Opinions on brittle pages??

[tgsaku]

I'd love to hear some feedback about brittle pages. How exactly it impacts the book etc. I'm speaking strictly about GA books. For some time I've told myself I always wanted cream or better on page quality but now that I'm shifting most of my focus towards GA books, which are obviously harder to acquire and much more expensive, I'm not as adamantly opposed to brittle pages as I once was. Eager to hear feedback.

 

Thanks,

Tony

[batman_fan]

I'd love to hear some feedback about brittle pages. How exactly it impacts the book etc. I'm speaking strictly about GA books. For some time I've told myself I always wanted cream or better on page quality but now that I'm shifting most of my focus towards GA books, which are obviously harder to acquire and much more expensive, I'm not as adamantly opposed to brittle pages as I once was. Eager to hear feedback.

 

Thanks,

Tony

 

I avoid like the plague. You will hear people come on with blah blah blah had some that had a limited area that was brittle blah blah blah, but ultimately it means the pages have started to degrade in a serious way. I actually avoid tan pages. Also don't believe the duffensmourfs that say restoration can restore brittle pages, it can't. Just to give the counter side, brittle pages doesn't mean you will wake up and have a pile of dust. If stored properly, a brittle paged book will still be here in 100 years.

[catrick339]

Brittle pages are BAD

 

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking by it.

[Gotham Kid]

Avoid, even Tan pages are off.

[catrick339]

That being said, I will buy a book that's starting to build a yellow to tan halo if the pages are still supple. And it's cheap,

 

Many years ago a friend of mine, now deceased, taught me how to do a quick field check for brittleness. He had studied twice under Bill Sarill and was the go-to guy in Detroit for a local restoration for many years.

 

Open the book to the CF, lay it flat, and in the center of the fold near the end of the spine press down with your thumbnail. If the paper cracks pass it by regardless of the color of the paper, and if it doesn't the book is still "live" .

 

[comicjack]

If you can't find the book no other way one has to settle for what ever. When it comes to certain books you may never find one with the page quality you like.

I could live with brittle pages if that was the only way to get a copy.

My 2 cents

[comicjack]

Brittle pages are BAD

 

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking by it.

 

You know we are going to be brittle someday you want your wife to toss you out!!

[kinzebac]

This thread might help

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8414067

[tgsaku]

Thanks gentlemen, for the responses thus far. Kind of what I knew deep down inside but man this is a tough book! guess I'll just have to be patient. The book in question has 30 unrestored copies on the census so, suffice it to say, it's gonna be an ongoing hunt for a while.

[G.A.tor]

If you can't find the book no other way one has to settle for what ever. When it comes to certain books you may never find one with the page quality you like.

I could live with brittle pages if that was the only way to get a copy.

My 2 cents

I have several centaurs with slighty brittle to areas of brittle pages. Only copy I've seen available in most cases

[Sqeggs]

Thanks gentlemen, for the responses thus far. Kind of what I knew deep down inside but man this is a tough book! guess I'll just have to be patient. The book in question has 30 unrestored copies on the census so, suffice it to say, it's gonna be an ongoing hunt for a while.

 

Well, if you start to get heavily into GA, I think you'll find that for non-keys, most books with 30 blue copies available come up for auction fairly regularly -- say at least once every year or two.

 

If the book is a key -- whether because it's a first issue, first appearance, or has a highly collectible cover -- then 30 isn't that many, and it's possible that you will either have to settle for a severely flawed book -- restored or brittle pages -- or pay through the nose.

 

That said, I would avoid brittle pages unless I was pretty sure that it was unlikely I would be able to locate a better copy that I could afford.

[bluechip]

It is one of the things that is vexing because it's inexact and therefore inconsistent. Values go up or down depending on which time it's graded and put up for sale. And, therefore, what is considered a reasonable price may be one thing when you are buying and a whole other thing (like a lot less) when you are selling Then bounce back up again after you've sold it.

 

I've seen books go from brittle to tan and vice versa (which can be frustrating or encouraging depending on which label it had when you bought it and which it had when you sold it and which it had when the next guy sold it)

 

Inexactitude is unavoidable to some extent, but I've recently seen three books auctioned with labels of slightly brittle" when I knew from previous ownership that one was supple and had minor chips at one corner, another was fragile throughout but still bendable and readable and the third was brittle as hell from the middle to the edges with giant chunks out of edges of the most important pages and reinforced with massive amounts of tape). So while I remembered them as vastly different in page quality, the labels had identical wording. And the ones with what I remembered as the highest degree of brittleness (and which were the most evidently brittle within the slab) were hammered the least, price-wise.

[D84]

I would only buy a brittle copy that is already CGC'd and a of a rare/expensive book that's WELL PRICED.

 

Here's an example of a book I'd buy with brittle pages, if the price were at most half what they were asking:

 

Detective Comics 37 CGC 1.5 Brittle Pages

[PovertyRow]

Two defects I've always avoided are brittle pages and rusty staples (which can have a brittle page effect on the paper). Even in my pre-code heyday I would seek cream or better pages. If two books presented themselves, one a little lower grade but with better pages than the other, I would go for the lower grade cover with the better PQ.

[fifties]

I guess the quantity of brittleness depends on why you want the book in the first place.

 

I have no slabbed books because I buy 'em to read, and there's nothing more aggravating than seeing a little pile of brittle paper chips develop as I page through a book, residing upright on a stand.

 

That said, I will keep a brittle copy of a desired book until a better one comes along, and then sell the brittle one.

 

If you are simply going after a slabbed book, I would imagine that brittle pages would really make no difference; the cover, which is all that's visible anyway, will prolly outlive you.