About a week before San Diego Comic Con, Kevin Feige confirmed in an interview with ComicBook.com that Nova is indeed coming to the MCU. Feige also confirmed that we'd see the Richard Rider version of Nova (and not Sam Alexander) in a Disney+ TV show at some point during the next few years.
How has the market responded, if at all, to the news about Nova?
Fans first began speculating we'd see Nova way back in 2014 when the Nova Corps and Rhomann Dey (the Nova Corps who empowers Richard Rider, the first Nova) first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy. Then in 2018, we learned in Avengers: Infinity War that Thanos destroyed the Nova Corps and stole the Power Stone. Clearly, Feige has been laying the groundwork for Nova to join the MCU for years now.
Richard Rider first appears in Nova #1 which was published in 1976 (notably, Nova #1 didn't make the cut to join GoCollect's Bronze Age CPI). Let's take a closer look at the most common grade of Nova #1 on the CGC Census: a 9.6.
After steadily increasing in value since 2011, a CGC 9.6 reached an all-time high of $735.75 in April 2022 shortly after the peak of the pandemic-fueled "comic boom." Since then, it has lost much of its value plunging to an FMV of $280 according to GoCollect. One 9.6 even sold for $175 on July 21st -- the day after ComicBook.com published its interview with Kevin Feige. Good chance one savvy buyer snapped up this copy at a very low price after reading that article! Just over a week later, another 9.6 sold for more than twice as much ($380)! Although we can't be certain, that purchase could've been driven by FOMO.
In my opinion, this probably isn't the best time to buy a copy considering we won't see Nova for a few years; collectors can always revisit a potential purchase once the news has completely faded from our consciousness in about six months or so.
The supply of 9.6s has increased by 65% over the past five years.
There's another reason why the value of a 9.6 has plummeted over the years: a 65% increase in supply. According to CGCData.com, in late 2019, there were only 881 9.6s recorded on the CGC Census; however, today, there are now 1,351 9.6s on the Census. That's a 65% increase in supply that occurred over the past five years. With such a dramatic increase in supply, it was likely that there wasn't enough demand to keep up which resulted in a significant drop in value during that same time period.