diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc b/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
index 2e0abb43..3bdb4f39 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
@@ -2446,6 +2446,10 @@ QPDFJob::handlePageSpecs(QPDF& pdf, std::vector<std::unique_ptr<QPDF>>& page_hea
 
     auto n_collate = m->collate.size();
     auto n_specs = parsed_specs.size();
+    if (!(n_collate == 0 || n_collate == 1 || n_collate == n_specs)) {
+        usage("--pages: if --collate has more than one value, it must have one value per page "
+              "specification");
+    }
     if (n_collate > 0 && n_specs > 1) {
         // Collate the pages by selecting one page from each spec in order. When a spec runs out of
         // pages, stop selecting from it.
diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDFJob_config.cc b/libqpdf/QPDFJob_config.cc
index e48d7e31..db6c5948 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDFJob_config.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDFJob_config.cc
@@ -957,11 +957,6 @@ QPDFJob::PagesConfig::endPages()
     if (n_specs == 0) {
         usage("--pages: no page specifications given");
     }
-    auto n_collate = config->o.m->collate.size();
-    if (!(n_collate == 0 || n_collate == 1 || n_collate == n_specs)) {
-        usage("--pages: if --collate has more than one value, it must have one value per page "
-              "specification");
-    }
     return this->config;
 }
 
diff --git a/qpdf/qtest/arg-parsing.test b/qpdf/qtest/arg-parsing.test
index 82594674..297141d4 100644
--- a/qpdf/qtest/arg-parsing.test
+++ b/qpdf/qtest/arg-parsing.test
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ cleanup();
 
 my $td = new TestDriver('arg-parsing');
 
-my $n_tests = 23;
+my $n_tests = 24;
 
 $td->runtest("required argument",
              {$td->COMMAND => "qpdf --password minimal.pdf"},
@@ -101,6 +101,13 @@ $td->runtest("wrong number of collate args",
              {$td->REGEXP => ".*--collate has more than one value.*",
                   $td->EXIT_STATUS => 2},
              $td->NORMALIZE_NEWLINES);
+$td->runtest("wrong number of collate args",
+             {$td->COMMAND =>
+                  "qpdf collate-odd.pdf --pages . minimal.pdf collate-even.pdf --" .
+                  " --collate=2,3 a.pdf"},
+             {$td->REGEXP => ".*--collate has more than one value.*",
+                  $td->EXIT_STATUS => 2},
+             $td->NORMALIZE_NEWLINES);
 
 # Ignoring -- at the top level was never intended but turned out to
 # have been there for a long time so that people relied on it. It is