Lets see how some very expensive books are doing on eBay.
Adventure Comics #40, DC Comics, (7/39), graded by CGC at 8.5 (AP) (heavy restoration) with Off White pages sold on eBay for $10,100.00 on March 28th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 8.5 is $56,625.00. There are no un-restored copies of this book above CGC 7.0 and there are only 2 copies that grade higher restored. The book sold for about 18% of the un-restored guide which tells me the purple labels are still frowned upon. The restoration was extensive though and I’m not big on restoration. I have to go with a good buy on this one since the book is ultra rare and it is one of the nicest copies out there.
Incredible Hulk #181, Marvel Comics, (11/74), graded by CGC at 9.6 with White pages sold on eBay for $4,651.00 on March 26th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $1,450.00. Incredible Hulk #181 is one of the most heavily traded comic books out there and the auction houses seem to have several copies up during each of their monthly auctions so I think that this is a solid eBay performance! The White pages helped. There is a CGC graded 9.9 and quite a few CGC graded 9.8s floating around of this book (34 as of this post). The CGC graded 9.6s are really the entry level high end copies for this book and I think they’ve been holding value very well. I’ll stay neutral on this one.
Tough Kid Squad #1, Timely Comics, (3/42), graded by CGC at 8.5 with Cream to Off White pages sold for $3,716.77 on eBay on April 4th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 8.5 is $9.296.00. I’m really embarrassed right now! I didn’t even know this book existed til I saw this auction. It’s an amazing comic and I want one! It sold for 40% of price guide value and that is a steal. I really think the seller would have done better putting this up with the great Golden Age that comes up on the big Heritage or ComicLink auctions. Who knows? That’s where you may see it next. Advantage buyer.
X-Men #1, Marvel Comics, (9/63), graded by CGC at 9.0 with Cream to Off White pages sold for $$25,100.00 on eBay on March 28th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.0 is $14,600.00. This comic sold for 172% of guide. This was the most expensive comic that has sold recently on eBay and there were a healthy 49 bids. A copy with much better page quality sold for about $3500 more almost a year ago (according to GPA) so I think this is a strong eBay result considering the weak page quality. I’ll stay neutral on this one.
More Fun Comics #101, DC Comics, (1-2/45), graded by CGC at 9.0 with Cream to Off White pages sold for $7,200.00 on eBay on April 4th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.0 is $11,201.00. The book sold for just above 64% of guide. This is another book that should have went the featured auction route amongst other power Golden Age books. It really is a shame that the book underperformed as it did and I do think the buyer lucked in on a super duper deal.
It should be noted that of the 100 most expensive comics listed on eBay in the past 2 weeks only 13 actually sold. The percentage was even worse if you don’t count the ones that bid up from $1. Too many people are throwing big books up at very high ‘buy it nows’ or opening bids and nobody is biting.
Walter Durajlija is an Overstreet Price Guide Advisor and Shuster Award winner. He owns Big B Comics in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
