Closet Comic Book Gold – The Uncanny X-men

by admin on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 | No Comments

In this edition of closet comic book gold we’ll look at one of the most popular superhero teams of all time, the X-men.

Now you may be saying, “hey, everyone knows about the X-men, that’s no secret” but that is why I am covering them – hang with me for a few moments.

The wonderful thing about the X-men is they are so popular that almost every collector over the last 20-30 years probably has some of the title in their collections. The amazing part is they are still pretty valuable. What we’ll do today is tell you about some later year issues that could be glossed over but are really the gems of the run. If you were to sell you may actually receive what you would consider a “good” price for your comics, but are really being ripped off because you have some “closet gold” issues!

Okay, let’s look at the issues I’m talking about (and keep in mind these are going to be 1980’s and on):

Uncanny X-men 201 – Most people focus on first issues and “anniversary numbers” like issue 200. But 201? What’s so important about that? Well in this case we have the first supposed appearance of Cable as a baby (baby Nathan). Also, it is the first issue for popular artist Whilce Portacio on the X-men. It is listed in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide for 3x the price of surrounding comics!

Uncanny X-men 212 and 213 – Wolverine versus Sabretooth in the Mutant Massacre storyline. Also keep a lookout for 210 and 211 for the beginning of the storyline. Not much more to say here, they are popular issues and go for about 4x the price of issue 214.

Uncanny X-men #244 – First Jubilee. A key character in the X-men universe and stands out from the crowd in price – by about 4x the surrounding issues.

Uncanny X-men 248 – First Jim Lee art on the X-men, this book again guides for about 4x the price of surrounding issues. Beware of the second printing though, it is worth much less.

Uncanny X-men #266 – First full appearance of Gambit. This issue has been very popular over the years and has seen a recent upsurge in popularity due to his inclusion in the X-men Origins: Wolverine movie. Recent CGC 9.8 copies have sold for $160-$200 and up to $450 this past year. Wow!