Ghost Rider Vol 3, #28 contains the first appearance of the Midnight Sons, a team that can potentially become the default supernatural team in the MCU. It also contains other first appearances that add value to this book.

However, even with the above good points. the high print run of this book makes it a hard investment to recommend. Fortunately, this problem disappeared when we focused on the newsstand version.

This article will examine the potential value of a newsstand 9.8 Ghost Rider Vol 3, #28.

 

As you can see, the book itself has pretty solid fundamentals as it introduces many new characters, teams and concepts. The drawback, however is the print run of 357k, which is pretty high relative to modern comics.

In comparison, New Mutants #98 (first appearance of Deadpool) has only 200k print run.

As such, the direct editions of this book is unlikely to become a 3 digit book unless it became as desirable as Carnage, Gambit or any of those ultra hot Copper characters.

However, for the sake of being conservative, lets assume this book would not hit those high benchmarks.

Instead, lets’ look at non top tier books to see what Ghost Rider #28 can potentially reach. I picked the below books based on:

• Higher print run than Ghost Rider Vol 3, #28 (except New Mutants #100)
• Have recent newsstand sales in 9.8 on Ebay
• Are not tier one characters

	Supply	9.8 Supply	Price of 9.8 Direct	Price of 9.8 Newsstand
Ghost Rider Vol 3, #28	357,000	112/199	USD 100	USD 120
Uncanny X-Men #282	600,000	1046/3377	USD 200	USD 400
Spider-Man #2099 #1	680,000	1230/1873	USD 100	USD 250
New Mutants #100	200,000	1277/2875	USD 90	USD 175

Observations

Based on the table, we can draw several observations

1. Newsstand premium for even high print run books

The table shows that even for non Tier One characters or books that has high print run, the newsstand premium is very much in effect. In all the 3 comparison books, newsstands 9.8 command at least 100% more than the direct editions.

This is important because it makes a case that even books with high print run are solid investments if we choose the right edition and grade.

However, the newsstand premium on Ghost Rider Vol 3, #28 is almost non existent. This represents an undervalued buying opportunity.

2. How much growth for Ghost Rider Vol 3, #28?

The comparison books can set the benchmark for which Ghost Rider Vol 3, #28 can reach. The optimistic projection will be $400, set by X-Men #282. This presents a 300% profit potential.

The middle of the the road projection will be $250 as set by Spider-Man #2099 #1. This is still a 100% profit potential.

The lowest will be $175 as set by New Mutants #100. However, I would argue that this might be an overly conservative price. The reason is because this sale took place in June. While 2 months might seem short, the comic market has grown a lot since then, especially for moderns and newsstand.

In contrast, the X-Men #282 and Spider-Man 2099 #1 sales took place in August and thus reflect a more accurate picture of the newsstand premium.

In fact, I would say that New Mutants #100 9.8 newsstand is also undervalued if it continues to stay at this price. I would be buying them up if I see them in Ebay.

3. No media hype for Ghost Rider #28 yet

The final thing you might notice is the low census data relative to the other 3 books. This is not saying that it is a rarer book. Rather, it is saying that collectors currently have no incentive to stab this book.

Another way to interpret this data is that this book has not gotten into the typical speculation cycle yet. If it were, there will be much more submissions than the 199 books we are seeing.

This is another sign that this book is still undervalued, which means the room for profit is still high relative to books that have already entered into the speculation hype cycle.

Competing books for Midnight Sons’ first appearance

Although this book has been regarded as Midnight Sons’ first appearance, I will not be surprised to see a debate later on if Midnight Sons get hot.

In Ghost Rider Vol #3, #28, we can a vision of the team in a big splash page as shown below.

This is the first time the team has “assembled” but it is only on this panel.

In Ghost Rider Vol 3, #31, the team assembled physically for the first time and are involved throughout the whole comic.

It is hard to tell which book the market will pick. Both are still relatively affordable so spec groups have no incentive to pick one over the other.

Lilith first appearance

There is also another point that might cause debates, which is on Lilith’s first appearance. While the villain that we know did first appear in Ghost Rider Vol 3, #8, there is another similarly named character that appeared in Vampire Tales #4.

Below is the one page story which this Lilith character appeared.

I am not sure if the two Liliths are the same character. If they are, then Vampire Tales #4 is another undervalued book that you might also want to take a look.

Conclusion

Ever since I consciously look for harder to find editions of popular copper books, my investment spectrum has widen. Prior, the high supply situation has kept away from doing any serious investment into copper age books. Now, I see more opportunities than I have money to keep up!