Clearly the biggest shocker from Marvel's presentation at San Diego Comic Con last week was its reveal that Robert Downey Jr. would rejoin the MCU as Doctor Doom. As a result, Avengers 4 has been renamed from Avengers: Kang Dynasty to Avengers: Doomsday.
This has no doubt sparked an interest in Doctor Doom's key issues. What does this mean for Kang the Conqueror and his first appearance in Avengers #8? Could this be a buying opportunity?
The most common grade of Avengers #8 has lost 83% of its value over the past three years.
Over the past several years, few comics have been on a roller coaster ride like Avengers #8. Since the news about Jonathan Majors, to his inclusion in Loki, and the impact of the comic boom, this book has been doubly impacted by the bear market which began in 2022 and also by Marvel's decision to drop Majors after he was convicted by a jury on two misdemeanor counts in 2023.
This book, which is included in GoCollect's Silver Age CPI, has tumbled 36% across thirteen CGC grades over the past year.
It gets much worse when you look further back in time. For example, let's take a closer look at the value for the most common grade on the CGC Census: a 4.0 (330 copies). Not surprisingly, the value of this book has fallen like a rock over the past two and a half years.
After reaching an all-time high of $1,625 in August of 2021 -- right at the moment when a variant of Kang first appeared in season one of Loki -- a 4.0 most recently sold on eBay for a mere $330. And that sale was actually an improvement on what a 4.0 had been selling for back in the spring when three straight 4.0s sold for less than $275 on eBay. This means that the value of a 4.0 had fallen by roughly 83% over the past few years!
Is a 4.0 of Avengers #8 a buy under $300?
I think there's a good chance that a 4.0 could fall under $300 once again now that we have confirmation that he's no longer the focus of the next Avengers film. If it does, there could be a buying opportunity for the Silver Age key issue. The last time a 4.0 consistently sold for under $300 was way back in 2018 prior to any announcement from Marvel about its plans for Kang on the big screen and well before the pandemic-fueled comic boom struck in early 2020. Prior to the boom, the value of a 4.0 had been steadily increasing in value as it had been selling in the $100 range prior to 2018. If you discount the sales that occurred during the comic boom as anomalies, you might expect this book to be selling in the $400 to $450 range.
There has been a dramatic increase in supply of CGC graded copies of Avengers #8 since 2019.
On the other hand, you do need to consider that there is a much greater supply of 4.0s on the market today. Back in December 2019, just prior to the comic boom, there were only 61 4.0s on the CGC Census. In fact, the most common grade on the Census then was a 6.0. The comic boom and the announcement about Jonathan Majors sparked a flurry of submissions to CGC; today, there are over five times as many 4.0s on the Census in comparison to late 2019.
