Tears or Creases: which is worse?

[(un)cooldude]

Hey everyone,

 

This thought came to mind this weekend, when I was going through a particular comic run that I'm trying to assemble in high grade (raw). I've bought a few runs of it, to basically pick through, and get one set with the best copies.

 

While performing this operation, I ran across a couple of things that made me pause when considering which copy I felt was 'higher grade'. The most important one was; would you consider a small 1/4" tear, or cut in a book, more damaging to the overall grade, than say several small creases, or, small 'dents' in the cover? I'm not referring to spine creases here either. I'm talking about creases in the cover(s) themselves, or those small 'dents' that you can see in a cover when looking at it in raking light. I call it 'evidence of being read'.

 

Anyway, out of two particular copies I was looking at, one had a very nice cover with no creases whatsoever, but it did have this small 1/4" tear at the spine, just below one of the staples. I also noted that the cover seemed to have a slight amount of shadowing around the edges. I compared this to another copy of this book, which had no tears, but much brighter colors, and was much whiter. This comic has a mostly white cover, btw. This book, however, did have a number of small 'dents' in the cover, as well as a small non-color-breaking crease. My final decision was to take the book with the 'dents', over the tear candidate, because the whiteness and colors on the cover were much better than the tear copy.

 

This leads into my second question; if you had 2 copies like this, one with dents but bright colors and a 'cleaner' look, over a copy with no dents, but some shadows around the edges, which would you choose?

[FFB]

There is no hard and fast rule, except that when you have two books, one with a 1/4 inch (or other sized) tear, and one with an identical sized crease, the one with the tear will be downgraded more harshly for the tear than the one with the crease will because of the crease. Because of the nature of paper itself, most tears will worsen with time and become longer even if the book is not handled. That is why most conservators will counsel you to seal a tear as a matter of preservation. The same is not true of a crease, although as paper degrades beyond a certain point (i.e., to brittleness), creases will become tears and the pieces will eventually fall off.

 

As to your second question, all other things being equal, I would take the brighter, fresher copy every time.

 

Hey everyone,

 

This thought came to mind this weekend, when I was going through a particular comic run that I'm trying to assemble in high grade (raw). I've bought a few runs of it, to basically pick through, and get one set with the best copies.

 

While performing this operation, I ran across a couple of things that made me pause when considering which copy I felt was 'higher grade'. The most important one was; would you consider a small 1/4" tear, or cut in a book, more damaging to the overall grade, than say several small creases, or, small 'dents' in the cover? I'm not referring to spine creases here either. I'm talking about creases in the cover(s) themselves, or those small 'dents' that you can see in a cover when looking at it in raking light. I call it 'evidence of being read'.

 

Anyway, out of two particular copies I was looking at, one had a very nice cover with no creases whatsoever, but it did have this small 1/4" tear at the spine, just below one of the staples. I also noted that the cover seemed to have a slight amount of shadowing around the edges. I compared this to another copy of this book, which had no tears, but much brighter colors, and was much whiter. This comic has a mostly white cover, btw. This book, however, did have a number of small 'dents' in the cover, as well as a small non-color-breaking crease. My final decision was to take the book with the 'dents', over the tear candidate, because the whiteness and colors on the cover were much better than the tear copy.

 

This leads into my second question; if you had 2 copies like this, one with dents but bright colors and a 'cleaner' look, over a copy with no dents, but some shadows around the edges, which would you choose?

[hobbes]

Tears bother me far more than creases. Not that I love creases mind you but I find I am a good bit more tolerant of a crease than an out right tear.

 

Question 2 - I would take the cleaner looking but dented copy.

[divad]

or those small 'dents' that you can see in a cover when looking at it in raking light.

 

What kind of light might that be?

[rjpb]

I would definetly take the dented bright copy over the clean but yellowed or tanned copy. If they are the same length - crease over tear - unless the tear is not really visible and the crease is color breaking in a dark area.

[Aces]

I hate tears when they are in a place so that every time you open the book it gets worse.

 

Like spine splits or staples tears.

 

Small tears in a "safe place" ain't too bad.

[divad]

Tears

[KingOfRulers]

Tears definetly. Tears make it a pain to even handle the book. Creases don't really get worse with ease while tears will manage to get worse no matter how much you try and be careful.

[(un)cooldude]

or those small 'dents' that you can see in a cover when looking at it in raking light.

 

What kind of light might that be?

 

You know....raking...

[divad]

or those small 'dents' that you can see in a cover when looking at it in raking light.

 

What kind of light might that be?

 

You know....raking...

 

My point exactly - buy FFB a dictionary