Ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm in October 2012 for just over $4 billion, the company's track record producing Star Wars-related content has been mixed to say the least. Notoriously difficult to please, Star Wars fandom has been divided over shows on Disney+ like The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and The Acolyte. On the other hand, there's been at least one show that almost all Star Wars fans love: Andor, a 12 episode TV series released in 2022. With a 96% critics score and 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes, one reviewer even stated that Andor was "second only to The Empire Strikes Back" in terms of Star Wars productions.
And while Andor hasn't reached the same level of mainstream popularity as other Star Wars characters, he has certainly had a lot of screen time. With nearly eight hours of total screen time across one movie (Rogue One) and 12 TV episodes, he has had the second most hours of screen time of any Star Wars character after Din Djarin, the Mandalorian (who has had a whopping 15 hours of screen time).
If the second season of Andor, which premieres on April 22nd and consists of another 12 episodes, is also a hit, then it's reasonable to expect his popularity to rise. His first appearance in a comic book occurs in Star Wars: Rogue One Adaptation #1. This issue is a rare quintuple key since it also includes the first appearances of Jyn Erso, K-2SO, Saw Gerrera, and Orson Krennic.
At the height of the "comic boom" in 2021, this issue reached an all-time high of $305. In 2022, after the comic book market bubble popped, a CGC 9.8 copy of this issue declined precipitously until it reached an 18-month low of $44 in December 2023. Since then, however, its FMV has been steadily increasing over the past 18 months:
Ever since it hit that $44 low in late 2023, its FMV has more more than doubled to $95. In addition, its 90-day average of $100 is significantly higher than its one-year average of $82. While I doubt it will ever get back to its all-time high of $400, it has shown signs of strength during the past year and a half.
As with many big release Modern Age comics, Star Wars: Rogue One Adaptation #1 has many variant covers as well -- nine to be exact. Among the variants, the Movie Variant sells the most often (68 tracked sales) and for higher prices than Cover A. There are 50 9.8s on the CGC Census with an average grade of 9.57. A 9.8 of this variant sells for anywhere from $150 to $275. This 9.8 Movie Variant recently sold for $150:
Another variant that doesn't sell too often, but sells for considerably higher prices than Cover A is the Walmart Exclusive Edition Variant. This Walmart edition was initially sold only in Walmart stores and was included in a three-comic pack available exclusively at Walmart, containing the variant along with two other Marvel comics. This CGC 9.8 copy sold for an impressive $650 about sixteen months ago:
It's no surprise that the Walmart edition sells for substantially more since 9.8s of this issue are rare. There are only 15 9.8s on the CGC Census with an average grade of 9.29.
