Although individual tastes vary, T206 collectors as a whole tend to dislike graded cards with qualifiers. PSA is the only grading company that uses qualifiers in their grades, however SGC takes the same card attributes into consideration for the most part. The different qualifiers that PSA may assign to a card are MC, OC, MK and ST. For the purposes of this article, I am just going to talk about the (MC) qualifier. (MC) stands for “mis-cut” and is given to any card that has some portion of printed area that is either cut off or right up against the edge of the card. The Schmidt portrait above received the qualifier not because the front is slightly off-center, but because a tiny portion of the ornate scroll on the adjacent card is showing on the left edge of the back of Schmidt.
Looking at prices realized, it’s often pretty clear that collectors look down their nose at cards with the MC qualifier. The general rule of thumb I’ve heard is that a qualifier knocks the card’s value down two full grades. So, if you have a card in a PSA 4 (MC) holder, you might expect it to sell for a the price of a PSA 2, or at least in the vicinity.
A recent post on net54baseball.com got me thinking about this topic. There were some vehement anti-qualifier posts that I thought were interesting. Among them:
“Honestly severely off centered/miscut cards bug me the most…I avoid those like the plague!”
“I avoid cards with qualifiers…currently have none in my collection.”
“You could not pay me to take a card with qualifier on it, if I can find any other card that doesn’t have a qualifier…”
I have to admit I was a little surprised by the passionate disdain evident in these comments. I’ve never felt too strongly one way or another about the (MC) qualifier, but it is clear that many do. One reason someone might feel this way is that cards with qualifiers sell for quite a bit less than a similar card of the same grade without the qualifier. I can understand people not wanting to spend money on a card that they will lose money on, but in this case I don’t really understand passing up a card with a qualifier for monetary reasons. Since they sell for less, that means you can buy them for less as well. There’s no need to lose money on resale if you paid a fair price to begin with.
I would assume there is also a bit of herd mentality going on here as well. If the majority of collectors avoid cards with qualifiers, maybe it’s less fun to show them off to friends who don’t appreciate them, they’re tougher to sell, etc.
The third reason is that the cards themselves turn people off. This is of course the main reason, evidenced by lower prices of qualified cards across the board. The thing is: all qualifiers are not created equal. The Schmidt and Lobert cards above are not nearly as off-center as the Graham below.
In my opinion, if people focused more on the card than the flip*, you would see more love for cards with qualifiers. In many cases, the reason for the qualifier does not affect eye appeal much at all, but many collectors will still shy away from those cards. Of course, many cards with qualifiers have substantial “flaws” or attributes that negatively affect their eye appeal. For collectors who only enjoy a perfectly centered card, the (MC) qualifier is useful, because it tells them they will probably not like the card. Although they are not the topic of this post, I can also understand collectors who don’t like writing or marks on their cards (cards like this would receive the MK qualifier. If you collect low or mid-grade T206s with common backs, there are plenty of well-centered cards out there, so there’s no reason to buy a card with centering issues. However, if you collect some tougher backs, you don’t usually have the same options. I was thrilled to add the Schmidt and Graham to my collection at great prices. I’m glad the qualifier doesn’t bother me, because I could be waiting years before I find a nicer copy of either front/back combo.
Although the negativity towards cards with the (MC) qualifier mystifies me a bit, I’m happy to keep buying the ones I like at great prices.
*flip is a slang term used by collectors to refer to the PSA label