I remember opening packs in the 50s(late 50s thank you), 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and up, and every time I got an Off Center Card I’d be pissed. As a youngster it was only because the card didn’t look as good. Later on it was because the value, especially PSA and BGS, was destroyed (only worth a SMALL % on average).
I’ve posted pics below from major sports and non sports stars showing how much you lost in value on PSA 9s. Major difference eh?
This does hold true with Pokémon…and ONLY Pokémon. In some cases THEY EARN MORE than their properly centered counterparts.
My question is why? How does this make sense? Please help me understand this anomaly.
The pokemon community views them as error card as opposed to a poor quality card. Then you have collectors who seek out these cards and the price is more than it should be.
That’s my take on the OC cards. I’d like to hear others too.
When I collect, I don’t want a card that has thousands of copies out there. I want a rare card. Rarity can be achieved many ways such as collecting:
1.) Trophy cards (low pop regardless of grade)
2.) PSA 10 cards (low pop compared to overall print run)
3.) OC cards (low pop compared to overall print run)
I personally don’t collect OC cards, but I would guess they give a sense of rarity and uniqueness to a collection.
Here are my two hypothesis on why you see this in Pokemon.
I never had this experience with Pokemon. Looking back at my collection as a kid, I had very slightly OC cards (ie. PSA 9-8 centering) but nothing that significantly deviated from the rest of my cards. I have saved searches now on ebay for miscut cards and the vast majority of matches are sports cards. I don’t have as much experience on the sports side, but my inkling is that quality control in Pokemon (especially during the WOTC era) was just a lot better than what you see in sports.
This means the average kid doesn’t actually open packs with heavily OC cards. They are rare, and with rarity comes desirability.
The second component is that Pokemon collectors enjoy owning unique items. People who play the games will spend dozens of hours looking for a shiny pokemon that is usually just a crappy palette swap. You see new people on here asking all the time if their X card is special because it has a little ink fleck on it. Maybe it’s a symptom of special snowflake or instagram culture, but I’ve definitely noticed that people in Pokemon value the obscure things that make their cards or collections unique.
So when there’s a challenge in finding OC/MC cards due to rarity and you have a group of people who value things that make their cards special or different… this translates into higher prices.
Pfm, yes, I can see them as a fun collectible. Heck, I’ve collected a bunch of them. I just don’t get the valuation. I mean a rookie Jordan PSA 9 Jordan is 20,000.00. A PSA 9 OC is 2,000.00. Now that makes sense to me. Now would I like the OC one for 2000.00? Sure. Would I pay 20,000.00 for it? Not a chance in hell. That’s my dilemma.
I also think the fact that PSA recognizes the OC qualifier allows for these cards to be collectible. Let’s say you submitted OC cards and they all came back PSA 5 because they were off center. That’s much less appealing then the cards coming back as 8-9(OC). With the OC qualifier you’re able to quantify how many are out there and clearly see the uniqueness of the cards.
As @pkmnflyingmaster said, it could be a special ink dot, holo bleed, anything that sets a card apart. We want to collect unique items. PSA designating the OC grade legitimatizes the uniqueness of the cards and therefore leads to a premium price.
This is a good example to illustrate what I and others here have mentioned.
Right now there are 17,645 1986 Fleer Jordans in the pop report. 2,616 are PSA 9 and a whopping 373 are PSA 9 with a qualifier. of the 17 thousand graded, 1,037 have a qualifier (6%).
2,031 1st ed Charizards have been graded. 594 are PSA 9. Of the 2 thousand, 6 have a qualifier (0.3%).
So,
Jordan: 2616 PSA 9, 373 PSA 9 + qualifierCharizard: 594 PSA 9, 5 PSA 9 + qualifier
In sports, you have to settle for a qualifier. In Pokemon you need to hunt it down if you want one.
For 20 years I have seen many oc Pokémon but never sent more than one or two in. In fact, over all these years, no high end sellers I know of ever sent one in. This is because it normally hurts value and explains why the pop is so low.
Now if they start selling for huge amounts graded, many will pop out of the woodwork I’d bet lol.
Numbers don’t lie though. There’s 14% PSA 9 Jordans with a qualifier and less than 1%(5/594) with PSA 9 1st Ed Zard.
I honestly think the 9(OC) grade is stupid. These cards should just get a 7. I’m fine with miscuts or stained(shadowless theme decks),etc… I don’t get why a card has a 9 on the label if it doesn’t meet minimum centering for that specific grade, which I think is 70/30?
There’s probably a dozen or so Pokemon collectors that are after these cards and the supply is so limited that they have to pay a premium.
OC’s are just cool AF - that’s mostly it in a nutshelll. The ones that love them, fucking love them and pay more.
As someone who just paid $250 for a 9(OC) Ninetales, and $290 on a 9(OC) Unlimited Mewtwo, here’s my views on how I justify paying that amount:
PSA Does not like to give them out.
I want the 1st complete 102/102 OC base set collection, PSA is not making this easy. I’m at the "Fuck it’ point in this quest. I’ve overpaid for Beautifully OC and ‘Sure Thing’ Qualifier’s so much at this point, only to get a solid dicking from PSA that I’m over it, and shelling out for the graded ones when I can now.
