1953 Topps Willie Mays #244

Fisheye in the name plate and chipping draw your eye there but still an absolutely stunning example.

Color leaps off the card with uncommon saturation, and the centering locks the composition in place. Edges are firm with only trace corner wear. The Giants logo presents beautifully, with crisp contrast and razor-clean lettering. There is a touch of chipping along the bottom border and lower right, expected for black-to-edge designs, and a small print speck above the M. Even so, this copy outshines many of the examples on here, with richer inks and tighter registration, giving the portrait real vitality. High eye appeal.

Bold colors and great centering. A bit of edge wear around the black name bar and fisheye draw my eye. Otherwise, a stunning card.

This one grabs your attention right off the bat with incredible eye appeal. Very strong colors and centering for this issue - just a blazer. If the black box had a little less chipping and no print dot the sky’s the limit, but an amazing card that any collector would want to own.

Beautifully centered, the chipping over the black is the same problem with almost all 53s but this is an exceptional version.

The color and centering look amazing. The issues with the black box in the lower right corner don't bother me as much, I'd love to own this card.

Three fourths of the card is stellar -- and then you see the bottom right that is dog-eared in comparison. It takes the focus away from the solid other corners as well as the surface and image and to me becomes hard to look at anything but that one corner.

Chef's kiss to the centering on this bad boy. Dot and right corner do gently tug at my eyes, yet ever so gently. Not enough to sink below the A tier.

If that PD over the M was not there, this is an A/A+ for my taste. I freely admit dots like that get inside my head and keep me staring at them. We collectors are a crazy bunch! The centering is effectively perfection for the card, the main image is great, corners have shape, the black edges don't bother me; that black corner would normally cap the eye appeal of a 53T or 71 for me at a high B+ but in this case the centering and image would have carried it well higher. Alas, the PD. Nonetheless, high eye appeal here.

Like the look of the card both the image and the colors are sharp. The borders are nice size but the white does not POP also the black box in the bottom right has the edge issues where the black is flacking off and effects the overall image