But where is Alfred?

I just finished putting together the few minifigs I was missing to complete my LEGO Batman series from 2006 to 2008, I'm currently focused on the Spiderman range. The minifigs only because the sets are unaffordable and don't really interest me. In this regard, remember to use Brickset and its Minifig Browser to keep the list of minifigs that you have, you probably already do it for your sets and it is very practical.

For the Star Wars range, I collect sets because I consider vehicles, places and important events: They are an integral part of the saga. And then Star Wars, that cannot be discussed ....
Regarding Batman, apart from the Batmobile and the Tumbler, mythical machines of this universe, I do not need or want to collect bat-widgets, bat-things or improbable bat-stuff.

But when the set 6860 The Batcave has been presented in detail at New York Comic-Con 2011, the awful news has fallen: There will be no new minifigure ofAlfred Pennyworth ou Alfred the Butler, the faithful butler of Bruce Wayne and who, notably (but not only) in the saga shot by Christopher Nolan for cinema (Batman Begins & Batman the dark knight), plays a key role with its master.

The minifigure released in 2006 in the set 7783 The Batcave: The Penguin and Mr. Freeze's Invasion therefore remains the one and only plastic representation of this character to date, and its average price for a new minifig increased significantly between May 2011 and October 2011 (Average calculated by Bricklink on the basis of sales made for a new version of this minifigure, provided as an indication).
However, the variation is currently limited, the prices charged have long been very high on these minifigs from the Batman range. 

I wouldn't go into the details of the sums involved, that's not the point and you just have to go to bricklink ou eBay to see the price inflation for these minifigs. I just intend to stress the need for a collector of minifigs whose range has been stopped and then renewed to obtain without delay the characters that he considers essential to his collection. 

And in this specific case, with the arrival of the range Lego superheroes, the prices of the minifigs of the ranges Batman (2006 to 2008) et Spiderman (2003/2004) will flare up. Why ?

For a simple reason: Supply and demand. Children are fond of super heroes (adults often too), and from 2012 many will want to collect the minifigs of the new LEGO DC & Marvel range.
The affected products will be released in volume and it will be easy to procure these complete sets or minifigs at retail. But the moment will inevitably come when this range will run out of steam or stop.
Then will begin the way of the cross for all those collectors who will sooner or later want to complete their collection with products from the same range but older. If you think about this for a few seconds, you will realize that we have all done it, except those who for example were already in the ranks for Star Wars products in 1999 and who have still been collecting them for over 10 years. They are rare.

Some theories support the idea that a reboot, or remake of a range lowers the price of products that are re-released on the parallel market.
This is partly true. Partly only, because it only concerns a few specific products. If LEGO ever came out with a Millennium Falcon UCS, the price of the set 10179, overvalued today, would actually drop. But it would remain in any case much more expensive on the parallel market than when it was still marketed by LEGO at the price of 549 € because it would still be two different sets and collectors are compulsive .... They want all versions ....

If you have a little money to spend, start with the characters that are unlikely to be reissued (at least among those announced so far) or with those that you think are essential because their reissue concerns another version of the character itself. same, like Robin (Red Robin) or Two Face (comic version) for example. For the rest, take your time, compare the prices and the state of freshness of the minifigure.