But with the success of Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse and the high-profile The Flash releasing on June 16th, many are starting to buy back into books that are driven by characters from these properties. Two of today's selections reflect that new reality.
Here are the five highest risers among Silver Age books in the past month.
Amazing Spider-Man #78 (+95)
We might be stretching the boundaries here of what we call Silver Age, but we certainly know why this book has taken off if you have seen Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse or the brand-new Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse. This book was released less than two months before 1970 (the end of the Silver Age is generally considered to be around the summer of 1969 when comic prices went up to 15 cents), but considering the huge leap this month, we will take a look.
This book features the first appearance of The Prowler and of Hobie Brown (later version becomes Spider-Punk), both of whom have massive roles in the latest animated Spider-Man movie. The speculation that both of these could have bigger roles in the third animated film and in live-action projects to come has this book shooting up the charts.
Prices for a CGC 8.5 copy of this issue have been between $450 and $484 in the first two weeks of June, compared to $300-$400 in the early part of 2023. There are plenty of high-grade copies of this book available and even a CGC 9.0 copy is going run you well under $1,000 right now. Seems like a smart investment if you think these characters have long-term potential.
X-Men #50 (+88)
This is an interesting one. X-Men #50 is typically known for the fantastic cover drawn by Jim Steranko. Steranko also designed the classic, slanted X-Men logo that would be used for years and first appears in this issue. Polaris (at this point just known as Lorna Dane) was introduced the issue before in #49 and wouldn't use that number until X-Men #97.
Perhaps the recent popularity around Polaris and this book has to do with the fact that she was voted upon to be a new member of the X-Men in the recent Hellfire Gala storyline, but that series started over two years ago. Maybe it's because this is a top-50 X-Men book and you can readily find a copy in CGC grade 9.4 for under $2,000 (Heritage sold one in March for $1,680). Whatever the reason is, this book is growing in popularity, and growing quickly.
Even if you're just looking for the upper end of a mid-range copy, you can snag a CGC 7.5 for under $450 (sales of $380 and $390 over the last month). And the last sale in a grade CGC 5.0 was just $260. Polaris may have some juice in the comic runs presently, but each of these books are still very affordable at the moment.
The Flash #139 (+65)
The DC universe at large is going through a major upheaval right now, and the film The Flash could be the start of the reboot. In March 2021, the comics line relaunched its entire comic run with the Infinite Frontier project. With James Gunn taking over the visual production side of the DC properties, much is up in the air on that side as well. Casting news is starting to leak out, but that's as much as we have.
The Flash will make a lot of money in its opening weekend, thanks in part to the Flashpoint storyline and the two versions of Flash that appear in the film thanks to some time-traveling hijinks. That's just part of the reason why this dual-Flash cover with Reverse Flash is trending upward right now.
This book has more than 1,500 copies on the CGC blue and yellow label census and is one of the more beloved DC comics from the entire Silver Age. The midpoint for this book on the census is at grade 5.0, where there are more than 140 copies available in the world. In March, that grade sold for $350 on eBay. Just over the last month, the same grade went for $700 and $599. This could come crashing back down depending on box office success and future DCU plans, but for how it is speeding through sales in many grades.
X-Men #1 (+60)
What more can we really say about one of the most popular and beloved comic books of all time? The value and prices of this book are not moving up appreciably over the last few months (and many grades are going down), but this may be a residual reflection of the downturn we saw in 2022-2023. I am sure there are many collectors who have been waiting for years and saving their pennies so they can afford a copy of this book. They didn't want to buy in during the comic boom of 2020-2021, but now are seeing more reasonable prices.
Case in point, according to the GoCollect sales database, six CGC grades (5.5, 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, and 2.0) have tracked sales in the last 30 days. Of those six grades, five of them were below the one-year sales average of the book. The one that was not was a single CGC 4.0 grade that sold for $13,000. The one-year average on that book is $12,436, just slightly below. And despite there being more than 4.500 blue and yellow labels on the CGC census, there are no recorded sales of any grade of this book above a 5.5 in the last 45 days.
Smart buyers are grabbing the cheap ones when they come up, but this just isn't the time many people are selling, particularly if they bought over the last three years.
Amazing Spider-Man #39 (+8, but climbing!)
We can safely speculate that his book is going to make a massive jump in the days to come after the unfortunate passing of comic artists legend John Romita, Sr. We know ASM #39 represents the first time he provided art for the classic Spider comic and is a an iconic Spider-Man and Green Goblin cover. But there are also more reasons to love this book.
When I looked at the hottest Silver Age comics in January, they were all Spider-Man and relatively all “minor” keys from his early issues. A third appearance here, a crossover there, some nice artwork over here. But they were the books that are not in the stratosphere of value and had dropped even more, thanks to a bear market.
But a book like Amazing Spider-Man #39 represents a Spider-Man issue that I would consider as the next tier up from the books last month. Why? This book has some key elements that make it more of a key issue than other early Spider-Man issues, while still not reaching the levels of an ASM #4 or ASM #14, or even ASM #20. But in addition to the Romita art, this is the issue that Green Goblin is revealed to be Norman Osbourne. Add in the iconic cover, and this book is high up on the desirability list.
To show just one reflection of the price jumps we might see, a CGC 8.0 copy settled on a price of just under $2,000 on eBay back on June 14th, right after Romita's passing. The last sale before that one was for $780 in a Heritage auction on May 23rd.
