This weeks Comic Speculation Sunday focuses on the 2nd printing of Teen Titans Vol 6, #12. This book is the first appearance of Batman Who Laughs and sits at the intersection of 2 important trends that we have been seeing.

The first trend, covered in this article on undervalued modern comics to invest, is about the rapid rise of modern keys. Modern keys are nothing new but the latest price rise bought about by the likes of Ultimate Fallout #4 and Edge of Spider-verse #2 is setting new records and price ceiling.

The second trend is about modern 2nd printing gaining more value. There are now more cases where the later printings are overtaking the prices of first print. To navigate this new landscape. I even develop a draft framework to analyse the potential of these 2nd printings.

Batman Who Laughs is one of the potential characters whose first appearance comic in Teen Titans #12 can really break out. This book happen to have a second print that is still relatively affordable.

The key questions is: will the 2nd print of Teen Titans #12 be worth hundreds of dollars in the future?

Applying the 2nd print evaluation framework

The first question to ask for any 2nd print speculation is whether it has the potential to overtake the first print. For this to happen, 3 conditions need to happen:

• First print must have a high printing because it will lead to the second point
• First print not having a high price which makes it easier for the 2nd print to overtake it
• Different cover art

Unfortunately, Teen Titans Vol 6, #12 failed on all 3 cases. This means the chances of the 2nd print overtaking the first print is pretty low.

However, the framework also mentioned that 2nd print need not always overtake first printing to be valuable. One look at the prices of Ultimate Fallout #4’s 2nd printing will support this reasoning.

The key is such cases is that the first print must have the potential to reach high prices. This is because the 2nd print’s prices is a function of that. Currently, Teen Titans #12 2nd printing is about 20-25% of first printing’s prices.

If we widen that to a range, it can give you a range of potential prices to consider

Price of 2nd print (20%)	Price of 2nd print (30%)	Price of 2nd print (40%)	Price of first print
$20	$30	$40	$100
$40	$60	$80	$200
$60	$90	$120	$300
$80	$120	$160	$400

We can see that if (1) Teen Titans #12 get expensive or (2) if its 2nd printing commands a higher prices relative to the first printing, this can be a profitable speculation.

Currently, the trend seems to support (1).

Prices of 9.8 have dropeed from their high of USD600+ in March 2019 but seem to be rebounding. They are now selling for $400+ with the occasional higher priced sales.

Prices of the raw comics have also steadily increased, with a recent sale of USD140+. With DC’s Dark Knight Death Metal Series continuing for the rest of the year, they might go higher in the coming months.

All these will bode well for the prices of Teen Titans #12 2nd printing.