto Clemente is very tough to find centered. Same for the 1963 Topps Hank Aaron. All horizontal cards are very tough to find with perfect center cuts — that’s all of 1955 Bowman baseball, the 1955 Topps baseball, 1956 Topps baseball, 1960 Topps baseball, 1962 Topps football, 1966 Topps football, 1966 Topps hockey. 

Really most cards are hard to find well centered because collectors are disinclined to sell them.

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(Top photo: Michael Salfino; card images: eBay)