“They are?” my pet frowned. “I mean … it is? I mean . . . these all look the same to me. What makes them special?”
“It is not easy to explain, but if you will lend me your ears I will attempt to further your education. Boss. You too, Nunzio.”
Guido gathered up a handful of the books and sat on one of the cases.
“If you will examine the evidence before you, you will note that while all these comics are the same, which is to say they are copies of the same issue, they each have the number ‘one’ in a box on their cover. This indicates that it is the first issue of this particular title.”
I refrained from peering at one of the books. If Guido said the indicator was there, it was probably there, and looking at it wouldn’t change anything.
“Immediately that ‘one’ makes the comic more valuable, both to someone who is tryin’ to obtain a complete set, and especially to a collector. Now, certain titles is more popular than others, which makes them particularly valuable, but more important are titles which have indeed grown in popularity since they made their first debutante. In that situational, there are more readers of the title currently than there were when it began, and the laws of supply and demand drive the price of a first-issue copy through the roof.”
He gestured dramatically with one of the books.
“This particular title premiered several years ago and is currently hotter than the guy what swiped the crown jewels. What is more, the print run on the first issue was very small, makin’ a first-issue copy exceedingly valuable … with the accent on ‘exceedingly.’ I have with my own eyes seen a beat-up copy of the comic you are currently holding on a dealer’s table with an askin’ price of a hundert-fifty gold on it. Mind you, I’m not sayin’ he got it, but that’s what he was askin’.”