After 19,489 submissions, it finally happened -- last month, CGC issued its first 9.9 for Ultimate Fallout #4:
Ultimate Fallout #4, which is, of course, famous for including the first appearance of Miles Morales (the star of Sony's well-received Spider-Verse franchise) is arguably the most significant key issue of the Modern Age. While Invincible #1 is more rare, and therefore more valuable, I would argue Miles is a more important character than Invincible.
With nearly 20,000 submissions, Ultimate Fallout #4 is one of the most commonly submitted books to CGC. Nearly 5,000 of those submissions received a 9.8 (4.478 9.8 universal blue labels and 520 9.8 yellow signature labels), but after 14 years, CGC finally graded its first 9.9 in July 2025. For an issue this important, the issuance of this 9.9 was seismic. Once top of the Census, 5,000 9.8s have now been relegated to second place status.
The lucky investor who received this 9.9 of Ultimate Fallout #4 immediately consigned it to ComicLink; the auction for this item began on August 15th at 8 pm. Described on ComicLink as "AN EXTREME RARITY," this book will certainly set a new sales record for Ultimate Fallout #4 -- the question is how much will it sell for?
Estimating how much this one-of-a-kind, top of the Census comic book will sell for is a little tricky. As a baseline, the FMV of a CGC 9.8 is currently $900 according to GoCollect:
Like many Modern Age keys, this issue has been in an absolute free fall after the collectibles market bubble popped in 2022. After reaching an all-time sale of $4,000 in 2022, a 9.8 has lost nearly 88% of its value over the three and a half years. The pace of decline during the past few months, however, has slowed with the 30-day average of $880 being nearly identical to the 90-day average of $891.
Depending on the comic, the difference between a 9.8 to 9.9 for a Modern Age key can range from 2x to nearly 10x the value of a 9.8. Let's take a closer look, for example, at the sales for 9.9s of a comparable issue: The Walking Dead #1. Like Ultimate Fallout #4, Walking Dead #1 is one of the most important key issues of the Modern Age and included in GoCollect's Modern Age CPI. Still, it's not a perfect comparable for several reasons. First, Ultimate Fallout #4 had a much larger print run, and as a result, there is a much larger supply of graded copies in comparison to Walking Dead #1 (17,035 universal blue labels vs. 3,231 blue labels). Another key difference is that there is only one 9.9 of Ultimate Fallout #4 whereas there are 23 9.9s of Walking Dead #1.
According to GoCollect, the value of a 9.8 copy of Walking Dead #1 has remained relatively steady over the past ten years and it's current FMV is $2,200:
In comparison, a 9.9 of Walking Dead #1 could sell for roughly 10x that amount. For instance, this 9.9 sold about a year ago for $23,459:
Again, not a perfect comparable, but 9.9 sales of Walking Dead #1 suggest that the 9.9 of Ultimate Fallout #4 could sell for around 10x the value of a 9.8.
Another Modern Age key issue to consider is Spawn #1. While Spawn #1 is also not a perfect comparable, it does include the first appearance of a major character, and like Ultimate Fallout #4, it also had a large print run. With 28,191 universal blue labels on the CGC Census, it is one of the most frequently graded comics of all-time. Nearly half of those blue labels are 9.8s (13,239). There are also a large number of 9.9s (72) as well. According to GoCollect, the FMV of a 9.8 is $120. The last two 9.9s sold in November 2024 for around $3,600 or 30x the amount of a 9.8.
