Golden Age Number Ones Lead the Way
The June 25 Heritage auction featured sales of important Golden Age key first issues. Coming in at Number 1 on our Chartbusters list for June is Captain America Comics #1. A 9.2 graded copy sold in the auction for $810,000. That’s a 164% increase over the previous sale for $306,500.
Of course, it’s been 10 years since that sale. Still, it’s a very impressive sale and a tremendous increase in value.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the sale of a 3.0 graded copy of Superman #1. The copy sold for $360,000 in the June 25 auction. Not only is that down 14% from the previous sale of a 3.0 in the October 2022 Goldin auction for $420,000, it’s also down 50% from the peak sale in the grade: $720,000 in a February 2022 Goldin auction.
Should it continue dropping at this pace, Superman #1 in the 3.0 grade is in danger of breaking even with the $310,111 price set in 2020, potentially erasing all the gains this book has experienced in three years.
While we aren’t seeing similar drops in other grades, there have been a fair number of sales of this key issue in auctions over the past two years, enough that perceived rarity may have been diluted. It definitely will be worthwhile to watch upcoming sales of Superman #1 to see in which direction this book is headed.
Big Marvel Firsts Round Out the Top 5
Coming in at Number 3 on our June Chartbusters list is a 9.4 graded copy of Journey Into Mystery #83. The copy sold in the June 8 ComicConnect auction for $350,400. While it’s down 19% from the peak of $432,000 set in an April 2022 Heritage auction, it’s still the second-highest price ever paid for a copy of Thor’s first appearance.
Should the lone 9.6 graded copy ever come up for sale, the price is sure to dwarf the peak set for the 9.4.
A regular on the Chartbusters list, an 8.0 graded copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 comes in at Number 4 with a $312,00 sale in the June 25 Heritage auction. That's down a significant 30% from the June 2022 sale for $448,500 in a ComicConnect auction and down 44% from the 8.0 peak of $560,00 set in August 2021.
The general price trend for copies of Amazing Fantasy #15 graded 8.0 and lower is downward – although we are beginning to see some plateauing, or even slight upticks, in the lowest grades. Still, only the highest grades have seen an upward trend. If you’re an owner of a copy 8.0 and below and you’re considering selling, you may want to consider holding on a bit longer until this trend reverses.
The Number 5 Chartbuster for June is a 9.4 graded copy of Peter Parker’s second appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #1. That grade places it in the top 0.5% of all graded copies, insulating it somewhat from the downward trends we see in lower grades for other keys.
The $336,000 sale in the June 25 Heritage auction is a 28% increase over the previous sale of a 9.4 way back in 2016 for $262,900. While that initially looks impressive, it’s really only a 5.5% gain over the present dollar value of $318,399 for that 2016 sale. That falls short of the return on investment most would expect from a mega-key like Amazing Spider-Man #1 over a seven-year span.
More Golden Age Chartbusters in June
A 2.0 graded copy of Batman #1 sold in the June 7 ComicConnect auction for $176,500, marking a very slight rebound in the grade which had dropped to $174,000 in 2022 after reaching a peak of $240,000 in 2021.
One of the most impressive sales in the June ComicConnect auction took place on June 9 when a 9.8 graded Promise Collection copy of Suspense Comics #11 sold for $147,000.
The exact same copy sold in a September 2021 Heritage auction for $132,000, marking a tidy 11% gain in less than two years for the seller.
Other June Golden Age highlights from the Heritage and ComicConnect auctions include a 4.5 of Wonder Woman #1 selling for $48,500 (up more than 700% from previous sale in 2012), an 8.0 of Pep Comics #20 for $42,000 (only recorded sale for second highest graded copy), an 8.5 Gaines File Copy of Crime SuspenStories #22 for $40,800 (down 23% from previous sale in 2022), and a 4.5 of Punch Comics #12 for $38,400 (up more than 600% from previous sale in 2013).
Silver Age Auction Highlights
An interesting June Chartbuster story is the two sales of 8.0 graded copies of Incredible Hulk #1. The first was in the June 8 ComicConnect auction for $111,157, followed by the second in the June 25 Heritage auction for $138,000. The former sale sets a one-year, 90-day, and 30-day low in the grade, while the latter is down 10% from an August 2022 sale in a Goldin auction for $156,000.
Even a key like Incredible Hulk #1 that is notoriously hard to find in higher grades hasn’t proven itself immune to the downward trends we’re seeing in the marker.
Perhaps buoyed by the cinematic release of The Flash – despite poor reviews and a weak box office – Showcase #4 saw a tremendous lift in the sale of an 8.0 graded copy in the June 25 Heritage auction for $132,000.
That’s up an amazing 69% from the April 2021 sale for $78,000.
The same can’t be said for the first appearance of Marvel’s first family, unfortunately. An 8.5 copy of Fantastic Four #1 sold for only $117,000 in the June 25 Heritage auction, down a whopping 67% from its peak of $350,000 set just a year ago.
The rich got richer as a 9.6 copy of Richie Rich #1 sold in the June 25 Heritage auction for a record setting $108,000, up an astonishing 120% from its previous sale for $48,995 back in 2016. It also surpasses the sale of a 9.6 graded copy of Richie Rich’s first appearance in Little Dot #1 for $78,000 in the January Heritage auction.
With the gains we’re seeing in Richie Rich keys, his early appearances should be on every collector’s radar.
Big Copper Age Sale
We can’t leave without mentioning the sale of a 9.9 graded copy of New Mutants #98 – the first appearance of Deadpool – in the June 8 ComicConnect auction. One of only 12 copies in the 9.9 grade out of 26,997 in the CGC census, it sold for an astonishing $40,250 up 244% from the previous sale in a 2017 eBay auction for $11,700.
The owner of the lone 10.0 graded copy of New Mutants #98 has to be salivating at the prospect of a future sale.
Do you track the big sales of comics? What do you think the June numbers reveal about the state of the hobby? Let us know below!
