What's my 9.9 Graded Book Worth?

     I recently acquired a number of CGC 9.9 slabs and was wondering what the FMV (Fair Market Value) would be on them.  If you're new to collecting this is the 2nd to highest grade to get for a graded comic.  10 being the absolute highest at "mint". 9.9's are also considered "mint" as well.  I posed the question to one of the Facebook comic book groups I'm in and this is what I found.

     First, let's start off with what is considered the desired standard that most collectors aim for, which is the grade of 9.8.  Through messaging with different cleaners/pressers in the industry, I've found that with modern comics it's a fairly easy grade to hit as long as the conditions are right.  If you've kept up with the comic book industry you'll know that distributors don't really care about the conditions and are primarily focused on profit and moving books.  So often times there are books that arrived damaged because of poor packing/handling.  

     The next step up is a 9.9 which means the grading company deems that the comics is basically flawless and an actual mint quality.  Averages of FMV can range all over the place.  They can depend on the desirability, speculation/hype, if it's a ratio or variant, if it's a key, also if it's been signed.  The jump in price from a 9.8 to 9.9 can be double to almost 10 times!  Again it all depends on the book and the before mentioned factors.  

     What is the book that caused me to ask?  It's a Batman #99 1:25 Variant by Jimenez.  Answers to my ask for value were really informative.  Someone said that people don't usually sell the 9.9's and if I wanted to calculate the price, I could use the difference in price from a 9.6 to 9.8 for reference.  One person said twice the amount of a 9.8 as a ballpark estimate.  Another said to research similar books that have sold in 9.9.  Then research how the same book sold in 9.8 and compare for a base percentage.  One guy advised to put the book on eBay starting at $1 and see what it ends up selling for to give a real world value of it.  

  Lastly you want to check to see how rare the book is.  In this case someone did a search and at the time it was the only 9.9 in the CGC census.  This would absoutely help increase the rarity and boost the value.  As there are no others out there it is tough to put a guess on the range.  If anything 2 times what the 9.8 was selling for, so roughly $150 as the 9.8 was selling for $75.  But factor in that it is a 1:25 ration variant and also that it is the only one in the census, closer to $300 would probably be a better guess. What do you guys think?  

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