[hercules21]

BGS Card Grading Tips: Centering

I plan to create 4 threads, one for each sub-grade category, with tips on how to determine the potential grade of a raw card before submitting to BGS. I do not work for BGS, and I don't claim to be a subject matter expert. I simply have some experience and thought I would help others along the learning curve.

Please REFRAIN from posting pictures here of your own card and asking for advice or a grade! Start a separate thread for that type of inquiry, and I'm sure we will all see it and chime in with opinions.

I welcome inputs from anyone else who has significant experience with grading. I only request that you try to stick to examples that have a BGS certified grade associated with them to maintain a level of credibility, and not just provide opinion. There are plenty of websites out there with grading tips, but I want this thread to dive into deeper details.

Beckett has a "grading scale" webpage, which gives us their guidelines, and should serve as a starting point. It looks like they don't go into specifics on "half" grades beside 9.5. From their webpage:

10: 50/50 all around on front. 60/40 or better on back.
9.5: 50/50 one way, 55/45 the other on front. 65/35 or better on back
9: 55/45 both ways on front. 70/30 or better on back.
8: 60/40 both ways or better on front. 80/20 or better on back.
7: 65/35 both ways or better on front. 90/10 or better on back. Very slight diamond cutting is allowed.

Clearly it is easier to determine centering on a card that is symmetric, or that has symmetric features. Let's focus on that type first. Here is a Michael Jordan Upper Deck card as example. Notice the centering sub-grade given to this card is 9. It has a white border all the way around, with a logo and other features that jut into that border area. In most cases, those extra features can be ignored while we can focus on the rectangular shape created by the border.



Eventually, you may be able to train your eye to know whether centering is 55/45 versus 60/40, but most of us need something more concrete and measurable. I've heard of devices with grids that you can hold up to your card for this purpose, and this may be useful for a quick and dirty check, but with technology today I think we can do better. I'm sure Beckett has a complicated software program that can spit out a card's centering based off a scan. So let's try something like that. Start with a scan of both the front and back of the card. Scanning is preferred over a picture from a digital camera, because with a scanner you can be sure the card is straight, while a photo may be taken at an angle. However, this technique will work with pictures too, even low quality ones from the Bay, if you adjust it for straightness.

Now we need software that will allow us to zoom in and count pixels. I discovered a program for my Mac called Paintbrush that is similar to the Windows Paint utility. I like that it has a "show grid" function, which makes each pixel easy to distinguish. Below is a screenshot zoomed in at the bottom right corner of the card. I created a red line from the card edge to the image edge, and wrote the piexel length of the line next to it.



With the zoomed in image below, you can see that the edges are not always crisp, distinct pixels. I believe a higher resolution image may help for this. As long as you are consistent, choosing whether a shaded pixel is part of the border or not, the result shouldn't be affected too much.



Now, we do the same thing with the top left corner of the card.



And our frontside results:
Left border: 27 pixels
Right border: 27 pixels
Top border: 29 pixels
Bottom border: 23 pixels

Left/Right centering is 27/27, or 50/50. Sweet.
Top/Bottom centering is 29/23, or with a little math comes out to 56/44. Let's say that's close enough to make the 55/45 requirement for a 9 or 9.5 on the front. However, we still need to check the back.



We see on this card that the design of the back of the card is not symmetric like the front. The image does not go all the way to the bottom of the card, so we do not have a nice edge to measure to. Also, the image has this weird shadow effect going on on the right side. Let's ignore those features, and focus on the top left corner. Let's assume that the border on the back is supposed to be similar to the theoretically perfect front (if the front was perfectly centered). That means we want the left and right borders to have 27 pixels, and the top and bottom borders to have 26 pixels (half of 29 + 23).



And our backside results:
Left border: 28 pixels
Top border: 36 pixels

Left/Right centering is 28/26, or 52/48.
Top Bottom centering is 36/16, or 69/31.

Both those results are better than 70/30, which is the requirement for the backside of a BGS centering sub-grade of 9. And since the front of the card is 55/45 or better in both directions on the front, this card qualifies for a 9, and that is exactly what it was graded.


I hope this was helpful and informative. There is more to come, such as asymmetric card designs, and more examples. Centering is probably the easiest sub-grade to guess with an untrained eye, but I find it useful to have a quantitative way to tell the difference between a 9 and a 9.5.

[nolan5000]

Just to point out, you can get 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5, 7.5, 8.5 & 9.5 on all 4 subgrades.

[Texan1985]

Love it. Does Paint on a PC have a similar grid option?

[hercules21]

(01-10-2013 12:43 AM)nolan5000 Wrote:  Just to point out, you can get 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5, 7.5, 8.5 & 9.5 on all 4 subgrades.

Thanks, I updated the post accordingly.

