This post is taken from the CGC Board where user “Hollywood1892” asked:
QUESTION: Why is NYX #3 More Valuable than New Mutants #87 and New Mutants #98?
ANSWER:
“Supply and demand determine value” is easy to say, and it’s the right answer …but… I like putting actual numbers to those concepts.
SUPPLY (CGC 9.8 universal counts):
New Mutants #87 = 1,454
New Mutants #98 = 2,759
NYX #3 = 1,505
VALUE (CGC 9.8 universal sales average):
New Mutants #87 = $425
New Mutants #98 = $750
NYX #3 = $915
DEMAND (supply times value):
New Mutants #87 = 1,454 x $425 = $617,950
New Mutants #98 = 2,759 x $750 = $2,069,250
NYX #3 = 1,505 x $915 = $1,377,075
CONCLUSION:
NYX #3 is basically halfway between New Mutants #87 and New Mutants #98 in DEMAND (as defined above). The individual prices for each copy are less important, because the supplies are different. Put the two together (SUPPLY x VALUE) and you get something (DEMAND) that’s possible to compare across books.
There are plenty of objections to this simple calculation, such as:
What about the CGC 9.6, CGC 9.4, etc.?
What about all the additional raw copies that have never been sent to CGC?
What about the higher grades?
What about the fact that these books had different numbers of copies printed in the first place, regardless of how many are on the CGC Census?
What about more copies being sent to CGC all the time?
These objections are valid, but the original question reflected only one variable (Value) while the answer given here includes three variables (Value, Supply, Demand). It’s always possible to add more variables to any equation, but we quickly realize that both Pareto and Occam are more famous than we are for good reason…
They didn’t spend all day asking “But what about these 14 other things?”