My love for all things Valiant continues as I am looking to buy up all the first appearances I can find within my budget. The previous article was looking at the VEI key issues for female characters. For this article, I am focusing more on the pre Unity keys. The list will ignore all the gold variants and what not. I am not interested in those as I am focusing more on the regular issues with first appearances.

The census information is a tricky beast to fully understand. It is a snapshot in time so you can’t just look at the current information and say whether a book is rare.  A book may have low census information because

• It is rare
• No incentive to slab because the selling price is too low

To better gleam information from the census, it is important to know the context of the book. The context can relative to its history or to its peers. That will help you determine if a book is really rare or just not being slabbed. With this mind, let’s take a closer look at the table and try to interpret the result.

9.8/Total ratio

Before analyzing the list, a useful ratio to note is the 9.8 to total submission ratio. A low ratio means resistance to census i.e. even with more submissions, you will not see a big jump in 9.8s. This can be due to a variety of reasons including production defects, black covers, poor quality paper etc. Whatever the reason, a book that is resistant to census tend to be pretty hard to find in 9.8s.

In Valiant’s case, it is Solar #10 and Harbinger #1. Looking at the ratio, these 2 books are below 20% which is low relative to the other titles which are averaging 50%. It is no wonder that even with so many books being submitted, we still don’t see a flood of 9.8s. This is good news for collectors as the limited supply will keep the value of the book high.

Top 5 rare valiant comics result

1. Solar #10: As expected, Solar 10 takes the lead. This book is simply tough in 9.8 as you can see its low number even with a high submission count. With a price tag of USD900, the incentive to slab is great but you will not see any big increase in numbers. See the above section to understand why. (Ebay listings)

2. XO-Manowar #4: This book has the second lowest 9.8 so many might think this book is rare in this condition However, this is the kind of book that might see a large increase in census if the prices shot up. It has very little resistance to census if we look at the ratio of 9.8 to total submissions. More worrying, it also have the lowest submission count so it is hard to tell if future 9.8 numbers will increase when total submissions increased. (Ebay listings)

3. Magnus #5: Another book that has low 9.8 numbers currently but a high 9.8/total ratio. However, unlike XO-Manowar #4, this book might NOT see a big increase due to coupon cut outs, similar to the Harbinger Pink program. Currently, the interest in this book is fairly low due to a lack of movie news but Rai is a great character and its low 9.8 numbers might make it valuable when the time comes for the character gains interest (Ebay listings)

4. Solar #3: This is a low 9.8 census and low submission book but with a high 9.8/total ratio. In this aspect, it is very similar to XO-Manowar #4. As such, it is risky to assume that it will have the same low 9.8 numbers going forward. If this book is suddenly worth $500 in 9.8, it is highly the 9.8 numbers will shoot up with an increased in submissions. (Ebay listings)

5. Harbinger #1: A very valuable book and it is easy to see why. Low 9.8/total ratio despite a high number of submissions. This means we wouldn’t see an avalanche of 9.8s appearing even if the book continues to creep up in prices. I love to invest in such books as supply wouldn’t overwhelm any sudden increase in demand. (Ebay listings)

Conclusion

Valiant comics are starting to get the interest of collectors due to the movie hype coming in 2017. Will the demand be sustained? It is hard to tell at this point.  However, if you are keen to invest, at least understand the supply situation and how it might reduce or increase your potential profits in the future if demand suddenly picks up.