Hmm it’s what I suspected, and I assume you’re correct, but it still seems a little odd.
Not a direct comparison, but I also collect watches. A watch that doesn’t have its original box and paperwork is worth less than a watch with them. You can get a new box, you can have the manufacturer issue archive papers and the watch can be authenticated, it still isn’t the same — having everything together matters.
I assume most of us collect published comic art not simply for its artistic value. If that was the case commissioned art would be just as valuable as published art by the same artist. A part of it, at least for me, is collecting history. These pages are the feats that create the legend of our childhood heroes; when ink touches paper, that is the moment Batman/Thor/whoever did that thing that makes the character special. When the comic reaches the shelves of the comic store, you’re buying it to find out what that thing was.
Stories aren’t told in single pages, and context for actions matter. Let’s take Injustice as an example. A page of joker’s face saying “boom” may look cool, but it doesn’t have meaning without the page next to it of the daily planet disintegrating. Superman’s face crying when he emotionally breaks is an important page, but it seems lost without the page before it showing Lois dying or the page before that showing superman was the one who killed her. I don’t know, I feel like keeping those story moments together should matter.
I’ll get off my soapbox. I just don’t want to view this hobby as collecting Pokémon cards and I find it weird the market is setting value that way.