What's the Most Valuable Comic You Own? And what is it worth?


Gareth

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Just an idea I had. Also, is there an easy way to determine whether or not you own any valuable comics?

It's been a while since I really graded any of my books, but I have a few in the three-digit range the last time I looked.

There are two ways to determine it: have them appraised by someone who knows what they're doing (most likely a LCS owner with a very good reputation for this kind of thing, and there are not a lot of those people out there), or take it to CGC, where they will seal it forever into a plastic case and turn it into an object, never to be read again.

You might be able to do it yourself, using the Overstreet Guide and eBay, if you are really honest with yourself about what constitutes Good/Very Good/Fine/Very Fine/Near Mint, but that is a very difficult thing to determine and will take a lot of time and energy.

Alternatively, I've found that going to milehighcomics.com, seeing what they charge for an issue, and then figuring that yours is about 75% of whatever that number is gives you at least a rough idea.

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Also, rough guidelines:

Older is better than newer. Golden Age, obviously. Silver Age, almost as obviously, especially but not limited to the Big Two. Anything released from 1985-ish onwards might as well be wet leaves.

First appearances by popular characters generally command more than issues surrounding them.

Number one issues are not the automatic cash windfall they used to be. Neither are anniversary issues, unless there's something unusual or noteworthy about them.

The glib and unhelpful (but nevertheless accurate) advice I have is that a comic is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Something like, say, Iron Man #190 is not particularly valuable, but if you run into someone who's a completist for Micheline/Layton Iron Man and this is one he's missing, he'll pay more for it than someone else.

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I used to have two copies of Amazing Spider-Man #300. It's the first appearance of Venom, the final (until recently) appearance of Spidey in the black costume, and an early Todd McFarlane Spider-Man story. I sold one of the copies about ten years ago for over $600, at a time when all three of those things were in fairly high demand. The market's cooled quite a bit since then, but it's still not a bad comic to have.

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Ooh. I hope you got a decent price on ASM #129.

And these prices can fluctuate wildly. I was once offered $300 for X-Factor #6 (first full appearance of Apocalypse), and for some reason I didn't follow through on it. I'd be lucky to get a tenth of that now.

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The glib and unhelpful (but nevertheless accurate) advice I have is that a comic is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Something like, say, Iron Man #190 is not particularly valuable, but if you run into someone who's a completist for Micheline/Layton Iron Man and this is one he's missing, he'll pay more for it than someone else.

Along those lines, I also once sold Spawn #1-100 for a small fortune. However, anyone willing to dive in the quarter bins would have found them for a fraction of the price I sold them for.
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The glib and unhelpful (but nevertheless accurate) advice I have is that a comic is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Something like, say, Iron Man #190 is not particularly valuable, but if you run into someone who's a completist for Micheline/Layton Iron Man and this is one he's missing, he'll pay more for it than someone else.

Along those lines, I also once sold Spawn #1-100 for a small fortune. However, anyone willing to dive in the quarter bins would have found them for a fraction of the price I sold them for.

That is very true. I sold a huge chunk of my collection a while back, and I discovered that people would pay more for a full run than they would for each issue individually. Especially for Vertigo, for some reason. I used to collect Sandman Mystery Theatre, and (for example) I could sell issues 1-4 individually for $5 a pop, but I could sell all four issues as a lot and get $35-$40 for it. It was wild.

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Which is actually good news for someone willing to do the extra work in tracking down single issues; you can get them fairly inexpensively.

Also, I'm obviously not clairvoyant, but I'd bet anything that comics coming out now will be worth something someday. With people switching to trades and digital, fewer and fewer physical copies of single issues are selling, meaning there will be a lot less of them on the market later on.

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The Gambit thing, I'm pretty sure I way overcharged for.

Even five years earlier, I would say that $75 for the first Gambit would sound about right, but by 2003 we as a nation had all come to the realization that Gambit sucks. However, never underestimate a fanboy's willingness to spend his money.

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  • 2 years later...

My friend for a little while was into collecting CGC comics before he died. And since he was sick, I kind of just got into it with him to spend time with him. So as a result I have a few CGC graded comics. Mostly from the 80s because I love the look of the covers and I wanted to actually display stuff that I thought looked cool.

 

Daredevil 181: Death of Elektra, Awesome Frank Miller Cover.

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Uncanny X-men 141-142: Days of Future Past

X-Men_v1_141.jpg

Wolverine #1

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Wolverine #10 signed by Stan Lee & Claremont, Len Wein, and one other, I got the book for free in great condition when I bought Wolverine #1, but then paid for the CGC and signing.

wolverine10.jpg

 

Finally Incredible Hulk #340 signed by Todd McFarlane, this was my friend's that we sent off to CGC (with the one above plus his Fantastic Fours 25/26), but he passed away before we got it back so I kept it, for myself, as the last gift he gave me.

incredible-hulk-340.jpg

He had a bunch, I can't fucking remember them all but he had FF 25/26, the Spidey Venom one, and a few other Spidey ones, FF ones. Thankfully I got the FF 25/26 signed by Lee delivered to my house and I was able to give them to him a week before he died. Unfortunately, his girlfriend raided his house and took all his stuff though leaving nothing behind for the rest of us (including his mom).

Edited by elnino14
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