The final 2025 sales data is in, so it’s a great time to look at each of GoCollect’s Collectible Price Indexes (CPI) to see which ones overperformed… and which ones didn’t.
Modern Age in 2025
No index performed better in 2025 than the Modern Age CPI. It was up 2.36% for the year, and much of that growth was driven by the book at the top of the index: Invincible #1. It was up a phenomenal 66% for the year and continues to be a major key for collectors. Don’t discount the renewed interest in The Walking Dead #1, which was up 15% for the year. It’s the number two book in the Modern Age CPI. These top two comics account for slightly more than a third of the value in the Modern Age CPI and should be on every comic investor’s radar. Another winner further down in the index was Detective Comics #880, up 35% for the year. Among the losers in 2025 were Star Wars: The Clone Wars #1 – down 17%, NYX #3 – down 15%, and Amazing Fantasy #15 – down 32%.
Copper Age in 2025
The Copper Age took a beating in 2025 with the index down 5.34%. The index is rife with books that lost value. Most prominent were New Mutants #98 – down 20%, Caliber Presents #1 – down 16%, and The Batman Adventures #12 – down 15%. Despite the downward trend, a few books managed to see some decent gains. G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero #1 was up 12%, while perennial favorite Incredible Hulk #340 saw a nice 17% increase in value. But the big winner was The Punisher #1, which was up 31% in 2025.
Bronze Age in 2025
Ah, the poor Bronze Age CPI. Five years ago, Bronze Age comics could do no wrong, with prices rising substantially every month. Now, the Bronze Age CPI is the worst performing of all the indexes. It was down 6.66% in 2025. The top of the index proved to be a real drag on the CPI as a whole, with Incredible Hulk #181 – down 11%, Werewolf by Night #32 – down 9%, and Giant-Size X-men #1 – down 17% all acting as heavy weights contributing to the downward trend. But perhaps no book exemplifies the woes of the Bronze Age CPI better than Tomb of Dracula #10. Once a top ten Bronze Age comic, its steep decline continued with a 31% drop in value. There were a couple of bright spots, though. Batman #227 rose 4% in value (a huge increase for a Bronze Age comic in 2025). House of Secrets #92 had the best year of any Bronze Age comic, rising 7% in value and taking over the top spot in the index.
Silver Age in 2025
The Silver Age CPI didn’t perform much better than the Bronze Age in 2025. Second worst may not be worst but you’re still looking at a 6.18% drop in value. The top book in the index – Fantastic Four #5 – fell 20%, while Tales to Astonish #27 dropped 10% and Batman #121 saw a 7% loss in value. There were a few Silver Age winners in 2025 though, and if you invested in Action Comics #242 back in January, you would have seen a tremendous 34% gain if you sold at the end of the year. Vampirella #1 – up 18% and Action Comics #252 – up 7% were also among the very few winners.
Golden Age in 2025
Golden Age comics continued to be a safe investment in 2025, although the gains in the index were an unspectacular 1.69%. There were a number of winners for the year, a couple of which included All-American Comics #16 – up 25% and Detective Comics #38 – also up 25%. But the prize goes to Suspense Comics #3, which was up an incredible 79% and showed the continued resilience of pre-code horror comics. It’s tough to point out any major losers in the index, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that there were a number of comics in the Golden Age CPI that saw two or fewer sales in the course of 2025. How these books perform if they come up for sale in 2026 could be a major driver of any gains or losses in the index.
Big Spenders Club in 2025
My first reaction upon seeing the final 2025 numbers for the Big Spenders Club CPI was, “What? How can it be a down year – down 1.23%? Didn’t Superman #1 just set a record (and gain 154% in index value)?” Flash Comics #1 was up 29% and Pep Comics #22 was up 16%. The sole Bronze Age book in the index – Marvel Spotlight #5 – was only down 6%, and the only Copper Age book – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 – saw just a 7% drop in value. What caused the index to drop into the red was a June 29 Heritage auction that saw not one, not two, but three different grades of Fantastic Four #1 – 9.2, 9.0, and 7.0 – sell for significantly less than previous sales and caused a decline in index value for the issue of 24%. I’ll be taking a closer look at the bruising Fantastic Four books have been taking in an upcoming blog on the Fantastic Four CPI. But it goes to show how much one comic can drag down an index of big ticket books with far fewer sales than our other CPIs.
Final Analysis
Taking a step back and looking at the comic book market with a macro lens, it really doesn’t look much different from the overall K-shaped economy we’re currently experiencing. People with means were able to keep purchasing the big ticket Golden Age books that make headlines. The middle tier of Silver and Bronze and even Copper Age comics were crushed as previously high priced books – priced so high that average collectors could no longer afford them – plummeted in value. Average collectors have decided to play a waiting game, refusing to invest heavily in this middle tier until they’re sure they’ll see some return on their investment. They’ve turned instead to comparatively much cheaper Modern Age comics to a large extent, large enough that prices are quickly rising.
