A statement of advertisements does not measure the notoriety of a booklet, but it provides an indirect index: the proportion of copies that holders have deemed fit to have certified.As of September 6, 2026, this proportion ranges from 0% to 50% depending on the numbers of the 1986 series. The seventh and eighth issues did not display any certified copy out of 18 and 40 advertisements; the tenth and eleventh showed 13%, the twelfth half of its meager supply. Getting certified is expensive and cannot be decided at random: where the proportion rises without the price following, someone is anticipating something.
Why the certification rate is an index
Having a fascicle certified represents a fixed expense, independent of the value of the object submitted. The gesture is therefore rational above a certain threshold and absurd below. No one has a copy certified that they estimate to be worth twelve dollars: the operation would cost more than what it protects.
This results in a useful property. The proportion of certified copies of a given number is not a statistical coincidence: it is the aggregate trace of individual decisions, taken by holders who judged, each on their own, that this issue was worth the expense. This proportion therefore measures anticipation, and it is the only thing approaching anticipation that an announcement report can deliver.
The reading must remain cautious on one point: the rate is calculated on what is on sale, not on what exists. A booklet whose certified copies are kept rather than offered will falsely appear poorly certified. The clue is indirect, and it does not pretend to be anything else.
The twelve rates noted on September 6, 2026
On all the advertisements retained for each issue — raw and certified copies combined, batches and reissues excluded — the certified portion is established as follows. The first issue reached 30.6% out of 62 ads. The second and third are around 9.9%, out of 162 and 121 ads. The fourth displays 8.7% out of 103. The fifth drops to 6.7% out of 15, the sixth to 2.9% out of 69, the ninth to 2.8% out of 36. The seventh and eighth fall to zero, out of 18 and 40 ads. The tenth and eleventh go back to 13.0% on 23 announcements each. The twelfth reaches 50%, but out of six ads in total.
Two of these figures should be dismissed out of hand. The 50% of the twelfth is based on three certified copies and three raw ones: the proportion is arithmetically exact and interpretatively empty. The 6.7% of the fifth is based on a single certified copy. Neither bears the weight of a conclusion.
There remain ten issues whose numbers allow reading, and a drawing can be seen there. The rate decreases regularly from the first to the ninth, going from 30% to almost nothing — then rises significantly on the tenth and eleventh.
The first — the reference
30.6% certification out of 62 advertisements. This level is not surprising on the opening number of a recognized series: it serves as a point of comparison, not of discovery. The whole interest of the table lies in the deviations from this reference.
The tenth and eleventh — the anomaly
13.0% each, out of 23 ads. This is more than the sixth (2.9% out of 69) and the ninth (2.8% out of 36), with numbers certainly lower but of the same order of magnitude. Holders certify these two fascicles more than their immediate neighbors.
The seventh and eighth — the hollow
No certified copy, out of 18 and 40 advertisements respectively. Out of forty advertisements, the total absence is no longer an accident of sampling: it indicates that no one among these sellers considered the expense justified.
The second — the useful counterexample
9.9% on 162 ads, the largest number in the series. A modest rate backed by a massive workforce is the most reliable figure in the table, and it serves as a standard by which to judge the others.
The word “sleeper” usually designates a booklet whose importance is not yet recognized. Formulated this way, the assertion is unverifiable: it concerns what the market ignores, therefore an absence.
Reformulated in terms of observation, it becomes testable: is there a number that holders certify more than its neighbors, without its displayed price reflecting this? This question has an answer, and it can be read in two columns of the same statement.
Hollow drawing, and what explains it
The yield curve does not go down linearly: it dips then rises. Thirty percent on the first issue, ten on the second and third, less than three on the sixth and ninth, zero on the seventh and eighth — then thirteen on the tenth and eleventh. This hollow in the middle, framed by two more certified areas, requires an explanation.
The first hypothesis is economic and applies to any series. Certification only makes sense above a value threshold; the middle fascicles, the most abundant and the least expensive, are below this threshold. This explanation accounts for the dip, but not the final rise, since the tenth and eleventh appear at levels comparable to the middle of the series.
The second hypothesis relates to relative scarcity. The last issues of a maxi-series are less offered: twenty advertisements for the tenth and eleventh, three for the twelfth, against 146 for the second. A holder who owns a booklet that is difficult to find has more reason to protect it, regardless of its posted price. Certification then becomes a gesture of conservation rather than a calculation of valuation.
