Following from my article on CGC 9.8 investment framework, here are some recommendations for my favorite category, the Low Supply 9.8.

To meet the criteria for this group, the following conditions must be met:

• Low 9.8 census number (usually below 300 copies)
• Lower than 50% 9.8 ratio

These are not easy conditions to match. Hence, I am pretty happy when I find comics that met them, which is why it is my favorite category to invest in.

 

Sentry is a pretty well known modern character. He has made 13 comic appearances per year on average since debuting in 2000. That has allowed him to cloak a total 255 comic appearances.

With regards to Sentry #1 9.8, it is a border line Low Supply 9.8 book. One factor that contributes to this is probably the all black cover. That will usually keep the 9.8 ratio below the 50% mark.

However, I would like the 9.8 ratio to be lower (in the 30-40% range), with a lessor number of 9.8 copies. With the current stats, there is a probability that If this book gets hot and submission increases, it might cross over to the Mid Tier 9.8 category if the 9.8 ratio does not fall.

Having said that, it is currently still considered a Low Supply 9.8. On average, comics in this category can hit a peak of $1000 or more. Given the current price of Sentry #1 is around $350, that represents a potential profit margin of 200%.

There are 3 covers for this book so lets take a look at their 9.8 data.

Issue	9.8 copies	Total	9.8 to Total Ratio	Price
Sentry #1 Regular	244	522	46%	USD 350
Sentry #1 SDCC	209	315	71%	USD 380
Sentry #1 Rosen	114	183	62%	USD 450

Currently, there isn’t too much differences in prices between the 3 covers. In terms of rarity, the Rosen variant cover has the least number of copies on the census and would make the best investment for the current price.

 

Ava Ayala has been on and off the speculation radar a couple of time. She is a pretty solid character, with appearances in both comics and animation shows. On the former, she has made an average of 10 appearances per year, clocking in a total of 92 comic appearances since her introduction.

The regular edition of this book is a border line Gem or Lottery Ticket book, using my PSM framework. Interestingly, its 9.8 edition might also be a worthwhile investment candidate.

Currently, the submission numbers for this book is low so we cannot use the 3 9.8 copies as proof for scarcity. However, what caught my attention was the 9.8 ratio of only 30%.

As mentioned in my 9.8 investment framework, a modern book usually starts out with a high 9.8 ratio. This is because only 9.8 candidates tend to be submitted initially as they are the only ones which might have value. This will skew the early 9.8 ratio to be high when the book is not as valuable.

Below is a sample of such low submission books.

Issue	9.8 copies	Total	9.8 to Total Ratio	Price
New Mutants Vol 2 #5 (Elixir)	13	14	93%	No Data
New X-Men #133 (Dust)	11	21	52%	No Data
Astonishing Antman #6 (Cassie as Stinger)	10	12	83$	USD 160

As you can see, we are seeing almost 70-90% 9.8 ratio. This is to be expected given the low submission numbers. I even picked an all black cover issue like New X-Men #133 but even that has a 9.8 ratio of 52%.

Hence, for Avengers Academy #20 to have a 9.8 ratio of 30% is interesting. This might indicate that there is something about the book that makes it difficult to get a 9.8.

As such, if the ratio remains this low, the census tend not to be inflated even if the hot gets hot. Coupled with a low total supply that restricts the number of submissions, this book can be explosive if White Tiger suddenly becomes hot.

 

Cassie Lang is no stranger to anyone. She has had 192 comic appearances, averaging 14 appearances per year. This is a pretty high number and thus indicating that the character might be undervalued relative to her exposure.

Young Avengers #6 (the book) has similar characteristic to Sentry #1 in terms of 9.8 numbers. However, the former is currently priced at 50% of what Sentry #1 is selling for so the room for growth is significant.

In fact, I expect this book to be similar to Black Panther Vol 5, #5. Once we get official confirmation of Cassie in a superhero role, this book might take off in the same way. If that happens, the profit potential is a very healthy 200-300%.

The only risk is whether Cassie will use Stature or Stinger as the name. If it is the latter, it will be Astonishing Antman #6 that will getting the attention.

Conclusion

Low Supply 9.8 are one of the best investments you can make for modern comics. However, they are hard to come by and will need a lot of research to dig out those gems.