1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle #253

There is a curious sense of depth here, as if the portrait steps forward from the stock. Print registration is confidently mistaken, but the Mickey Mantle name box and lettering read clean and sharp. The centering drifts to much to unsettle the composition, and that misalignment is the true weight on its presentation. The most glaring omission, besides centering... might be my lack of 3D glasses.

The centering and registration nuke this card for me. The sharp corners and grade are a positive note.

Centering is batshit crazy, registration stinks. Corners are good.

Couldn’t look at this for more than a second

Who would want to look at an image this fuzzy and off centered? One of the worst buys I could imagine.

Registration makes me dizzy

Subtly off center(not as noticeable as on vertical cards). But when looking at a card this nice it becomes more noticeable. Colors are good but not sharp. Overall Nice Card

So far out of focus that it is dizzying to review. Appears far lower than the technical grade.

Show this card to any friend or family member who is not in the hobby, and see if they would give it a 6 out of 10 in terms of desirability. Seriously, the arbitrary old system gives this a 6, yet who would want to look at this and breathe in its "beauty" on a daily basis? End of the day, we collectors are looking at images-- and this image is simply far afield from what its creators at Bowman intended kids to be looking at. Then you have the centering issues. This is an unattractive image, with unattractive framing. Prime example of the old system being very out of harmony with what any human eyes— let alone experienced collectors/buyers— know to be true at a simple glance.