They’re a harder grade then gem mint 10 for the 9(OC) - 9OC is a 10 with the perfect levels of fucked up centering. A more difficult grade should be rewarded by being more valuable, should it not? (Did I mention they’re also Cool AF?)
They’re rare, unique & hard to find in gradable conditions. (Also, really cool)
They make any collectors specific/fav monster collection stand out as something truly unique.
305 people can own a PSA 10 Japanese Base Set Charizard, only myself and some one else have a PSA 9(OC) one. I sure as shit am not selling this beast any time soon, and I’m sure there’s Zard collectors who’d love to add it to the collection.
Fun Fact: I won that at auction for $405 recently - a solid $100+ over the average for a PSA 10
Anyway, values could change if PSA realizes we want them and starts to acknowledge OC’s more often. There’s an unreal amount of obviously OC cards they give straight 8’s to. I bank on them being painfully unaware we want them now, and grab beauties like this Nidoking to play the crack/regrade game
I know I way over paid on that one, but it’s been taunting me for months now and after several depressing rounds of grading I decided I’d snag it and just lock it in finally.
Sell me your OCs if PSA graces you w/ the qualifier XD
You’re a sick puppy Gumby lol.
Have you ever tried to put in a ‘minimum grade’ of 9oc on any of the mint ones? You see PSA graders know how distasteful OCs are to collectors so if it’s a toss up decision they’ll lean toward the lower grade.
If you try that, it just might work;)
I liken it to ripping off an expensively painful bandaid - just tear it off quick and forget about it XD
The Minimums menu drop down doesn’t offer an option for OC’s only, just straight grades or I would have yeah. I’ve noted the living shit out of each card, with measured centering and still get 8’s or worse. My last sub’s poor lil Clefairy got a sad 6 and it’s pretty clean, some back whiting. I even wrote on the penny sleeves and Card Savers the measurements and pointed out the two factory dots… Technically that clefairy has centering worthy of down to a 1.5(OC) lol
I forgot you could do a non online submission version haha - I was going to call and speak w/ a manager about getting them looked at closer for the OC grade. I’m worried that with their money guarantee they think giving it an OC will drop the value, so naturally they’d never willingly switch one in review for that reason alone. Hopefully they can pass a message along or w/e
For me personally, and as someone who collects OC cards, here is my reasoning behind my own want for them.
For Starters, it’s purely because of the rarity and elusiveness in finding mint and gradeable OC cards. Now I’m not talking about anything past WOTC, because there is tons of that stuff out there. As someone mentioned earlier, WOTC for the most part, was on top of their game when it came to the cuts on cards. We do see a lot of 8/9 centering, but RARELY do we see printing dots, or an entire border missing with WOTC.
Gary, you’re a perfect example of how elusive these cards are. A few months ago you traded me around 15 OC/MC wotc cards. You may have more, even a handful laying around if you looked, but in the 20+ years of collecting, for you to have even lets say 50 or less of these, with all the packs you’ve opened, shows how often these really pop up. Don’t forget they have to be mint condition wise, which is hard enough when it comes to WOTC.
Secondly, PSA qualifiers does play a part in this desire as well. To have PSA acknowledge the OC/MC is just fun in its own, since they seem to be pretty tight about handing them out, and you’re almost never 100% sure you’ll get it. Of course, having a low pop WOTC card in this day and age is always nice too, if PSA will give you the qualifier.
Coming in a little late here, but I agree with what everyone has said. For me, as someone who collects miscuts (AND doesn’t even grade them) they’re unique and hard to find. Condition doesn’t even matter to me because, where the hell will you find another one? They are already messed up cards as it is, and I’m not letting condition get in the way of me obtaining a rare and unique item.
Here’s a reason I don’t think anyone has stated. Oc cards do happen enough to have a place in collecting. However, I’d wager that there are far more types of Pokémon collectors than there are for any other types of cards. People collect certain Pokémon species, certain sets, certain illustrators, certain eras, certain promos, certain languages, certain just about whatever the hell you can think of. And misprints have their own category there as well. With other card markets, I don’t think you really have that type of variety. There is a reason that Pokémon bulk is worth so much. The average common card is worth something to someone because of the set, the character, the rarity, the artist, etc. it can fit into their collection somewhere or be traded to someone else. Whereas with magic and baseball (while I’m not as experienced with them) I don’t believe they have those people or kids that look to have the card drawn by a nobody famous player or artist they’ve never heard of. Or rather, what makes this card special?
For me, I always liked misprints and OC/MC cards because they are something unique. My main goal when I started collecting was to finish every set. After achieving that, I didn’t want to stop collecting. So I focused on miscuts. They are an outlet for me to keep collecting. And I feel that’s true for some others as well. Collecting the cards that were not supposed to leave the factory seems neat to me. Even if it means paying more than what the normal card is worth. I’ve got no intent on selling them, so I’m not afraid to pay what it takes. (Not to mention, you only typically have to buy an oc/mc once lol) Gumbers said it well, there’s not many of us out there, but the few that there are will pay up because we just love them.
