Question about Variant Cover Pricing

I have a potentially dumb question but I am ignorant on the topic. I was going to order comics from the website of my store I like to shop at and I was thinking of getting the new Wonder Girl. This variant cover is amazing but the price surprised me. I collect to read the story and enjoy the art not for the collector value or anything like that. Can anyone explain why this cover is priced so much more than the others? Im just a little curious. Thanks!

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I’m not sure if we can get an answer on this for you, but we’re certainly gonna try! Leave it with me :slight_smile:

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Supply and demand.

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Great question, @SpoilerAlert88!

On the shelf, one of the big elements that impacts the price is the paper stock. If it’s a foil variant, or a sturdy cardstock, you will see that drive up.

Here, when it’s not the shelf market, but a re-seller, it does come down to demand- that demand can be informed by the perceived value from the collector market, impacted by the popularity of the artist, if it is a first release or a reprint, or, if it is known that it will never be reprinted (scarcity).

It can also be driven up if the character in question is gaining popularity, like Yara Flor is :slight_smile: Sometimes the same cover will drop dramatically from re-sellers; one example is The Walking Dead. The comics were selling for very high prices on eBay and other reseller sites when the show was popular, but dropped dramatically when the show wrapped up.

In this case, the resellers are definitely considering it as having a high collector value. I’d say keep an eye on it if you’re hoping to nab it, you may see it drop in price over time. Good luck!

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It’s a 1 in 25 Retailer Incentive variant. What that means is for the comic shops for every 25 issues of the regular comic they can get one of these. It’s just that much more rare and less printed than the others which makes the price.

Edit: Just a heads up it looks like the going rate is about $40 on Ebay but you can get in on MyComicShop.com for $27-$30.

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Thanks for all the insight!

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Oh wow! That is quite a risk the stores take trying to decide how many of those to stock. That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

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