These two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive and the survey does not allow us to decide between them. It must be said: we observe a drawing, we offer two coherent readings of it, and we have no data to decide between them. To pretend otherwise would be to dress up an intuition as a conclusion.
What the drawing firmly establishes, however, is that the rates are not randomly distributed. On twelve issues of the same series, sold on the same day on the same market, the difference goes from zero to thirteen percent among the only issues whose number allows the calculation. Something distinguishes these numbers in the eyes of those who hold them, and this something precedes the price rather than following it: the rates diverge where the medians remain grouped between thirteen and twenty dollars.
Cross rate and price
The certification rate alone is not enough. It must be compared to the level of display of the raw segment, otherwise we simply rediscover that the expensive booklets are more certified — which teaches nothing.
The crossing gives three configurations. High rate and high price: this is the first issue, coherent and without analytical interest. Low rate and low price: these are the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth, also consistent. The interesting configuration is the third: rate higher than neighbors and price which does not follow in the same proportions.
The tenth and eleventh are placed there, but differently from each other. The tenth displays both a higher rate (13%) and a higher raw median ($30 compared to $18 to $20 nearby): the two signals go in the same direction, which weakens the idea of a gap. The eleventh displays the same rate of 13% with a gross median of $18, comparable to that of its neighbors. It is there, and there only, that the two columns diverge.
This discrepancy is tenuous. It is based on three certified examples among twenty-three advertisements, and three observations do not constitute a demonstration. The honest formulation is therefore not “the eleventh is a sleeper” but “the eleventh is the only number in the statement whose behavior deserves a second measurement”.
The rate calculated on too little
A proportion in six announcements, like that of the twelfth, is a ratio, not a measurement. The number of observations must accompany each percentage, otherwise 50% and 9.9% appear comparable.
What is not for sale
The rate relates to the copies offered. A booklet whose certified copies are lying dormant in collections will appear poorly certified, without this being true of the existing stock.
Confusing index and prediction
A high rate reflects past anticipation of holders. He does not say that they were right, nor that the market will prove them right.
The single statement
These rates describe a day. A return on a number is confirmed by a second reading taken identically, never by the conviction born from the first.
Buy on the index
A booklet that is more certified than its neighbors remains, in view of the prices displayed, an ordinary booklet. The index warrants extended observation, not a buying decision.
Asking prices
All values quoted come from current announcements. They express what sellers wish to obtain, in no case what was paid.
Repeat the measurement, the only valid follow-up
The method can be reproduced without difficulty and without any special tools. For each issue, we count the announcements that really concern it - checking the number on the cover is essential, searches by keywords bringing back neighboring issues massively -, we separate the certified copies from the others, and we note the two numbers as well as the median of the raw segment.
Three columns are enough: date, number, rate. Repeated two or three times a few months apart, this measurement transforms an intuition into a series. A rate that goes up twice in a row on the same number says something; a rate raised once says nothing about its evolution, whatever its value.
This is the only honest path to a conclusion on this subject. Details of the fascicles and their content appear in ourkey numbers guide, and the general method of estimation in theguide de valorisation.
None can be so designated on the basis of a single statement. The eleventh is the only one whose certification rate (13%) exceeds that of its neighbors without its displayed price following; but this rate is based on three certified copies among twenty-three advertisements, which calls for a second measurement rather than a conclusion.
Because certification costs more than these booklets are worth at the levels shown — $13 and $19 median. Out of forty advertisements for the eighth, this total absence is not an accident of sample: no seller considered the expense justified.
No. It corresponds to three certified copies and three raw copies, six announcements in total. The percentage is exact and tells nothing: on this scale, an announcement of more or less would vary the rate by seventeen points.
He doesn't predict anything. It records decisions already made by holders who considered that an issue was worth the expense. Whether their anticipation is verified is another question, which no announcement data allows to resolve.
By counting, for each issue and on a noted date, the announcements which really concern this booklet, distinguishing those which mention a certification. Rate is the ratio of seconds to total. Verifying the number is the most important step: without it, the account mixes several fascicles.
A clue is only worth repeating
My Comics Collection keeps each reading with its date and number, so that the next measurement can be compared to the previous one instead of being interpreted on its own.