Anatomy of a Spec- Star Wars: Age of Resistance: Rey 1:50

You can learn a lot from doing a post-mortem of a spec, be it a hit or miss.  In this regular column I plan to revisit high-profile books of both ilk.  First up :
Star Wars: Age of Resistance: Rey

Star Wars books have a spotty history in terms of speculation.  However some of the higher ratio variants have been highly sought-after and continue to retain value when similar ratio books plummet.   One obvious example is the modern classic Star Wars: Force Awakens Quesada 1:100 variant and the 1: 200 sketch variant  which recently sold for $443 and $680 in 9.8 respectively.  Looking for potential patterns and trends are key in determining which books down the line may have similar potential.

I first became aware of this book when it was solicited as a variant for Star Wars: The Last Jedi as a companion piece to The Force Awakens.

Joe Quesada had drawn both covers for his daughter as bookend pieces.

  As occasionally happens the book was canceled and nothing further was heard about the cover art in question.  Then a few months ago, solicits for one of these Star Wars: Age of Resistance one shots featuring Rey was released sans cover art.   A little further digging revealed that it would be a Quesada piece and immediately my radar went up. 

Realizing that it was likely they would use the unreleased cover art in a similar way that Adam Hughes had with an unreleased Sabrina piece, I started to search for cheapest pre-sales.  I was able to grab three copies for a total of $220.  When the cover art was revealed though it was not as I had hoped a virgin variant, I was psyched as as I had predicted it was the previously unused Quesada art.

The book which released last Wednesday, September 18th and started to trend upwards with sales early in the week ranging in the $125 to $130 range.  Today the most recent sales for the book were $148 and $167.  There are currently two auction style copies being actively bid for on the 'bay.  The first 9.8 could easily hit $400.

Never underestimate looking at trends and patterns when making purchase decisions. While some beautiful cover art evokes powerful emotions, unless you're okay with possibly adding a pricey book to your PC, be sure to rely on hard data and history before pulling the trigger.