Independence Day will hold a treat for us in addition to barbeques and fireworks. It is also the birthday of Cosmic Ghost Rider in his self-titled series premiering on July 4th, 2018. The creative team of Donny Cates (writer) and Dylan Burnet (art) will bring us an independent Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 in his title. You can expect this issue to accelerate in price initially and then throttle back as speculation dissipates. The writing from Donny Cates is usually a good read. I picked up his recent work on Thanos #13 and read it with a frown. But every step of the Cates creative story was fun and most importantly very fresh. By the time I finished reading, I was chuckling and accepting of the amalgam creation of Cosmic Ghost Rider. Cates has done Doctor Strange, Thanos, and a ton of Image Comic material. He is hot in the industry now.
This Galactic Rider is a bizarre hit with the fans. Since we don't have any data yet on this Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 potential sales; let's use the Thanos #13 recent considerable price increases as a crude prediction model. The fair market values are exciting and parabolic as one would expect for Thanos #13, the first appearance of Cosmic Ghost Rider. There is a healthy range of sales in the grade (9.8) mint FM value $210. This continues down to a grade of (9.4) for $90, and then the number of sales start to decline for lower grade books (GoCollect). The lowest grade recorded is (7.5) with a $28 price tag (warning: that is just one sale). If the self-titled series Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 is a hit; then expect a similar increase in price for mint condition copies in about the $100 range. My guess is the first couple of months should see a price range of $105 to $135 for a mint CGC copy of Cosmic Ghost Rider #1.
Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 (Deodato Variant)
For pure artistic panache, you gotta love Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 (Hans Variant), which has a surreal cover with the Rider tearing up the Rings of Saturn. It is hard to tell which of these two will increase in value with no data. But the variants are never a bad way to go if the price is right. The CGR #1 (Hans Variant) is probably one worth considering. In addition, Mike Deodato's Variant is pure creativity and artistic flourish with the Cosmic Ghost Rider on the cover ringed by yellow-orange chains of hell as he rides into the cosmos.
DC Price Hike
The entire lineup of "DC Universe of comics will increase from $2.99 to $3.99, from this point on." DC Comics has confirmed the switch. DC has resisted this change and has chosen limited titles to increase. Marvel jumped the broom with this price hike back in 2010 and led the way. "If you only follow one comic, it is nothing but many folks pick up half-dozen issues, and that can get expensive. Digital comics will also be priced at $3.99, as well." (source: Newsarama)
The back issue bins are looking better and better from a cost/benefit analysis sort of way. Since DC Comics is raising the bar to meet expectations set by Marvel; the natural question is how long until Marvel raises prices again? When you add in all the variant covers, limited print runs and speculation rampant in the new comic book marketplace, these prices are getting up there. Are we looking at DC and Marvel getting ahead of themselves like the 1990's? Possibly, not everything published by these companies is collectible in the current era.
