Is the grading of these comics affected by what looks like a printing fault?

[duxo]

Hi All - this is my first post and I hope I've got it all right. Trust someone can help. I recently purchased a copy of Kamandi 11 (Jack Kirby) from a UK ebay site and found what looked like a colour break on the cover - a very very small area of white, I initially though it had been damaged. So I bought another copy from a United States seller and believe it or not it had exactly the same issue - a small area of missing colour – same shape, size and in the same area. Looking at both copies closely I could actually see the problem was a printing error. It looks like the ink had not been applied to these small areas – under a magnifying glass you can see that some of the colour 'dots' are missing. So the question is does this affect the grading of these comics and if so by how much? Both are in otherwise good condition. One without the printing error I would say is probably NM, the other is probably VF. I know grading is a real issue - anyone have any ideas? I've inserted some images to show the covers. Help really appreciated. Thanks

 

 

 

[Michelangelo]

It should not play a role in the grade at all.

 

Depending on the production flaw, it might prevent a book from ever being a 9.8 or a 9.6, but in the case of NM or VF, these white spots should have no bearing at all.

 

In fact, I'd bet that if the books were flawless, they could still have a legitimate shot at 9.8

[duxo]

Thanks - that's really good to hear and much appreciated. I never like to class anything above 9.4 but I have to say the best copy (from the United States) has great sharp corners, high gloss on the cover, flat, centre staples, off-white pages, in other words really really good, I'm going to keep it at 9.4 and be very happy with that. Thanks. Great forum btw