According to GoCollect's statistics, the "comic boom" peaked in late 2022 (or around September 2022). Ever since then -- nearly a three year period -- comic book sales prices have been declining with no clear signs of a bottom. Even some of the biggest key issues of the Silver Age have lost approximately 20% of their value since September 2022 (but are, importantly, still 35% higher than their pre-COVID highs back in mid-2020 according to GoCollect's Silver Age CPI).
Still, as Jim Cramer says, there's "always a bull market somewhere." As an example, let's take a look at this record setting sale for a CGC 9.6 copy of Journey Into Mystery #85 -- the first appearance of Loki -- which sold for an eye-popping $90,000 on June 29th:
Is it just me, or has it been a few moments since we've talked about a record-setting sale in the comic book market?
Back in 2020 and 2021, during the so-called "comic boom," it seemed like we saw new sales records being set every single week. Of course, we've been stuck in a long-running bear market ever since then with comic book values for Silver, Bronze, Copper, and Modern Age key issues dropping precipitously since 2022.
Could this record-setting $90,000 sale be a leading indicator of a broader turnaround for Silver Age keys in the future?
And there are plenty of reasons why many collectors consider Journey Into Mystery #85 a "grail." Not only does it feature the first appearance of one of the most historically significant Marvel villains -- Loki, who is prominently highlighted on the issue's cover and who has since become one of the most popular villains in the MCU -- but also the first appearances of Heimdall, Asgard, Odin (in cameo), and Balder. This issue establishes much of Thor's mythology in the Marvel universe and is probably the second most important Thor key after Journey Into Mystery #83.
This beautiful 9.6 copy sits at the top of the CGC Census with no copies graded higher (there are a total of four 9.6s on the Census). This particular copy also has white pages making it especially desirable. The previous high sale for any graded copy of Journey Into Mystery #85 occurred in April 2024 for a CGC 9.4 copy; it sold for $84,000 on Heritage Auctions.
The other grades for Journey Into Mystery #85 have mostly been flat in terms of value over the past two years (which is still a strong showing when you consider the rest of the market has been in a downturn), but if you look at one of the most common grades -- a 5.0 -- there's some evidence of an upturn. Specifically, the 30- and 90-day sales averages ($3,500) are substantially higher than the one-year average ($,2773):
After several years of declining sales values for Silver Age key issues, I for one and am hoping that we've finally turned the corner!
