Page Quality...

[ghengishahn]

I must be a PQ snob too. I have some older purchases that are OW/W but I typically will only buy W pages.

[Wally's Comics]

If you have a cream key that you don't want - pm me and let's work a deal!

 

 

(thumbs u

 

 

[Mark 1]

When I first got back into collecting and discovered CGC....I drew the line at CR/OW and have several in my TOS run.

 

I then got a bit more discerning and decided that I wanted OW or better for my other slabs. Since then, i've been doing my best to stick to that.

 

As others have said, some CR/OW books look just as nice as those labeled as OW. It's a toss up really on some books.

 

 

[drbanner]

I pretty much stick to CR/OW or better for Golden Age, OW or better for Silver/Bronze DC's, and am now limiting my Silver/Bronze Marvels to White (OW or better on some of the keys). Basically, the harder the book is to find, the less picky I am on PQ. SA/BA Marvels are a dime a dozen so it's little more challenging/rewarding to find a nicely centered book with no chipping, good color, and white pages...

[Erndog]

Ideally OW/W or better but I'll make some Cream to OW exceptions for hard to find and/or super pricey books.

[slym2none]

So... I will ask forthright: does/can dry-cleaning a comic book affect page quality?

 

 

 

-slym

[Sal]

Whenever these threads come up, I wonder to myself what people think "Page Quality" exactly means with respect to the grading process at the CGC.

 

 

Does it mean that the book has a uniform PQ on every page? Does it mean a range of all colours in the book from edge to center, or is it an approximation of 'overall' PQ? Does it mean any colour change on any page?

 

This makes my head hurt, so I then move on to what is "white?" You could take ten books from Marvel and ten from DC that all had 'white pages' and you could get fifteen distinct colour tones. Is it that crappy newsprint from the 80s?

 

 

 

Hell, I dunno. I guess if you want to spend more on a book with white pages, then by all means. I suppose I am fine with CrOW if the overall look of the book itself is nice enough to fit whatever standard I am operating on with any given book

[musicmeta]

Here is my personal breakdown on minimum page quality requirements.

 

1930's-1950's books: Cream to off-white.

Early 1960's books: off-white.

1965-1979: off-white to white.

1980- present: White

 

Here's mine:

 

 

1930's-1950's books: Cream to off-white.

Early 1960's books: off-white.

1965-present: They made comics after 1965?

 

[musicmeta]

I pretty much stick to CR/OW or better for Golden Age, OW or better for Silver/Bronze DC's, and am now limiting my Silver/Bronze Marvels to White (OW or better on some of the keys). Basically, the harder the book is to find, the less picky I am on PQ. SA/BA Marvels are a dime a dozen so it's little more challenging/rewarding to find a nicely centered book with no chipping, good color, and white pages...

 

(thumbs u About what I try to do.

[Green]

If pq was graded on a 1-10 scale of suppleness it might have some weight to it with me.

 

As it stands its an arbitrary range of colors running from tan to white to pink to blue, so as long it doesnt say brittle I couldnt care less. Ive cracked enough books to understand color means nothing. Ive seen stiff white pages that felt like they could shatter if flexed to far and cream pages as supple as the day they were made.

 

 

[Dr. Balls]

If pq was graded on a 1-10 scale of suppleness it might have some weight to it with me.

 

As it stands its an arbitrary range of colors running from tan to white to pink to blue, so as long it doesnt say brittle I couldnt care less. Ive cracked enough books to understand color means nothing. Ive seen stiff white pages that felt like they could shatter if flexed to far and cream pages as supple as the day they were made.

 

 

I'm in agreement with this.

 

Color isn't a big deal to me, but White pages is like a bonus. WP looks pretty awesome in-hand, but it's not a dealbreaker.

[vaillant]

I like pages to be much whiter as possible when the printing quality of the comic is bad (like in the late 1970s, or in some 1960s period), just because art is more "readable" but when is good I don’t mind too much, although I prefer white and off-white over cream, of course.

[DrWatson]

If pq was graded on a 1-10 scale of suppleness it might have some weight to it with me.

 

As it stands its an arbitrary range of colors running from tan to white to pink to blue, so as long it doesnt say brittle I couldnt care less. Ive cracked enough books to understand color means nothing. Ive seen stiff white pages that felt like they could shatter if flexed to far and cream pages as supple as the day they were made.

 

 

I'm in agreement with this.

 

Color isn't a big deal to me, but White pages is like a bonus. WP looks pretty awesome in-hand, but it's not a deal breaker.

Just wait until you crack that slab that says white pages only to find the owner stored it in his unfinished bonus room with no air conditioning.

[chrisco37]

Most of you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

 

[oakman29]

Most of you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

+1 Exactly. (thumbs u

[InvstmntComcSuply]

So... I will ask forthright: does/can dry-cleaning a comic book affect page quality?

 

 

 

-slym

 

PQ designation is of the newsprint interior pages

I would assume (you know what that gets you) that when most people mention dry-cleaning they are talking cover only

[slym2none]

Thank you!

 

 

 

-slym

[rodan57]

I like pages to be much whiter as possible when the printing quality of the comic is bad (like in the late 1970s, or in some 1960s period), just because art is more "readable" but when is good I don’t mind too much, although I prefer white and off-white over cream, of course.

 

This is a very good point. The whiter the paper, the better the reading experience: brighter colours and greater contrast. This also increases the strength of the link to the past that reading an old comic book should ideally engender. The book is quite simply closer to newsstand fresh.

[Bomber-Bob]

Long before CGC existed, I always valued page quality, cover colors, and overall freshness over a structurally superior book. When I starting submitting books from my collection, I generally got at least OW/W, and many White page designations from CGC. Those that received a CR/OW have mostly been sold off. I spit on CR/OW.

[zosocane]

Here are my page quality ("PQ") preferences when buying, and how I perceive pricing premiums or discounts, as the case may be, as it relates to PQ. Ultimately, the era of the book is key because PQ tends to worsen with age.

 

For a GA book, I go C/OW or higher. W commands a premium (at least 10%, higher on tougher books), while C/OW pages don't lessen demand much (if at all) because you're dealing with paper than in many cases is 70 years old and books that (depending on the book) can be hard to find, particularly in higher grades. So the 70-year-old paper is more special if it's W, but because it's so old I don't punish the book just because it's C/OW.

 

For SA, I will go OW or higher, but will do C/OW on early SA DCs. I don't think there is much pricing difference between C/OW, OW, and even OW/W. I think pricing is generally the same for the book in those three PQ categories, and it is hard to add a PQ premium for the OW/W category. I would say that you might lose the interest of some potential buyers for a C/OW SA book because a picky buyer knows that SA books generally aren't hard to find. However, W should command a premium on pricing -- what that premium is expressed as a percentage, very hard to say, maybe another 5% to 10% (or 15%, in the case of a key)?

 

For BA, I want W but won't accept less than OW/W. I think C/OW in the BA should cause some price discount, while PQ from OW to OW/W to even W should not affect pricing (and, indeed, such PQ should be expected). That's because now we're looking at 35- to 40-year old paper that during most of those years should have been protected in a plastic bag, well-stored, etc.

 

For CA, I insist on W and won't pay a penny more for it. This is 25- to 30-year old paper, incredibly plentiful supply, and the book should have almost always been bagged and well-stored, etc. Not to mention that post-1980 many publishers started printing on higher quality paper (remember Baxter paper?) and moved away from pulp, which is more susceptible to deterioration.