Card centering: how it's measured

Practical guide

Centering is how equally the artwork (or rather, the inner frame) is spaced from the four cut edges of the card. It's a defect that originates at the printing plant, not from use: the card was cut slightly crooked relative to the sheet. For many cards it's the parameter that "holds down" the overall grade, even when corners, edges and surface are perfect.

How it's expressed

It's measured as the ratio between the margin on one side and the one on the opposite side, both horizontally and vertically. A centering of "55/45" means one side has 55% of the total border and the other 45%: a slight imbalance. The closer to "50/50" the better; beyond certain ratios (which each grading scale defines its own way, and often stricter on the back) the maximum reachable grade drops.

Front and back both count

The back of many cards is centered worse than the front, and that's normal. Grading scales evaluate the centering of both faces and generally take the worse one. That's why a photo of just the front isn't enough for a serious estimate.

Why it matters so much

• It's immediately visible to the naked eye, even to an inexperienced buyer.
• It doesn't get better or worse over time: it's a fixed ceiling on that copy's grade.
• On cards identical in every other way, it creates wide price gaps between a well-centered copy and a crooked one.

How to photograph it without distorting it

Centering is the parameter easiest to ruin with a crooked photo. The camera must be parallel to the card and centered on it: if you shoot from an angle, perspective narrows the margins on one side and widens them on the other, and any analysis — human or automated — will read the wrong centering. Frame the whole card, with all four cut edges visible and some background around it. See how to photograph a card.

For an estimate that accounts for front and back you can try a scan by uploading both faces.