Page Quality - How much does it matter?

[Joanna]

When I was collecting...

 

 

1) Is there a minimum page quality a book has to have for you to even buy it?

 

One would think so, but if the price is right, and the book is really expensive in anything other than really crummy condition, then I didn't give a hoot. If it had all its pages, I'd buy it for the right price.

 

2) Do you accept lower page quality on older or rarer books?

 

Absolutely.

 

3) Would you pay a premium for a book with White pages as opposed to one with Off-White to White pages and if so, how much more?

 

Nah, I wasn't into paying premiums.

 

4) If you buy unslabbed books sight unseen, do you make an effort to determine page quality?

 

Never bought a slabbed book.

 

-- Joanna

[shiverbones]

Page quality has become more important than ever to me. For older books like precode horror, if i see a white paged book, i'll buy it, no matter what it is, even if i don't care for the title so much. The page quality was so cheap then. Even tan o brown GA books hold up better because the paper was thicker. As soon as an early 50's book starts to darken the spine is the 1st thing to go. So many of my books i bought from the early 50's 10 years ago have real problems now, i didn't care abbout PQ then. I won't buy anyhing but the most desired books in anything less than cream, unless it about 1/10th of what it should be price wise. I've just had too many fall apart

I love bright white 70's books, so yes i would pay more for that.

[Rickdogg]

 

Several questions:

 

1) Is there a minimum page quality a book has to have for you to even buy it?

 

No

 

2) Do you accept lower page quality on older or rarer books?

 

Yes, but of course I will pay less of a premium for it.

 

3) Would you pay a premium for a book with White pages as opposed to one with Off-White to White pages and if so, how much more?

 

Yes, I would pay more for it...the percentage more would depend on the book being purchased and it's rarity.

 

4) If you buy unslabbed books sight unseen, do you make an effort to determine page quality?

 

Yes, if it is in my hands during the purchase decision. Buying via online is a bit harder to do this since everyone uses different scanners and of course the images can be manipulated.

 

 

[murph0]

1) Is there a minimum page quality a book has to have for you to even buy it?

 

Cream to off-white, but only if it doesn't show "cream" coloring. If it does than off-white is my minimum.

 

2) Do you accept lower page quality on older or rarer books?

 

Again, I'll take C-OW pages but only without that little tannish frame on the cover or back cover.

 

3) Would you pay a premium for a book with White pages as opposed to one with Off-White to White pages and if so, how much more?

 

No, I'd put that in a category with the "difference" between a 9.8 and a 9.9. IMO it's not a big enough diff to warrant any kind of premium.

 

4) If you buy unslabbed books sight unseen, do you make an effort to determine page quality?

 

No, it'll come how it comes. If the page quality isn't viewable on the cover or the back. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt until it arrives.

 

Brian

[Lantern]

1) Is there a minimum page quality a book has to have for you to even buy it?

 

I share the same point of view as murph0 on this one..."Cream to off-white, but only if it doesn't show "cream" coloring. If it does than off-white is my minimum."

 

2) Do you accept lower page quality on older or rarer books?

 

Yes, I will accept cream or C-OW pages as long as the pages are not brittle.

 

3) Would you pay a premium for a book with White pages as opposed to one with Off-White to White pages and if so, how much more?

 

I would address the question of premium prices more from the point of view of how long have I looked for the book, what is the structural condition of the rest of the book, and if I think I can re-sell it later if or when I upgrade. So, I guess that I deal with the situation of paying a premium on a book by book basis.

 

4) If you buy unslabbed books sight unseen, do you make an effort to determine page quality?

 

Again, I will agree with murph0 on this one..."No, it'll come how it comes."

 

 

[sfilosa]

So now we know Murph0 and Lantern are snatching up all those Cream to Off-White page books at bargain basement prices.

 

 

Great answers from everyone.

 

 

[drbanner]

While I didn't purchase a Timely to contribute to this thread, I just made a timely purchase that illustrates my perspective on your question - Hulk 111 CGC 9.4 CR/OW at guide. I'll be cracking this puppy out of the slab and I'm sure it'll look nice in a crystal clear mylite w/fullback!

[Bonds25]

Nice buy! Straight guide for an early issue Hulk??

