A little off (center)

I'm having one of those days.

A day where I can't seem to string together a cohesive thought.

After trying and failing with a few other post ideas, I'm feeling a little...off. One could even say a little off-center.

That's when theme posts come in handy. The idea is already there for you.

While I haven't yet deemed it as an "official" theme, I've unwittingly been displaying some of my favorite "error" cards on the blog over the past couple months.

Tonight's subjects fit in nicely with my overall mood right now.

Off-center.

If you look closely enough, I'm sure every card is miscut, to a certain extent. Ones with 55/45 or 60/40 centering are fairly common in this hobby.

However, the cards I'll be showing tonight are way, way beyond that. If it's possible to have a negative centering "score", these would be it.

While I'm sure no one in this hobby prefers a miscut card to a nicely centered one, there's something to be said about my "miscut favorites".

I'm sure thousands of near-perfect copies of Chris Chambliss's 1972 Topps issue exist these days.

On the other hand, I'm sure you'd be hard-pressed to find one as blatantly off-center as the one that resides in my collection.

It's certainly a unique piece.

While I'm sure some of these unsightly miscuts exist these days, they've mostly become a thing of the past.

Judging from a lot of the vintage I've browsed through over the years, they were actually commonplace back in the day.

I'm sure heaps of off-center '71 Topps cards are available in discount boxes around the nation. This "Rookie Stars" card with a then-young Bill Buckner is just one of the many I've found.

Just like with any "error" cards, these are neat in small quantities. I wouldn't want them to pop up with too much regularity.

I don't necessarily see these as "ugly", a word I'm sure a lot of others would use to describe miscut cards.

They're more like "novelties" to me.

This is easily one of the strangest cards I own.

As you can see, the back of this '76 Topps card is horribly miscut, one that features the career stats for one-time Giants pitcher Gary Lavelle.

Again, that isn't exactly rare as far as vintage goes.

It's the front of the card that makes it a distinctly unique piece.

Yes, this is the front of that very same card.

Somehow, a front featuring Fergie Jenkins got spliced together with a Gary Lavelle back. I'm not exactly sure how something like that happens in the printing process.

A "miscut" and a "mismatch" on the same card.

Topps didn't exactly do their best work with this one.

While I've heard of the existence of other "mismatched" issues, this is the only one I own. That in itself makes it a great piece to have.

I'm feeling a special bond with these cards tonight. I guess it happens to every blogger, sooner or later.

I should be back and have some better material for my fellow readers by tomorrow.

Hopefully, I'll be a bit more centered.