Welcome to Comic Book Insider for February 24th, 2022 – FREE edition. Each week we give you the scoop on undervalued, mispriced and hidden gems in alternative and fractional investing.
Table of Contents
Comic Books performance last week
Auctions
Heritage just finished another impressive weekly auction with an Amazing Fantasy #15 leading the way. A CGC 3.0 sold on February 20th for $48,000.
This is up 29% from when a CGC 3.0 last sold at Heritage, and that copy had a superior off-white to white page rating from CGC, making this sale even more impressive.
One sold in Aug 2021 for $31,200, representing a 54% increase.
A little over a year ago, copies of this grade could be acquired for under $15,000, like this copy from Heritage Auctions. It has the same exact grade, and sold for $14,700, showing a 227% increase in that period.
Incredible Hulk #181 CGC 7.0 was sold at Heritage on February 20th for $5,760, up from $5,280 in January but perfectly flat from last summer when a CGC 7.0 also sold for $5,760.
This time last year, a copy with the same grade sold for $4,680, showing a year-over-year increase of 23%. Not a bad return, but not as impressive as the higher grades.
Over on eBay, an All Star Comics #8 CGC 5.0 sold for $93,500, representing an 86% increase since the last sale in this grade. This issue has been gaining popularity as it is the first appearance of Wonder Woman.
It’s worth noting that Goldin had a CGC 5.5 that ended Wednesday night, and it went for $61,200.
Our take?
While mid and lower-end comics continue to stay flat while the high-end blue-chips rise, it looks like lower grades of the key comics are starting to catch up to the higher grades in terms of appreciation.
Comic Books dropping this week
Auctions
Lots going on this week, including these sales that just wrapped up at Goldin:
- Superman #1 CGC 3.0 went for a whopping $720,000
- Incredible Hulk 181 CGC 9.8 White Pages sold for $98,400 this morning. This is a good comp for the highest grade available of a key comic.
- And it’s not just comics from the ‘40s and ‘50s drawing the big dollars; this TMNT #1 CGC 9.8 ended up going for $264,000.
Auctions that are still open
Comic Link has their big Winter Featured Auction underway with a few days of bidding left, and it has something for everyone. Some strong mid to high-end comics with a few standouts:
- One of interest is a Suspense Comics #3 CGC 6.5. This is not a restored copy and represents one of the top 3 ever graded by CGC.
- Also, a Fantastic Four #5 CGC 9.2 that’s already over $120,000 and doesn’t end till March 2nd
Other industry news
Rally recently announced that they’d acquired Batman #1 CGC 8.0 via a private transaction brokered by Goldin. This copy is the Larsen copy, and it recently sold at Goldin for $1,440,000.
Rally has purchased it for $1,360,000 with $440,000 in retained equity for a $1,800,000 offering price. The price certainly seems high at the time, but we will keep an eye on the market.
A decent comp just went under the hammer at Goldin: a Batman #1 CGC 5.0 so for $510,000.
