That $70 variant cover I thought would be worth something

Last year I bought the 1:25 ratio variant for issue #5 of a new series from a shop in Portland. The store owner said these early printings always jump in value. I paid $70 and kept it in a sleeve thinking I'd flip it in 6 months. Now that same book sells for $12 on eBay and I'm stuck with it. Anyone else have a stack of covers that never appreciated?

4 comments

4 Comments

wesley6392d ago

Consider how many shops ordered extra copies just to sell those variants.

casey3422d ago

Man, that bit about "the VALUE is already built into the price you paid" really hit me. I used to think ratio variants were a sure thing, like I was getting in early on something that would pay off later. But honestly, I never really stopped to think that I'm basically paying for that "potential" upfront, and the store already made their money on it. I've seen so many of those 1:25 books from a few years ago just sitting in bins at cons, nobody wants them. It changed my whole view on chasing those variants, now I just grab them if I actually like the cover art, not as some investment play. Thanks for laying it out that way, it's making me rethink some of my old buying habits.

the_rowan2d ago

Man, that's a good point. A buddy of mine owned a shop for a few years and he told me he ordered 50 extra copies of a #1 just to get the 1:50 variant, then tried to flip it for $100. Ended up sitting on that shelf for two years before he sold it for cover price just to clear space. @casey342 is spot on that we all got fooled into thinking these are investments when they're really just expensive covers.

scott.alex2d ago

Oh man, that stings. I've been there too. The thing about 1:25 covers is that the VALUE is already built into the price you paid - the store charged you a premium upfront for a book that might not have ANY actual demand down the line. Unless that #5 issue becomes the next Walking Dead #1 or has a major creator death, those ratio variants usually just sit. I paid $50 for a 1:40 variant of a book that ended up getting cancelled at issue #8, now it's in a dollar bin somewhere.