Yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing with you all, the first chunk of graded books that we recently received back from CGC, which is the leader in comic book grading. You can check that previous piece out with some more detail, below. Otherwise, let’s hop right in.
@blewitt/the-art-of-comic-book-grading-part-1
- Amazing Spider-Man #300
We will start off today’s batch with one of my personal favorites. This is another book that I personally own several copies of as it is near and dear to my heart. This my friends, is Todd McFarlane’s 3rd issue in on his ASM run and it contains not only one of the most iconic covers, but the first full appearance of Venom. I started collecting ASM a couple of years after this came out, and I remember the rush of an aching my first copy of each issue of his tenure on it. To this day, it’s one of my favorite runs of Spidey.
Anywho, this is another blue chip book that should be in any Spidey fan’s collection. We always sell it at the shop in a flash, and I made the pact with myself to submit any copies for grading that are halfway decent looking. This one outside of a couple of question marks, hit that mark.
One thing to note on this book is that it is a newsstand variant. What that means is that this particular copy was not sold through a comic shop but through a newsstand. You can tell by the barcode on the bottom left of the front cover. The direct market edition will have a Spider-Man logo. Most folks don’t care about the difference (such as myself), but the small group that does usually is ok with forking over a little more for a newsstand version. Typically they command more on the market as they are less of them in existence.
I was not expecting a super high grade on this badboy. To be honest I thought it was going to end up around a 7.5-8.5, so the fact that it came in at a 9.2 has me over the moon. Its largest flaw is on its top corner. It’s a bit of a mangled mess with what I think is some production error regarding the pages, and a slight tear. You can see it pronounced in the one photo. The grader showed a bit of mercy on us on this one. Usually it’s the other way around, so I’ll take the leniency. While regular copies in this grade currently are taking in between 500-600 on average, the newsstand version seems to start around 600 and heads up to around 850. I already quoted one of our customers a deal of $750 split between 2 payments. He’s thinking on it…I think he’s going to scoop it up.
- Star Wars #42
On the flip side… I thought this one was going to come back slightly higher. I was thinking this should have been around a 9.0. It a gorgeous & clean looking copy, but the grader had other thoughts. Another newsstand version, this first appearance of Boba Fett in comics is always a hot seller as well at the shop. While 7.5 isn’t disgusting for this book, I am slightly disappointed with the grade. The difference between direct & newsstand is negligible at this grade as both seem to be playing in the same sandbox. I can expect to move this currently for between 125-175. I might stretch it to 200 as Boba stuff has a lot of suitors. This will fly.
- America #8 Jen Bartel Variant
This is another one I nailed properly. A solid 9.8 candidate if I ever saw one, this variant was a 1:25 get that features a pretty depiction of America Chavez. While this book & character aren’t terribly popular at the moment, the artist is. Bartel has a sold fanbase, it’s a pretty and colorful cover, plus it’s a higher ratio variant on a book that most retailers weren’t qualifying on. Perfect storm.
Raw copies seem to be selling for 100-125 clams at the moment. On a scrumptious 9.8 slab, this year there were only 3 sales between 215 and 275. You’d have to go back the year prior to see more copies trading hands. I think these are slowly dying up and I’d expect its bottom to rise throughout the years. I don’t think I’d take less than 300 at present, although I expect this to sit a bit.
- Sonic the Hedgehog #39
We bought a cool Sonic collection a while back and I was stoked to see this in the stack. While I don’t collect Sonic stuff myself, I really appreciate it. Sonic was my jam when I was younger and I always loved the overall IP.
This Archie Comics run is insanely popular decades later and some are highly coveted. This contains the first appearance of Mecha Sonic, and this cover…is simply awesome. It was in nice shape with a few visible flaws, so I wasn’t expecting a 9.8. I just wanted a cool graded Sonic book for display.
There aren’t a ton of graded copies out there. A 9.8 sold for $525 this year, and a 9.4 & 9.2 newsstand each brought in $150 early in the year as well. That’s it! When there are that few comps, you can play around a little. I’d probably aim for $250 currently. I fully expect this to also be gobbled up fairly quickly.
- GI Joe #21 3rd Print
We will end today with a classic. This issue of GI Joe from 1984 is always a hot commodity. Not only does it feature the first appearance of the ever so badass Storm Shadow, but it’s got an iconic cover featuring fan favorite Snake Eyes. Oh…and it’s also known as the “Silent Issue”. That’s right….this book has no dialogue which has helped cement its place in comic book history forever.
There are several printings of this book as they did with lots of the early Joe issues. This 3rd printing in a 9.2, saw 4 sales this year with a canyon between the lowest and highest. 50-200, but I’d aim for around $175 I think.
We will stop here once again and pick up tomorrow with the last remaining few from the batch which will include the first appearance of Spider-Gwen. Peace out homies.
Blewitt