QP-how it should or should not affect the Bronze CGC Grade

[THE_BEYONDER]

I dedicated alot of time & effort into the discussion many moons ago.....

[Foolkiller]

uh, Beyonder, are you selling either of those Avengers 181s?

[THE_BEYONDER]

uh, Beyonder, are you selling either of those Avengers 181s?

 

Both are long gone. Sorry.

[B-Smooth]

I dont think any book with BAD QP (not just slightly off) should ever grade higher than 9.4.

[jimm94]

Hi Bruce and everyone,

 

Since most of the books I'm buying these days are fairly common (and not terribly expensive), I have become much more sensitive to QP as well as PQ. It provides a new challenge in the hunt, and it is very rewarding to own a book with especially good eye appeal. I'm not saying I only buy books now with perfect or near perfect QP. That's far from the truth. But it's an aspect of my personal criteria when choosing books that is becoming increasingly important to me.

 

I'm not sure why it is that QP seems to not be more important to the general collecting public. I know that if I were buying 9.4/9.6/9.8 slabs with their price multiples between grades, I would make certain to buy books that looked as high grade as the structural value indicates. If presented with multiple copies of a book in uber high grade, QP would be a big factor in which copy I would choose. Being conscious of QP is making it more difficult for me to purchase books sight unseen, even from respected dealers.

 

While I personally may pass on a book due to bad QP, I think it's better to not factor QP into numeric grades unless the problem is particularly heinous. Doing so would open up a whole can of worms, as a person's tolerance for QP imperfections is a very personal choice/preference. It all comes back to the saying "Buy the book, not the label".

 

I guess it's just one more thing to obsess over...

 

-Jim

[tth2]

I'm not sure why it is that QP seems to not be more important to the general collecting public.

I think it's because there are so many things that can go wrong with a book structurally that QP almost became an afterthought. I know for me first and foremost I looked for gloss, lack of creases, folds, smooth covers, etc. Whether a book was centered and straight was secondary because it was so hard to find books that structurally close to perfect.

 

Contrast this with sports cards, which have a much more limited range of structural defects and were easier to preserve. So the discerning collectors had to focus on something else, which became QP.

[joe_collector]

I'm not sure why it is that QP seems to not be more important to the general collecting public.

 

I don't know why you say that, as although there are the newbie label-chasers, most collectors are anal and will select the best copy from the newstand, and shun anything with production problems. I see threads like that all the time here, with someone complaining about minute spine creases, poor cutting or other prod issues with new books. It's the same story with back issues, but buyers have less choice.

 

I think collectors, as a whole, are more sensitive to QP, and I'd break down the various segments as such:

 

1) Collector who buys predominantly = more tuned to QP with new purchases. Could be aggressive or even neutral, but still understands and respects the concept of a high quality of production.

 

2) Non-pro seller with some freaky QP books = somewhat against QP examination, since they need to sell them, but still recognizes the concept.

 

3) Label-chaser interested only in the highest number = Can get angry and volatile when QP discussions come up, as they don't like people dissing their books - and after all, who looks at the cover when that big CGC 9.8 is there?

 

4) Dealer, retailer or consignment shop = Totally against any QP discussion, and often ridicules those in the conversation, spouting sales figures of freakshow QP books, and attempts to stem the tide and ensure even more freaky-QP books can be sold to label-chasers at high dollar prices.

 

Sure there are those 'tweeners who straddle two camps, but for the most part it comes down to one differentiating factor - those who want to buy and those who want to sell, and who has the most to lose.

[drbanner]

I'm not sure why it is that QP seems to not be more important to the general collecting public.

 

It's hard to quantify what the effect is, but eye appeal is, and has always been, important to many buyers! I'm not really sure why people seem to think it hasn't been, or that the concept of pursuing specimens with great eye appeal (centering, print registry, and coloring) is something new.

 

GA, and to some extent SA, books frequently suffer from mis-aligned printing plates where you get "coloring outside the lines" (I'm sure there's a more technical term, but you get the idea), and I believe printing registration was something that was noted in the old auction house (Sothebys) catalogs. The OS guides (price guides, and the grading guides) also comments on bindery/printing defects, staple centering, etc.,.

 

BA books never were as prominent to be featured in high-profile auctions prior to CGC, but as JC notes, that does not mean that BA collectors were oblivious that a high percentage of BA books were printed off-center and sought out well-centered copies. In the early days of the boards, date stamps and off-center covers were definitely hot topics (I believe I posted a link above to an old discussion thread), and I know the biggest BA collector of them all places a priority on nice-looking copies.