A massive focused auction just ended on ComicLink. There’s been lots of buzz on the net about this auction. Most forums are complaining about how poorly most of the comics did. Actually I thought a lot of the results were strong and I’ll go on record as saying that we needed the brakes to come on a bit. You can’t just go overpay for something on one site then put it up on another and expect to double your money. You know people thought the real estate market would keep climbing forever, leveraged based on that assumption and helped bring on the big financial meltdown of 2008. So let’s everybody get real! Please!
There’s too much good stuff for one post so I’ll do one for each era. Today I’ll review some Silver Age results; tomorrow I’ll go over some Bronze Age highlights. Yesterday we reviewed some Golden Age results.
Strange Tales #159, Marvel Comics (8/67), graded by CGC at 9.8 with White pages sold for $10,101.00 on ComicLink on February 17th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $100.00. Origin Nick Fury retold. Highest grade. Wow! Over 101 times guide for this book for me is the highlight of the auction.
Tales of Suspense #57, Marvel Comics (9/64), graded by CGC at 9.6 with White pages sold for $15,027.00 on ComicLink on February 18th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $700.00. Intro Hawkeye. 2nd highest graded. Over 21 times guide for a 9.6 that isn’t even the best copy out there? Super strong result for this book.
Showcase #22, DC Comics (9-10/59), graded by CGC at 8.5 with Cream to Off White pages sold on ComicLink for $17,250.00 on February 17th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 8.5 is $5,099.00. 2nd highest graded. The grade is nothing special, the page quality is inferior and yet it still gets well over 3 times guide. A very, very strong result for this book.
Incredible Hulk #1, Marvel Comics (5/62), graded by CGC at 9.0 with White pages sold on ComicLink for $64,000.00 on February 17th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.0 is $21,000.00. 3rd highest grade. Just over 3 times guide. Still the toughest Marvel Key to score and the result reflects this. Look for Hulk to overtake Amazing Spider-Man #1 as Marvels #3 book (you won’t see a Spidey #1 9.0 getting 3 times guide).
X-Men #1, Marvel Comics, (9/63), graded by CGC at 9.4 with Off White to White pages sold on ComicLink for $101,002.00 on February 18th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $22,000.00. 3rd highest graded. Everybody was waiting to see if the book would match the Mound City auction result. It did and the bar has now been set very high for a 9.4 of this book.
It should be noted that 2 very prominent comics did not sell because they did not meet reserve. The Curator Copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 graded CGC 9.0 (OW/W) bid up to $135,000.00 but it was not enough to meet reserve. A very nice Showcase #4 graded CGC 9.2 (OW) bid up to $51,000.00 but did not meet reserve.
Tune in tomorrow for a review of some Bronze Age books from this auction.
Walter Durajlija is an Overstreet Price Guide Advisor and Shuster Award winner. He owns Big B Comics in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
