With the premiere of James Gunn's Superman rapidly approaching (July 11th), it's a good time to check in with GoCollect's Superman Collectible Price Index (CPI). As a reminder, the Superman CPI consists of 36 of the most important Superman key issues from Action Comics #1 all the way to Action Comics #689.
Is the hype (or lack thereof) surrounding Gunn's film having any impact on the CPI?
(For purposes of this discussion, we won't be discussing Action Comics #1 and Superman #1 since these two books are so heavily weighted and make up a huge portion of the Index's performance; in other words, as these two books go, so goes the entire Index.)
Over the past ten years, the Superman CPI is up 52.8% producing a solid ROI. Notably, we can observe a leap in value towards the tail end of the "comic boom" in late 2021 and early 2022, but unlike most of the comic book market, there's no evidence of this CPI's bubble bursting.
Instead of entering a bear market over the past year, the index is up 0.4%. While that may not sound very impressive, the Index has actually held up pretty well when you consider the overall market has fallen dramatically over the past three years. It certainly helps that nearly half of the Index is made up of rare Golden Age key issues that are generally immune to the volatility of the comic book market.
Adventure Comics #210: Up nearly 11% over the past year.
This late Golden Age book is outperforming the Index as a whole over the past year, and we know why -- this issue includes the first appearance of Krypto, Superman's superdog, who was featured prominently in the Superman teaser trailer.
Krypto, who was Kal-El's pet while they were on Krypton, was sent to Earth by Jor-El using a prototype of the spaceship that would eventually bring his son to Earth. Based upon his appearance in the trailer, and Gunn's well-known love for animals, collectors are clearly expecting him to play a big role in the film.
Silver Age Keys: Underperforming the Index as a whole.
While the Golden Age books in this Index are performing well, the same can't be said for the Silver Age issues. The Brave & the Bold #28 (1st appearance of Justice League), Action Comics #242 (1st appearance of Brainiac), Superboy #68 (1st appearance of Bizarro), and Superman #99 (first race between Superman and the Flash) are all down over the past year.
None of these issues experienced dramatic drops in value (small dips of around 2%), but they are underperforming the Index as a whole. This is a little surprising because even the Modern Age key issues included in the Index are rising in value. For instance, Superman: Man of Steel #18 (1st full appearance of Doomsday) is up over 50% over the past year:
All-Star Comics #36: Up 85% over five years
Let's take a deep dive into one of the Golden Age books that is performing particularly well: All-Star Comics #36. Over the past five years, this book is up a robust 85% outperforming the Index as a whole. It's seen price increases across 12 of the 15 grades that contribute to the CPI:
Even with this strong ROI, this Golden Age book still feels undervalued to me. While it may not include any major first appearances, this is the FIRST time Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman -- the DC Trinity -- appear in the same story together and on the same cover. I personally prefer this issue over several comparable books: All-Star Comics #3 (1941; first appearance of Justice Society of America); The Brave & the Bold #28 (1960; first appearance of Justice League of America), and Justice League #1 (1960). In my opinion, this book has by far the best cover and is the only one that features Batman and Superman.
This book is also exceedingly rare; there are only 99 universal blue labels on the CGC Census. And yet, even in higher grades, this book feels cheap. For instance, the FMV of a CGC 7.0, which is in the top 21.2%, is still only $3,400:
In comparison, The Brave & The Bold #28, a Silver Age book, is much more expensive. This is surprising considering that 1,378 universal blue labels exist on the CGC Census. The FMV of a CGC 5.5, which is in the top 21%, is $5,000 or about 68% higher than the FMV of a CGC 7.0 of All-Star Comics #36.
