Would you buy a slabbed book with brittle pages? 5 5

[Cliff R.]

1 hour ago, 1950's war comics said:

brittle pages and or rusty staples are a deal breaker for me

I have an ASM 129 with slight rust on the staples. I'm considering having them cleaned or replaced. The book itself presents very well.

[bpc3qh]

Yes absolutely. I may still look to get another copy and use my brittle one to help finance it, but I'm not in a position to be picky, especially with rarer/more desirable books.

[Sauce Dog]

If it is a book I would never be able to get otherwise, either due to scarcity (like the Keen Detective Funnies above), or price I would still consider it - especially knowing how common page quality bumps are (I've bought brittle books before and had them regrade better. Had a Slightly Brittle come back as Cream to Off-White and sometimes the Brittle ones shoot up to Slightly Brittle or Cream on a good day)

[Professor K]

Me not likely but mainly because I don't like the way the word sounds. Brittle. Such an unattractive sounding word. Maybe if they used the words delicate or fragile or flaky I might consider it. 

[D84]

I've bought one brittle book, and since I'm a raw collector, regret it to this day.

Never again. I might consider slightly brittle on an incredibly rare book, but I'm not sure I will then.

[N e r V]

Nope and all the more so if it’s an expensive or key book as mentioned.

Cheaper no doubt but you have to ask yourself if someone offered you 50% off the price of a ticket to watch the last 20 minutes of a 2 hour movie is it worth it?

Structure does matter and a comic undergoes several stages from white to cream to tan but once it’s gone brittle it’s life as a solid book is ticking rapidly. I’ve heard all the arguments about it but it’s always better to be young or middle aged than on your last leg of life…

Hard no…

[mwotka]

The issue as I see it is that the term is essentially a catch all that gives very little clue to what is actually going on.  Aside from CGC appending "slightly" to the term, you glean nothing from it unless you can see an area or areas flaking or damaged.  The grader notes are often no better.  I've seen books called brittle where one small edge or corner stuck out of a stack and oxidized and is flaking, but the 98% of the book that wasn't sticking out is fine.  Same thing with brittle spines.  I've seen where the wraps start detaching at the crease, and in reading it you can detach a page, never a good feeling.  But then the rest of the book is fine.  This is a common problem with old paper that has been folded on the same crease over and over but it doesn't mean chunks of paper are just falling off.  Then I've bought books labeled cream/tan or slightly brittle and opened them and almost cried as things started flaking off and regretted the purchase.  Another thing I've noticed is sometimes the cover is brittle and the interior not, or vice versa.  Would be nice if they would just tell you what the heck is going on.  Occasionally you get the "all wraps completely split" label, but that is about it.  Sometimes you get areas of brittleness where old tape residue has damaged the paper, but most of the book is fine.  One last thing I've seen is if there is a significant spine roll and the leading edge of a few pages gets a lot of handling wear, that area can flake off and be "brittle" but the rest of the book is fine.  So if it is in a slab and doesn't have flakes/pieces floating around and I think I can tell what they are calling "brittle", I will go for it.  A couple examples below.  The Adventure looks like it has one bad corner and got hammered for it.  The Planet 5 has some damage to the top edge where it looks like it stuck out of a stack, but the rest looks great.  And the Planet 24, if it didn't say "split wraps", looks like an 8.0 and nothing is flaking off.  I was happy to acquire these books.

[Pickie]

Only this one so far, a deslabbed "slightly brittle" (bought deslabbed with label). I asked the seller beforehand if you could read it without issues and so it is.

Going to read it a second or third time and then going to try the resub thing ... maybe brittle no more? 

[Gotham Kid]

no

[ThothAmon]

2 hours ago, Pickie said:

Only this one so far, a deslabbed "slightly brittle" (bought deslabbed with label). I asked the seller beforehand if you could read it without issues and so it is.

Going to read it a second or third time and then going to try the resub thing ... maybe brittle no more? 

Love it. Care to share the grade CGC gave? Thanks 

[Mr. Lady Luck]

Nope.

[cheetah]

I bought a brittle paged book to fill a hole in a run I was completing.  Always assumed I would buy a better copy when it came along.  It never did.

[badback83]

No.  I learned my lesson on this with a Torch 1.  It was a CGC 3.0 with slightly brittle pages.  Something came up and I needed to sell it.  Out of 4 big time dealers that I contacted, only one said they would buy it.  PQ was the reason the others passed.  

[Pickie]

5 hours ago, ThothAmon said:

Love it. Care to share the grade CGC gave? Thanks 

Sure, grade was 3.5 B-1 restored.

[ThothAmon]

1 minute ago, Pickie said:

Sure, grade was 3.5 B-1 restored.

Wow. This mis-struck 8.0  hardly looks nicer. 

[Pickie]

Technically, it is (by far)

Mind the other copy is slightly off-register, too. It's in the title and adds some "glare" to the scene ... 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Pickie

[Spyder!]

No doubt 

[MB1952]

17 hours ago, comicdonna said:

No

This NO 👎🏻 

[fishbone]

This

 

 

[fifties]

Absolutely not.  I buy in order to read, and that includes slabbed books that are broken open to read.  I totally hate it when I place a book on my stand, open it, and see flakes coming down, usually off the bottom of the page folds.  Those become candidates for an upgrade.  I don't think that I've ever come across a cover that exhibited brittleness.  It's always the interior pages, around the edges.