The 9.8 craving

As a collector I have always strived for the best possible (for the money), case in point, my Daredevil #1. At a 3.5, it was the best I could afford, but it's the 9.8 fallacy I strive for. 9.9 keys are financially stretching and Gem 10's are either non-existent or astronomically priced (recent modern books withstanding*). My whole collection of New Mutants are graded a 9.8 with white pages barring a few exceptions.

My #1is a 9.9 and for any new registry members, to show you what a great community this place is, it was thanks to fellow registry member Bagofleas who told me about the auction that I acquired the book. Of course it's still one tenth away from his Gem Mint copy. I have two 9.8's, issue #17 & #62, both with signatures , but they also have White to Off-White pages. The color stigma seems dentrimenal to the whole 9.8 acclaim. It's like the time my father told me I can get a pet, I was thinking dog, he was thinking goldfish.

I do my best to stay away from any 9.8 with anything less than white pages and although I do have some in my collection they were all(**) acquired through over zealous desires to own a 9.8 and not reading the full description. This is how I purchased my X-Men #201 sans the signatures. Of course page description is a preference much like newsstand vs. direct market editions, but pages are part if the comic and anything less than perfect white pages should hurt a books final numerical grade. If a modern age book had a page taped together in an otherwise perfect comic, wouldn't a dreaded purple label then be adorning a questionable 9.8 status.

The pages themselves must mean something since they are graded all the way down to brittle. The market dictates the prices of the books. GPAnalysis is a good source to find out the ballpark area of what a book is worth from a .5 to a 10, but they don't offer page distinction in their notes. I'm not going to change the way GPA marks their information or be able to talk CGC in never grading another 9.8 with anything other than white pages. I'll just stay stay away from those with Off-White to White pages. Of course if I become over anxious I just might find myself wining another one or I might have sent one in myself, but should 9.8's be labeled anything else other than "white pages"?

Thanks for Reading

Tnerb

http://ashotofcomics.blogspot.com/2013/01/are-statues-worth-it-roundabout-review.html

*<-- Walking Dead #1 withstanding from withstanding comment

**<--not including both The New Mutants signature series

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