Which is more important to you, white pages color/quality or perfectly centered cover? 3 3

[s-man]

When a book is slabbed, I really don't care to much about PQ.  If they are both of equal grade, i'd choose the centered as it would have the most aesthetic appeal to me.  If it were not slabbed, it might be a different story depending on how off centered the first book was.

[Black_Adam]

Cover perfectly centered.

[Buzzetta]

6 hours ago, IronMan_Cave said:

Let say same two books, very rare, major-key book, same grade, same price...and everything else is equal between the two books, 

1. First book with white pages but with off-centered cover, thick white line runs along the spine

2. Second book, off-white to white pages but with perfectly centered cover

 

Which would you choose?

Off White to White Pages with Centered cover.

Use Hulk 181 and ASM 129 as examples.  The page color trade off is an easy one for me as that is irrefutable.  A cover is either centered and wrapped well or not and misswrapped.  However, we have seen on multiple occasions where a page quality bounces around from white to OW/W to OW depending on the day. 

Personally I think that assessing PQ for the graders must be one of the tougher aspects of grading a book once you get to that White vs OW/W area that is so inbetween.  But, what do I know.  Maybe @The Lions Den can weigh in on that. 

[kav]

14 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

Off White to White Pages with Centered cover.

Use Hulk 181 and ASM 129 as examples.  The page color trade off is an easy one for me as that is irrefutable.  A cover is either centered and wrapped well or not and misswrapped.  However, we have seen on multiple occasions where a page quality bounces around from white to OW/W to OW depending on the day. 

Personally I think that assessing PQ for the graders must be one of the tougher aspects of grading a book once you get to that White vs OW/W area that is so inbetween.  But, what do I know.  Maybe @The Lions Den can weigh in on that. 

exactly.  Its a bit subjective.  Centering is something that can be verified with an eye or a ruler.
The End.

[rexinnih]

Got to go with the centered crowd 

[oakman29]

Centered, and as little spine ticks possible. 

I really hate spine ticks.🤨

[alexgross.com]

i'm a white page-a-holic, but not at the expense of nice centering. i'd go for perfectly centered owwp book any day. if it was cream to off white, then i'd buy neither, assuming silver age. 

[Off Panel]

You guys must have had a whole lot more ‘perfectly centered’ comics growing up than I did. As a kid growing up in the South during the 70s, I feel that a book with no white strip running down the spine was the exception rather than the rule. As a result, a narrow white strip looks absolutely correct to me (unless, as some posters have noted, it isn’t parallel with the fold of the spine). 
 

I have comic book OCD for miles, but that white strip doesn’t trigger it at all. Spine ticks, on the other hand...

[Doctor Dositheus]

I might take perfectly centered over Cream pages even. A little white strip is not the greatest but I can live with it as long as the whole thing is cut/wrapped straight. I'd rather have a thin white strip on front than an equal size strip of FC on the back.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Doctor Dositheus

[Bludriver]

Centering by far

[badback83]

Centered.  Also, I don’t get hung up on PQ on “big” books.  Unless it’s worse than C-OW, then it’s probably a no go.  My collecting pretty much revolves around “Beggars can’t be choosers”. 

[theCapraAegagrus]

Alignment, for sure.

[chrisco37]

Centering/Alignment > PQ  for me. 

[Drummy]

I'm another white-page freak on the boards, but I'd say centering/registration is #1.  I cannot stand a white stripe down the left edge, whether it's straight or not.

As others have noted, though, here's the real question:

[B2D327]

I’m definitely choosing the better centered of the 2 but there’s a lot of new factors to take into consideration nowadays. Taking the time to compare both could cost you the acquisition of the nicer copy and the price could go up fairly quickly on a hot or htf book. Then what? Wait until another copy with better eye appeal comes along at a 25%+ increase?

[THE_BEYONDER]

I prefer centered  with NO PQ

Edited April 19, 2021 by THE_BEYONDER

[InfantTerrible]

13 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

I prefer centered  with NO PQ

 

That cover is one of a kind piece of art

someone should do that to their AF15

Edited April 19, 2021 by IronMan_Cave

[F For Fake]

It's funny, I had no idea centering was even a THING until I started reading these boards, 15 years or whatever it was ago. Always thought of it as a baseball card term, had no idea people cared when it came to comics. And I still don't care. If the book is craaaaaaazy off kilter, I might notice, but otherwise, it doesn't really register with my brain. Page quality either. As long as they're not brown/brittle, I don't care. The difference in white and off-white isn't any difference at all, to me, especially if it's sealed in a slab. I'm never going to open it, so as long as it's not falling apart, I don't care.

Like Oak, the defect I hate is spine dings. If the spine is pretty nice, I don't really care about much else, other than the obvious (book is complete, doesn't have bugs crawling out of it, isn't currently on fire, etc.)

But if I have to pick between those too, I guess page quality, just because page quality seems to impact sales somewhat. Have we noticed a real bump for perfectly centered copies? Surely there are some of you who care enough to pay more for perfectly centered books, but is it as many as the folks who are sticklers for white pages?

[Frost451]

Got say centered book VS White pages.  I try and get white pages when I can but its not a deal breaker.  Off center books just look really bad IMO.  

[Namtak]

For me better color and white pages first always