Let me correct myself first, this is one of the cards from my last COMC order. It is a checklist card and was something I bought when I was hitting up team checklists from a couple of baseball sets I'm working on. It cost me just 57 cents, but I've done more thinking on this particular card over the past few days, than most of the other cards I own, surprisingly so. Let me tell you why.
First, let's introduce you to the card. 1978-79 OPC hockey card # 297.
Not a bad looking checklist if you ask me. Normal rough edge OPC cut, not something to be terribly concerned with. 80-20 centering, roughly? Not a huge deal either, right?
Here's the back.
Almost the exact same on the back, centering, edges, etc. I liked this card so much that I thought 57 cents was a steal to be honest.
Now here comes my question.
How would you grade this card? I know a lot of us out there when picking up older cards at shows or online, get a first impression on a card and say "that card to me is (insert grade)".
Why have I brought this up? Well, on COMC this card was graded "poor to fair". To me, that's a bit off. Yes, I'm sure that the big thing on this is that the boxes are marked. But look at it. Both sides.
I think that the person who originally marked this card took good care to mark it so that it didn't look shabby. To me, the only "poor" part is that the collector didn't get the Bill McKenzie (front) or the Jim Roberts (back) cards marked. To think he was 2 cards away!!
Would love to hear your comments about this. Give me your first instinct, how would you grade this and why. I'm on the VG level for this card. But that's me.
Enjoy the hobby!
Robert
I'm not a fan of writing on cards, even checklists, so I'd probably agree with COMC's assessment. Now if it was ink free, I'd easily say very good, maybe even very good+ (is very good+ a thing?).
ReplyDeleteI think some things bother some collectors more than others. For example... marked checklists would bother me much more than say a very small pinhole (which PSA automatically gives the grade a PSA 1).
ReplyDeletePersonally I think it is a nice looking card, however with the checklist being marked that always brings the condition down. Whether you agree or disagree about the effects of ink or pencil marks on cards. If the card is marked it gets at the very least one grade lower than it would without the mark. If the card was otherwise Excellent to near-mint but had just one box on the checklist marked it would still be graded by most as fair at best. Maybe a "good".
ReplyDeleteI think I've seen that pen marks of any kind are listed as a major defect in the "official" grading scale. You can have stuff like dinged corners all the way up in the ex range, but I think markings don't even start until good or less.
ReplyDeleteI've made a concerted effort to upgrade all my marked checklists from my 70's sets.
Be sure to take care of unfinished business and check off those missing cards when you can. :)
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