Anyone ever quantify page quality in terms of prices for books?

[1Cool]

Has anyone ever quantified what impact page quality has on the price of a book? I've been assigning a 5% increase in price for White pages on Silver books and taking off 5% if the book has Cream pages. Using that logic - a X-Men 1 CGC 5.0 with white pages would be worth 10% more than a off-white/cream copy. For some reason I give the 5% bump down for Bronze Age books with cream pages but don't give the bump up since people seem to not care if a 1970s book has white pages. Does this sound at all reasonable from your vantage point?

[Iceman399]

Good luck. You will have some boardies "prove" to you that PQ makes no difference in price because they can find an example of an OW selling for more than a W. Mind you can do that for every single gradable feature but "PQ doesn't matter".

 

You know if 2 equal books in EVERY respect are placed in front of you that it will be an even 50:50 split as to which people take the Cream/OW book and those who take the White page book.

[1Cool]

Good luck. You will have some boardies "prove" to you that PQ makes no difference in price because they can find an example of an OW selling for more than a W. Mind you can do that for every single gradable feature but "PQ doesn't matter".

 

You know if 2 equal books in EVERY respect are placed in front of you that it will be an even 50:50 split as to which people take the Cream/OW book and those who take the White page book.

 

So do you think page quality matters? I had a Strange Tales 115 CGC 7.0 White that I thought would do great in a ComicLink auction but it did just as well as a some Off-White copies. I hear some people swear that white pages demand a bump but there is really not much data I can come up with to prove this.

[namisgr]

So do you think page quality matters? I had a Strange Tales 115 CGC 7.0 White that I thought would do great in a ComicLink auction but it did just as well as a some Off-White copies. I hear some people swear that white pages demand a bump but there is really not much data I can come up with to prove this.

 

Ask the dealers who sell books at fixed price, rather than auctions. They've got more data, and the final strike prices aren't influenced by the many variables that affect auction results.

 

As to my experience, as a buyer I am willing to pay more for SA comics with white pages. Quite a bit above 5% more for early silver that is hard to find with exceptionally preserved paper. As a seller, overall I find that SA and BA comics sell faster with nice page quality, and if they're keys command higher prices than I would have expected from copies with inferior page quality.

[joeypost]

My Hulk 158 in 9.4 (CRM/OW) destroyed the last GPA sale $169 compared to my sale of $337.00. This was in a CC auction. Not sure what my 9.4 copy in white pages would sell for, but I was pleasantly surprised at the final price when all was said and done.

[ChrisInBaltimore]

I think it just makes books more desirable. I'm sure there are examples of books that charge a premium, but I think people would be quicker to buy a book with white pages then a book with cream.

 

I'm also not sure OW is that much worse. I'm sure if it was CR vs White we'd be having a different discussion about your Strange Tales.

[namisgr]

My Hulk 158 in 9.4 (CRM/OW) destroyed the last GPA sale $169 compared to my sale of $337.00. This was in a CC auction. Not sure what my 9.4 copy in white pages would sell for, but I was pleasantly surprised at the final price when all was said and done.

 

That is a strong price (although one I wouldn't have paid ) . It is also for a sale of the most difficult picture frame Hulk issue to find in nice shape. As you well know, Joe, for picture frame comics the quality of the cover registration seems very important for selling prices, which makes one on one GPA-based comparisons hard.

[CAHokie]

I know a boardie that would be ok if someone doodled all over the cover as long as it had White pages inside. You know....inside the plastic container that I know he will never crack.

[mycomicshop]

Has anyone ever quantified what impact page quality has on the price of a book? I've been assigning a 5% increase in price for White pages on Silver books and taking off 5% if the book has Cream pages. Using that logic - a X-Men 1 CGC 5.0 with white pages would be worth 10% more than a off-white/cream copy. For some reason I give the 5% bump down for Bronze Age books with cream pages but don't give the bump up since people seem to not care if a 1970s book has white pages. Does this sound at all reasonable from your vantage point?

 

Your thinking is pretty close to what I mentally do when deciding how to price a book. I think the values work out about like that on average, but I wouldn't expect individual sales to show a clear pattern. Values can vary much more than 5% just due to individual variations in the appearance of the book, sales venue, who happens to be bidding at the time, etc.

