I have bought these composition books for years at Staples up in Boston. I don't think it has anything to do with location but the one I bought after a few days the pages got ripply. Where the blue lines are the paper comes up and then dips down in the white part and some of the pages as I just flipped through it don't have consistent ink quality for the lines. I will check that next time I buy one. I don't know if I just didn't notice it or if it happened once I got it home. It wasn't in the rain or anything.