Young Avengers #1: Which Variant Presents the Best ROI?

While Kevin Feige hasn’t confirmed a Young Avengers (YA) movie, we all know the YA is coming. He has already done a careful job laying the foundation for them. We’ve already seen several Young Avengers members on film or Disney+, including Cassie Lang (Stature), Tommy Shepherd (Speed), and Billy Kaplan-Altman (Wiccan). Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) will appear in the upcoming Hawkeye, Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) has her own future Disney+ series, and many speculate that Eli Bradley (Patriot) will appear in the Falcon & The Winter Soldier. Perhaps Teddy Kaplan-Altman (Hulkling) will appear in the Secret Invasion Disney+ series since he’s both Skrull and Kree.

Most of the Young Avengers appear for the first time in YA #1. Like many Modern Age comic books, YA #1 has numerous variants making it challenging to determine which one to buy (assuming you can’t afford to purchase them all). We’ll discuss several of the variants below.

YA #1 is Hot, but Still Has Room to Grow

Because we can expect a YA movie late in Phase Five, speculators have snapped up Young Avengers #1 and its variants for several years now, driving up prices. Although I tend to avoid recommending hot comic books, I think this one has room to grow. First, it has FIVE first appearances in it. Second, let’s compare it against one of its peers, The Walking Dead #1. Image and Marvel published both issues around the same period of time (WD #1 in 2003 and YA #1 in 2005) and both issues contain numerous first appearances. According to the CGC Census, CGC 9.8 copies of WD #1 and YA #1 are roughly equally as rare (910 vs. 1143). Yet WD #1 is worth over five times as much as WD #1 ($1,900 vs. $350).

In my opinion, once Disney embeds the YA in pop culture, just as AMC’s The Walking Dead TV series did for Rick Grimes (and Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did for Mile Morales), we’ll see YA #1’s value pop even further.

The Most Sales Volume: The Standard Edition

Not surprisingly, the standard version of YA #1 (the Standard Edition) has experienced the highest sales volume in recent years. According to GoCollect, during the past two years, collectors purchased 341 CGC 9.8s, 173 CGC 9.6s, and 53 CGC 9.4 copies of the Standard Edition. Considering CGC has graded only 2,000 copies of the Standard Edition, that means over a quarter of them have exchanged hands during the past four years.

In comparison to the variants YA #1, the Standard Edition is also the least rare, especially at 9.8, according to the CGC Census. Of the 2,000 GCG graded copies of the Standard Edition out there, over 57% of those received a 9.8.

The Most Valuable: The Sketch Edition

According to GoCollect, this is the most valuable version of YA #1 (the Sketch Edition). Its FMV is approximately twice as much as the Standard Edition and Director’s Cut ($700 vs. $350 and $325). According to the CGC Census, the Sketch Edition is also much more rare than the Standard Edition, which likely explains the price disparity between the two versions.

That said, rarity can’t entirely explain its FMV; if rarity were the most important factor, then the Director’s Cut would have the highest FMV.

The Rarest: The Director’s Cut

The Director’s Cut has the lowest FMV of the variants discussed here. According to GoCollect, its FMV trails the Standard Edition by a slight amount. For example, the FMV of a CGC 9.8 copy of the Director’s Cut is approximately $325; in comparison, the FMV of a CGC 9.8 copy of the Standard Edition is $350.

To me, the Director’s Cut also presents good value. Not only does the Director’s Cut contain 25 pages of additional material (making it arguably more “complete” than the others), but it’s also by far the rarest of the three versions of YA #1 discussed here. According to the CGC Census, there are 1,143 CGC 9.8s of the Standard Edition, 287 9.8s of the Sketch Edition, and only 202 9.8s of the Director’s Cut.

Marvel released the Director’s Cut after the Standard and Sketch Editions (which would make sense considering it’s a Director’s Cut) even though according to CGC, they were released the same month and year (shout out to a reader who provided evidence of the correct shipping dates in the comments below!).

Which variant do you think has the most upside? Please us know in the comments below!

Come see Regie Collects and get all the latest from GoCollect’s YouTube page!