Comictrend’s Marvel Modern Age Index was the star performer for 2012, outshining the Silver and Bronze Age indexes. In fact, the latter indexes had ho-hum years. In a year when the Avengers smashed box office records and many high profile Silver Age auctions captured collector attention, the Modern Age ended up stealing the spotlight.
Here’s the 2012 performance summary:
The chart below sets the starting value for each index to $100 for an apples-to-apples comparison:
Silver Age
The Marvel Silver Age Very Fine Index, which includes all of Marvel’s big #1 issues released between 1956 – 1970 in the 7.0 to 8.5 grades, finished unchanged for the year. Well, that’s true but not the whole story. Right before and after the Avengers movie premiered, Avengers related titles saw their auction values spike higher. As I wrote last May, Avengers #1 auctions settled on average 22% higher after the movie released. Avengers excitement boosted the Silver Age Index to a 10% gain for the year by July. However, values quickly fell in the second half of the year after the hype faded. I plan on investigating this closer in a future article.
Bronze Age
The Marvel Bronze Age Near Mint/Mint Index fell 9.3% in 2012. As I wrote here and here, the Bronze Age has experienced a lot of pain and suffering over the last few years. In order for this index to show some solid gains, X-Men #94, Incredible Hulk #181, Giant-Size X-Men #1, and Amazing Spider-Man #129 need to see some firm auction prices. The good news is that all are showing evidence of bottoming.
Modern Age
Why this year? I don’t know. But Modern Marvel is where it’s at. Just take a look:
If anyone has any insight, please share!