[jeffv96masters]

On cards with defined "inner" picture margins a quick tip to check centering levels without resorting to measurement testing is to turn the item over on to its side,,,,

T-B suddenly becomes L-R and voila eyes notice its off,,,, or vice versa,,,,whether its a 195o's card or newer most cards with "inner" pics show margins that a quick eyeball can check,,,, turning your Jordan on its side was all I would personally need to do to know the closeness of its centering,,,,

Look forward to your future posts on how to address centering on issues where no centering is readily apparent


Jeff

[hercules21]

While not all cards have a well defined border like my example above, many do have symmetric features in at least the left/right direction, such as a box of stats on the back, or a box around the players name. The same measuring technique described above (or checking by eye once you get good) can be used.

Often there is no box or geometric feature, but the player's name is left/right centered! In this case, measure to the name from both edges! For example, if there are 6 letters like DUMARS, measure from the left edge to the D and from the right edge to the S. Or measure from both edges to in between the M and the A.

How to tell centering on a card that is not symmetric and has no symmetric features at all? Well of course the first thing to do is figure out what a perfectly centered card is supposed to look like!

Start by searching eBay for a BGS graded card. It does not need to be a perfect 10, as even a 5 could have a centering sub-grade of 10. Just click on a dozen auctions, find some with pictures that allow you to zoom in when you put the mouse over the picture. Find some with 9.5 or 10 for centering, then download the picture to your computer, so that you can open it up in a separate picture program. If eBay fails you, try a general google search. Some cards have a very low graded population, in which case it will be much tougher to figure out centering, but some other hints below may help.

You'll also want a picture of the back of the card. As I mentioned before, that has a large bearing on the resultant grade. Most eBay listings don't include rear pictures, so if it's important to you, feel free to contact the seller and request a picture of the back. What have you got to lose?

PSA (and other services) 10 grades may also be good references, but I'm not familiar with their grading criteria for centering, so I suggest looking into that first.

Now, once you have pictures of nicely centered cards, simply look for easily identifiable features near the edges of the card. Specifically, look at the corners of the card. Exactly how much of a feature can you see? Every pixel counts, so look closely. Compare this to your card, and you will quickly realize how far and in which direction your card is off center. Now, if you card is not exactly centered, it may be hard to determine exactly how bad it is, and what centering sub-grade it would get. You could try looking for more pictures of cards with 9 and 8 centering sub-grades, and see which your card is most similar to.

All cards have brand logos. These can be great hints to a cards centering. If the logo is in a corner, then most likely it is supposed to be equal distance from both edges nearby. For example, if the logo is an Upper Deck circle in the top left corner, then it is supposed to be equal distance from the top edge as it is from the left edge. This visual cue is not a guarantee that your card is centered; but if it does not hold true, then you can guarantee your card is off center.

Most backsides of cards have some sort of text. If the text is not in a geometric box, it is probably at least constrained to a box shape (sort of like the text "full justification" feature in Microsoft Word). In this case, you can measure the left/right centering by measuring the distance to the edge of the text.

I will update this post with some picture examples in the future. Let me know if you think of any other tips and tricks!

[hercules21]

(01-10-2013 12:44 AM)Texan1985 Wrote:  Love it. Does Paint on a PC have a similar grid option?

Yes, on Paint in Windows 7, if you click on the "view" tab, there is a checkbox to show grid lines.

[hercules21]

Alright, I've come up with a nice table for ascertaining the centering sub-grade that takes into account both directions on both the front and back.



This table shows that in order to get a given grade in the far left column, the centering must meet the requirements listed in that row (for both front and back centering), using that ratio measured in the worst direction on that side.

Here is an example:
1) Measure the pixel sizes of the borders (both top/bottom and left/right) on the front.
2) Calculate the ratios in both directions, and normalize them to add up to 100. So a 33/22 ratio normalizes to 61/39.
2) Take the ratio for the direction that is the worst (furthest from 50/50) and round that ratio "down" to a multiple of 5, like is shown in the table. So 61/39 rounds down to a 60/40.
3) Find that ratio in the middle column and circle it. So in this case we circle both 60/40's which are next to the 8 and 8.5.
(At this point, you know the centering can't be any better than an 8.5)
4) Now, do the same thing (steps 1 and 2) on the back.
5) For the back, find that ratio in the far right column and circle it.
6) Finally, whichever circle is the lowest in the table defines your final centering sub-grade

-

[PopSon5481]

Very informative, thank you for sharing. From your discussion, it appears that the Beckett "tolerances" are stricter than the PSA guidelines. For example, I believe that the PSA standard for a 9 is 60/40 worst on the front. This would be more lenient than the Beckett 55/45. Any thoughts??

[hercules21]

(02-09-2013 08:13 PM)PopSon5481 Wrote:  Very informative, thank you for sharing. From your discussion, it appears that the Beckett "tolerances" are stricter than the PSA guidelines. For example, I believe that the PSA standard for a 9 is 60/40 worst on the front. This would be more lenient than the Beckett 55/45. Any thoughts??

Yea, that would be more lenient. And that coincides with the what appears to be the general rule of thumb: that a PSA card grade is equivalent to .5 to 1 less in BGS grades.