December 27, 2014

Grade This Card: 1964 Topps Pete Rose

I'm not a professional grader, just a longtime collector. I have a pretty good idea what constitutes gem mint, and what's considered poor. It's just everything in between that throws me. I've scanned one of my cards here. Help me out by giving it a grade in the embedded poll.

1964 Topps Pete Rose #125
I am a baseball purist, and though that's a position rife with double standards and moral high ground easily eroded by convincing arguments about the game's need for change, I firmly believe that Pete Rose will never be reinstated by Organized Baseball and enshrined in the Hall of Fame. But I'm also drawn to cards of Pete Rose, moral high ground be damned. So when I saw this card in a lot for $20 on eBay, I pounced. I think it's one of the best cards of the 1960s, and certainly one of the highlights of the lackluster 1964 set. But it's offcentered. And how much does that affect it's grade? I have no idea. Help me out.




3 comments:

Gary M. Woodard said...

I was an owner of a few hundred pre-1969 baseball cards and kept them for over 30 years!

This Pete rose card looks to be in
Nice condition but the off-centering prevents it from being above excellent.

I toured the Louisville slugger museum in Kentucky and couldn't find a Pete rose bat in the place!

I used a 33" Louisville slugger in high school with much love!

Woody out.

ToppsBawlyn87 said...

Beckett allows up to 2 half grades above the lowest grade. I put an engineer scale to the screen and found that the L-R centering is slightly worse than 90/10 (like 91/09). That puts Centering into the [GD 2.0] category. The Corners, Edges, and Surface appear to be well above good, so I'd feel comfortably adding those two half grades to this card. I'd put the overall grade at [VG 3.0], which is worth about 20% BV (or $50).

ToppsBawlyn87 said...

I put an engineer scale to the screen and came up with a L-R centering of slightly worse than 90/10 on the card front. Beckett puts that at a [GD 2.0] for Centering, but allows for up to two half grade increases from the lowest rating. Since the Corners, Edges, and Surface all appear to be well above the lowest rating, it seems justified in this case. I'd put the overall grade at [VG 3.0], which would be worth about 20% (or $50). You got a good deal.