Reaching out for advice regarding Page Quality - As everyone know the ideal page quality for any slab is WHITE. However, when purchasing Golden/Silver/Bronze age comics, you often won’t come across WHITE page as it is considered rare.
Most often in Golden/Silver age you come across
OFF-WHITE/WHITE
OFF-WHITE
OFF-WHITE/CREAM
CREAM
In Bronze age you come across
WHITE
OFF-WHITE/WHITE
OFF-WHITE
How much of premium do you guys put on page quality given the book is RARE and you may not get a chance to purchase this book again at the specified price.
I’m looking at Silver age book that is OFF-WHITE/CREAM and most OFF-WHITE/WHITE have dried up or now commands a new premium (NOTICEABLE Premium). Seems like Silver age book that Im looking at is strong against the current market trend.
Please advise considering the mentioned information. 4-5 Years back, had a chance to pick up Flash #139 (1st Zoom) 9.0 for like 3-3.5K with a cream page, didn’t pickup due to the price (For me considered big boy book) and page quality. Now I’m shooting myself in my foot. So am I living in FOMO or do the team here have any advice. Keep in mind, this book I’m looking at is a DC Key so it is not pumped up like Marvel.
How much premium would you put on page quality when it is white? Or Off-White/White VS Off-White OR Off-White/Cream.
(As for me, I can see myself having a chance to get White pages in Bronze, but in silver age, its really difficult.)
Would you buy a book due to its age (FOMO), cause seems like golden/silver age book doesn’t come out much when compared to books like Ultimate Fallout #4, BA #12 or such.
My personal opinion, I’m not too fussed about paper quality when a book is getting hard to find/afford, especially if it’s slabbed. The book has some protection and no one is reading it. If the back cover is noticeably aging and less attractive, eh. If you feel you have a good opportunity to acquire something that is increasingly harder to find, I say go for it.
Thank you for your feedback as I feel the same. These days it difficult to find a Golden/Silver White Pages. If I can find one, most likely to command a noticeable premium. Even a Cream Slab, price of these guys will go up the next time you see it. Very annoying.
Just wondering if you think it be hard to move a Golden/Silver Age Key with Cream page especially your dropping significant amount $$$?
I have some ratty golden age books I have had slabbed. Some key books. I didn’t worry about page color was just happy to own them. However, a book with better page color will gain more attention and command higher prices.
Best to own the book than not own it at all in any grade. Even coverless if you’re talking DC Golden Age keys all though wouldn’t buy coverless in silver age quite yet.
I literally have not even looked at page quality for any of my silver/gold age purchases. I fully agree with @Alana that no grade/low grade is better than not owning it! But some people are picky about page quality. Imo it doesn’t matter if it’s slabbed since your not capable of opening it and reading it anyways, so who cares?
In my opinion page quality is a measure of fragility, and how well the book has aged. But books in the off-white category are still in great shape. Even off-white to cream for gold/silver is not an indication of a problem. Tan, I’d avoid unless there are no other options.
I have a 4.0 FF49 that is cream (maybe cream to off white). The book is very clean in the slab, maybe the best I’ve seen for that grade…better than many off whites I’ve seen for sure.
So in that case I was ok with paying slightly less for cream pages, and getting a book that looked a lot cleaner (less creases, tears etc) than say a 3.5 or 4.5 book may command more because of off white or white pages.
So I can’t say what amount I put on a book for off white or white pages…as it’s situation dependent. But it’s not a whole lot as long as it’s not tan or worse.
I tend to stick to white or white-off-white for all of my purchases. Cream pages are a turn off for quite a lot of buyers, so I would go with the 9.0 or wait for a 9.2 with better pages. But that’s just me.
Thanks Chudders for your feedback. Would you still go for the 9.0 given that it has (106 in Higher Grade) vs 9.2 (57 In higher grade). Also it seems like the white tends to commands a premium over other especially in the Silver or older. Will you pay a premium 300-500 for a white page vs Off-white or Cream? Also like the previous stated, as you go older into Silver/Golden white or off-white/white tends to be not as common. Hence it maybe difficult to obtain or simply it just cost noticeably more.
The idea would be for PC but would like to have the option to move it should I run into unforeseen circumstances (Hope not…). Especially in the current economic climate.
This actually happened to me 2 times with older early 1970’s book. The book had 3-5 year time lapse before cracking and submit. Now Im paranoid bout cracking books that are in 70s or older.
There’s good reason to be paranoid.
Grades change from one day to next and certainly from year(s) to year(s). That ol’ subjectivity bad word.
Page color/quality could be and should be objective, and never improve upon resubmission. And yet, sometimes it does.
