What if the $200 variant is now worth $400? Or $500? Or $1000? What if he bought TMNT 1 when it came out because everyone else wanted it?
Don't know what TMNT #1 has to do with anything, but for every 1 variant that actually goes up in price after a year, I could point out 100 that go down. By in large it is not a smart game to play.
I don't know what to tell you. I just mean it seems that everyone here is acting like every book is a loser and buying anything when it is hot is a stupid idea. It also seems to paint a rather bleak picture and is portraying the end user as an insufficiently_thoughtful_person that is not capable of understanding what they are doing or buying. Are variants, in broad generalities, not good investments the week of release? Probably. Do books dry up and get hotter once they are all stashed away in personal collections? Sometimes.
WTTB