Rarity
How a card’s rarity is decided
Each of the 204,534 cards is a real Marvel, DC or indie issue (Image, Dark Horse, Valiant, Archie, IDW, Boom!...). Its rarity reflects the place it has taken in comics history. Neither market value, nor the price of a copy, nor your wallet comes into it.
The score
Where rarity comes from
I
First appearances
Each issue is scored on the characters and teams who debut in it, and on what they became: a hero who has since appeared in thousands of issues weighs far more than a forgotten extra. A cameo or an unnamed first appearance counts less.
II
The era
A character born two years ago has not had time to build a career yet. Since 2005, an issue is therefore compared with the debuts of its own era, not with those of the 60s.
III
The #1s
A #1 that launches a major series earns points based on how important the series is, even without a big debut.
IV
Cult issues
An issue reprinted on its own or often referenced by other series also earns points, up to a limit: fame alone does not make a legendary.
Each publisher’s issues are then ranked by score. The top 0.15% are Legendary, the next 1.5% Super rare, then 7% Rare and 25% Uncommon. Everything else is Common.
The catalog
The five rarities
Legendary
The first appearances that changed history: Spider-Man, the X-Men, Superman, Batman.
For example: Amazing Fantasy (1962) #15, Action Comics (1938) #1, Incredible Hulk (1962) #181.
- Cards
- 341
- Share
- 0.15%
- Sell value
- 500 to 2,000
Super rare
Major debuts and cult-classic issues.
For example: Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #1, Spider-Gwen (2015) #1, Batman (1940) #497.
- Cards
- 3,402
- Share
- 1.5%
- Sell value
- 100 to 400
Rare
Issues that matter in a hero’s history.
For example: Fantastic Four (1961) #256, Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #700, Iron Man (1996) #1.
- Cards
- 15,755
- Share
- 7%
- Sell value
- 25 to 75
Uncommon
Characters who mattered, series that lasted.
- Cards
- 35,710
- Share
- 25%
- Sell value
- 10 to 20
Common
The backbone of any collection, and the currency of your trades.
- Cards
- 149,326
- Share
- the rest
- Sell value
- 5
Selling a duplicate earns you coins. Within the same rarity, higher-scored issues are worth more.
The pulls
The odds in a pack
A pack holds five cards. The first four are drawn at random, the fifth is at least Uncommon. One pack in 10 is golden: its last card is at least Super rare.
| Rarity | Cards 1 to 4 | Card 5 | Golden card 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legendary | 0.1% | 0.5% | 8% |
| Super rare | 0.7% | 4.5% | 92% |
| Rare | 4.2% | 30% | - |
| Uncommon | 23% | 65% | - |
| Common | 72% | - | - |
- On average, a Legendary about every 65 packs, a Super rare every 7.
- Guaranteed: after 99 packs in a row without a Legendary, the 100th has one.
- Events: during an event, Super rares and Legendaries come out twice as often in the featured pack.
- Themed packs: if a pack has no card of the rarity drawn, it gives the closest one below. A family with fewer than 5 Legendaries draws its own from the whole catalog of its publisher: the Legendary stays a surprise.
Variants
Variant covers
Many issues have several covers: one by another artist, a homage cover, a themed series. When a card that has variants comes out of a pack, it has a one in 30 chance of being one of them. A variant card has a second pearl border.
Ratio variants (1:25, 1:50, 1:100...), which publishers kept for retailers, are rarer among themselves: a 1:100 comes out four times less often than a 1:25.
- Same rarity as the regular cover, and a sell value 3 times higher, 10 times for a ratio variant.
- An issue counts once: owning its regular cover or one of its variants is the same for the album, completed series and the leaderboard.
- A separate card for everything else: a variant can be traded, sold and auctioned. A card’s page shows every cover of its issue, and the ones you own.
Questions
The reading pack
Every half hour of reading on Comics Tracker earns a pack. Its first card comes from the comic you read, the other four are drawn normally.
The rarity of that first card is drawn with the odds of cards 1 to 4, then the game picks an issue of the comic in that rarity, or in the closest one below. So reading a cult comic does not give you more Legendaries: reading chooses which card you get, not its rarity. If the comic has no card common enough, the first card is drawn normally.