Abstract Core samples from the subsurface can provide unambiguous direct information to guide operator decisions. Core may be acquired with drilling equipment (full-bore core) or by post-drill wireline methods (sidewall core). Both approaches have distinct profiles of cost, risk, sample type and value, and an operator must select the most appropriate to progress business in an informed way. The option to selectively core after drilling and perceptions of lower cost and risk might indicate that sidewall coring will always be the best approach. Recent developments to increase the size and quality of rotary sidewall samples would only add weight to this view. It is not all good news for sidewall core, however. Individual sample size and total volume delivered per run are tiny; weak rock or high overbalance pressure may cause poor recovery and biased datasets; time between drilling and logging allows mud invasion and borehole relaxation, so samples are often broken and pore fluids contaminated. Sidewall sample sets therefore leave a higher degree of uncertainty when compared to full-bore core. It is this operator's view that both approaches have a role to play in reducing subsurface uncertainty, and cost, risk and value should be carefully considered when deciding which to apply.