Does a factory crease hurt a book's value? If so, by how much? 2 2

[DarthMartel]

I've been going through my collection pulling out books to send to CGC and found this one in my Punisher appearances section. Book is otherwise in fantastic condition however when I was putting it in a new boarded bag discovered this crease in the cover. I have never read this book and have never taken it out of the bag since I picked it up in the late 80s. It looks to be a factory defect. The cover page is still aligned with the bottom and sides. My question, does this hurt the value? And is it still worth sending in for grading?

[Lightning55]

This is known as a "printer's crease", which is actually a misnomer because the crease was likely in the paper stock before it even got to the printer. It is typically disregarded as far as grading goes.

That said, given a choice of buying 2 otherwise identical books, one with a large printer's crease and one without, I would think most people would choose the one without. So there may be a value difference. 

[MAR1979]

On 5/18/2024 at 10:39 PM, Lightning55 said:

That said, given a choice of buying 2 otherwise identical books, one with a large printer's crease and one without, I would think most people would choose the one without. So there may be a value difference. 

Exactly! 

[DarthMartel]

That's fair. Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated.

[Paul Kosnik]

Agree with @Lightning55 that for grading these are largely ignored but wanted to add that technically, at the very high grades, they do matter.  For example, presence of a Printer's Crease precludes the comic achieving 9.9 or 10, and large, obtrusive, or many printer's creases can drop an otherwise 9.8 comic to 9.6 or 9.4.

[Lazyboy]

On 5/19/2024 at 8:48 AM, DarthMartel said:

That's fair. Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated.

Here's some more insight: that kind of crease in that area of the cover is ultra common on this particular issue.

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 5/20/2024 at 8:26 PM, Lazyboy said:

that kind of crease in that area of the cover is ultra common on this particular issue.

[DougC]

Depending on how CGC views that particular book a printers crease will reduce the grade.

Adventure Comics #346 has a very common 1 inch crease in the black area of the cover between Princess Projectra and Ferro Lad (also sometimes on the back cover). Everytime CGC views this as a defect despite even complaining about it in person at conventions with graders present. When CGC would have one of their "talk with the graders" at SDCC with a book you brought they never could give an answer as to why it was a grade deduction in this case but not others. I think CGC just hates certain books and gives others a pass, and I'll be angry about it until the day I die!