[sfilosa]

While I didn't purchase a Timely to contribute to this thread, I just made a timely purchase that illustrates my perspective on your question - Hulk 111 CGC 9.4 CR/OW at guide. I'll be cracking this puppy out of the slab and I'm sure it'll look nice in a crystal clear mylite w/fullback!

 

Nice buy. I saw it also but I already have a Hulk #111 in NM- (paid almost what you paid). Your tempting me on the Cream to Off-White books. Sometimes the price just looks to good.

 

And now the real question is:

 

Can you crack the slab, show a big scan, say it's NM, and then sell it for even more? Especially since you have a reputation of being a very accurate grader.

 

 

[PovertyRow]

While I didn't purchase a Timely to contribute to this thread, I just made a timely purchase that illustrates my perspective on your question - Hulk 111 CGC 9.4 CR/OW at guide. I'll be cracking this puppy out of the slab and I'm sure it'll look nice in a crystal clear mylite w/fullback!

 

Well, I confess to never having seen that cover before and it is quite the dynamic one! And it has the look of a book that, when you deslab it, the depth of the inks will really become come into their own. Nice one!

[drbanner]

While I didn't purchase a Timely to contribute to this thread, I just made a timely purchase that illustrates my perspective on your question - Hulk 111 CGC 9.4 CR/OW at guide. I'll be cracking this puppy out of the slab and I'm sure it'll look nice in a crystal clear mylite w/fullback!

 

Nice buy. I saw it also but I already have a Hulk #111 in NM- (paid almost what you paid). Your tempting me on the Cream to Off-White books. Sometimes the price just looks to good.

 

And now the real question is:

 

Can you crack the slab, show a big scan, say it's NM, and then sell it for even more? Especially since you have a reputation of being a very accurate grader.

 

Hmmm...good question?!?! My "downgrade" is probably a NM-, so I may have to see what that does on ebay...but as far as the NM book, that's a keeper!

[Aces]

I was watching that one and almost bid.

 

But I have multi copies of 111 in high grade already.

 

Can't find 110 and 114 though...

[nearmint]

I draw the line at cream pages. From a resale basis, light-tan or worse scares a lot of buyers away. When I'm buying books for my personal collection, I love books with cream pages, for this reason...if you see a CGC 9.4 comic with cream pages, that means the outward appearance of the book is actually 9.6. I love buying 9.0s and 9.2s with cream pages that outwardly are 9.4s.

[sfilosa]

I draw the line at cream pages. From a resale basis, light-tan or worse scares a lot of buyers away. When I'm buying books for my personal collection, I love books with cream pages, for this reason...if you see a CGC 9.4 comic with cream pages, that means the outward appearance of the book is actually 9.6. I love buying 9.0s and 9.2s with cream pages that outwardly are 9.4s.

 

HUH?

 

I blelieve, page quality "in general" is mutually exclusive of the grade (meaning they don't have any relation). Obviously, you can't have brittle pages on a NM book, but other than that, page quality does not increase or decrease the grade (from everything I have seen and heard).

 

And as for resale value, I think this Thread has clearly shown that there are many collectors that will shy away from comics with Cream to Off-White pages. But, then again (as drbanner has shown), if you do accept books with Cream to Off-White pages, you can get books for below market value for that grade.

 

 

[drbanner]

I draw the line at cream pages. From a resale basis, light-tan or worse scares a lot of buyers away. When I'm buying books for my personal collection, I love books with cream pages, for this reason...if you see a CGC 9.4 comic with cream pages, that means the outward appearance of the book is actually 9.6. I love buying 9.0s and 9.2s with cream pages that outwardly are 9.4s.

 

Sfilosa's correct...I believe PQ has very little effect on the CGC grade, unless the book is in the 9.8+ range, or the PQ is getting to the slightly brittle to brittle stage.

[Zanarkand]

If you ever drank a cupful of cream that was the same color "cream" as cream pages, it would kill you. PQ would mean a lot more to me if the terms were accurate.

 

White = office copy paper. Most comic pages were never white to begin with.

Off-White = like newspaper. Most comic pages are off-white.

Tan = not a useful category. Tans comes in shades, and comic pages are hardly ever uniformly one shade. Need at least Beige. If you can't think of what beige pages would look like, look at any slabbed book with "off-white" pages.

Brown = comes in shades too. If you encountered a book with actual brown pages that was not brittle, it would be a miracle. Most of the time "brown" pages are merely a deep tan.