[Hamlet]

The problem I have is that the qualities that I am willing to pay more for aren't consistently described well by the CGC page quality designation.

 

I would pay a premium for glossy books with actually white pages with no interior cover tanning. Basically, I want books that don't look old. They don't have to be particularly high-grade from a structural standpoint, but I'd like them to look "fresh"

 

The problem is that you can't really tell if a book has those qualities without cracking the book out. The page quality designation doesn't really cover it.

 

 

As to my experience, as a buyer I am willing to pay more for SA comics with white pages. Quite a bit above 5% more for early silver that is hard to find with exceptionally preserved paper. As a seller, overall I find that SA and BA comics sell faster with nice page quality, and if they're keys command higher prices than I would have expected from copies with inferior page quality.

[Vikingreed]

It just "looks better" with that White Pages designation up top.

 

I usually go for white pages only, but I am also not a Silver or Golden Age collector. So that helps a little. haha

[vaillant]

It just "looks better" with that White Pages designation up top.

 

I usually go for white pages only, but I am also not a Silver or Golden Age collector. So that helps a little. haha

 

I do not keep books slabbed so my perspective is pretty differenr, but definitely page quality is one of my priorities. I would even settle with a well-presenting VGFN book with good centering and white pages instead of a VF to NM book with COW or worse pages.

 

Of course, this can only happen if I know the seller can rate PQ or if the book is slabbed as I can’t check them at a distance…

[romanheart]

In terms of price, it shouldn't make that big a difference. Maybe 5% step down for each pq designation. There is more interest in white pages so there has to be a difference of some kind.

[wombat]

I used to have a link where someone did a fair amount of research and basically concluded based on sales that it didn't seem to matter much. Can't find it though.

[namisgr]

I used to have a link where someone did a fair amount of research and basically concluded based on sales that it didn't seem to matter much. Can't find it though.

 

Data from the occasional auction is prone to both variance, and to factors other than page quality that affect hammer price (like auction venue, eye appeal, time of year, amount of advertising, date of last recorded sale, scarcity with that page quality). I think the fixed price dealers are much better positioned to judge how page quality influences their selling prices and time to sales.

[Mumford's Comics]

IMO,a 9.8 is a 9.8. Like the expression "A rose is a rose is a rose." When I used to buy comics off the rack back in the day, the pages were never pure white. I would never pay a premium for a book of the same grade over pq. Especially when people have resubmitted their books & gotten different pq's upon resubmission.

[JohnFranklin]

Somebody provided a link (quite awhile ago) to non-referee'd research which found that page quality had little or no effect on final prices as pointed out by the first poster to the OP in this thread.

[rodan57]

I used to have a link where someone did a fair amount of research and basically concluded based on sales that it didn't seem to matter much. Can't find it though.

 

Data from the occasional auction is prone to both variance, and to factors other than page quality that affect hammer price (like auction venue, eye appeal, time of year, amount of advertising, date of last recorded sale, scarcity with that page quality). I think the fixed price dealers are much better positioned to judge how page quality influences their selling prices and time to sales.

 

This is a well-reasoned and well-written argument.

 

As such it will be promptly ignored by successive posters.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Has anyone ever quantified what impact page quality has on the price of a book? I've been assigning a 5% increase in price for White pages on Silver books and taking off 5% if the book has Cream pages. Using that logic - a X-Men 1 CGC 5.0 with white pages would be worth 10% more than a off-white/cream copy. For some reason I give the 5% bump down for Bronze Age books with cream pages but don't give the bump up since people seem to not care if a 1970s book has white pages. Does this sound at all reasonable from your vantage point?

 

This is my take:

 

1970-up, it is has CR/OW, reject.

 

1969 and below, if it has really sparkly white pages, it gets a premium of 5-20%, depending (like, for example, 1957-1959 DCs, which uniformly have icky pages. Finding a white paged beauty from that era is a treat. Same with 1960-1964 Marvels.)

 

Otherwise...doesn't matter, so long as the pages aren't brittle IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM.

 

Brittle pages are headed for the trash. I don't care if it's a Fantasy #15, it's NOT staying in my possession if it has brittle pages.

[Mijael.Levy]

I like the way you think but remember that if the books are slabbed this is just some letters , i cant even see the pages , so this sort of pricing is more suited for raw books in my opinion