white vs. off-white

[HarrisonJohn]

I'm a little confused. I have a CGC X-Factor (only because it was a favorite book of mine) that's graded 9.8 and says 'off-white pages'. I see CGC X-Factor's on ebay for lesser grades (like 9.4) with the desription 'white pages'. Shouldn't 'white pages' score better than 'off-white'? Or does just one minor flaw on the white book (I'm assuming) make it grade lower than the off-white?

Also, I have an unslabbed Hulk 181 that I would say is about an 8.0 except that the pages are a couple of shades yellower than they should be. I don't know how someone managed to keep this in such good condition while letting the pages yellow. How harsh are CGC on this?

[supapimp]

i'll let fantastic_four answer this question.

[fantastic_four]

I'm fairly sure that there is a maximum grade that books can receive with different levels of page whiteness. The only ones I'm sure of is that 10.0 can be no worse than off-white to white, 9.9 can be no worse than off-white, and 9.8 can be no worse than cream to off-white, but beyond that, it's hard to say. Highest graded book with cream pages I've seen is 9.4...highest with light tan to off-white I've seen is 9.0...and the highest with slightly brittle I've heard of is 7.0. Those last three whitenesses could go higher, but I don't think the first three can.

[garthgantu]

Okay, now I'm confused... don't have any reference materials handy here at work, but I always considered "light tan - offwhite" to be better than "cream" ?? Does cream fall between offwhite and white?

[supapimp]

no your right, it goes tan to off-white, light tan to ff-white, cream to off-white, off white, off-white to white, white pages.