New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2025 revealed a slew of new information about some of our favorite comic book characters including two Avengers who debuted in the Silver Age: Wonder Man and the Vision. While movie and television reveals at NYCC and San Diego Comic Con don't carry the cache like they used to - and certainly don't drive up comic book values like they did in 2021 - shows like Wonder Man and Vision Quest are still top-tier marketing for key issues like Avengers #9 (1st appearance of Wonder Man) and West Coast Avengers #45 (1st appearance of the White Vision).

Recent sales data shows a bullish trend for both of these issues. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

Avengers #9: 1st Appearance of Wonder Man

This single digit, Silver Age Avengers issue has a great cover that prominently features the first appearance of Wonder Man and is still inexpensive in comparison to some of its peers. Let's take a closer look at the most common grade on the CGC Census - a CGC 4.0 - to see what the sales data tells us. Prior to the "comic boom" of 2021, a 4.0 was selling in the $140 to $170 range. In June 2022, during the tail end of the comic boom, a 4.0 reached an all-time high of $408 before it plummeted in value along with the rest of the comic book market in 2023 and 2024. In my opinion, a 4.0 overcorrected with one copy selling for a measly $92.85 in September 2024, or about 40% below its pre-COVID values.

This drop in value can be partially explained by the grading boom that also began in 2021. In this particular case, according to CGCdata.com, there were only 64 CGC 4.0s on the CGC Census in December 2019, just prior to the comic boom. At that time, the most common grade on the Census was a 7.0 (82 7.0s in 2019). Today, in contrast, there are 224 4.0s. With this dramatic increase in supply of graded comics, it only makes sense that values would also drop.

Hindsight is, of course, 20/20 and it looks like that sale in September 2024 was the bottom for a 4.0. Since that time, a 4.0 has been steadily rising in value; according to GoCollect, the FMV of a 4.0 is $170 with the most recent 4.0 selling for $180 on July 3rd on eBay:

To me, $170 to $180 seems like a reasonable valuation when you consider that 4.0s were selling for nearly the same amount five years ago while also adjusting for inflation.

West Coast Avengers #45: 1st Appearance of White Vision

To me, West Coast Avengers #45 perfectly epitomizes the pandemic-fueled, FOMO-driven "comic boom" of 2021. Along with Silver Surfer #3, I think West Coast Avengers #45 kicked off the infamous boom that began in early 2021. Confined at home for much of 2020, and starving for new streaming content to keep us entertained, fans devoured WandaVision when it was released in January 2021. It was the first follow up from Marvel since Avengers: Endgame and fans couldn't stop talking about the show online. Then things got crazy on eBay when we saw White Vision appear at the very end of episode 8.

You’d think this heavily printed Copper Age book would’ve gone to zero over the past few years since the comic book market has crashed so badly. And indeed this issue has lost about 89% of its value since it reached an all-time high sale of $1,500 in 2021. Still, the data is beginning to show evidence of a comeback with the 30-day sales average of $250 significantly higher than the 90-day average of $185 and the one-year average of $172.

This CGC 9.8 recently sold for $250 on October 19th, its best sale in over a year:

This increase in value is impressive when you consider that back in December 2019, there were only 16 9.8s on the CGC Census; today, there are whopping 329 9.8s. In spite of this this dramatic increase in supply, we're still seeing strong sales for 9.8s which must mean there's still a considerable amount of demand from the market for them.

Will you be watching the Wonder Man mini-series when it comes out?