Comic Book Gold – How to Spot Valuable Comic Books
Do you want to know if your comic book is worth some real money?
Maybe you’ve acquired a book from a relative, found a comic in an attic, flea market, estate sale, garage sale or while cleaning out the house? Is there a quick way to decide whether it is valuable or not?
While no list is exhaustive, in this article I’ll give you some things to look for that may point to some real comic book treasure!
Here’s the list:
First Issues – this is the most common characteristic most people look for. “Hey, it’s a number 1!” The older the comic book, the more this holds true. If you have a comic from the 1940’s to the 1970’s, there is a fairly good chance it is worth something
First Appearances or Origin Issues – First Superman? Action Comics 1. First Batman? Detective Comics #27. First Spider-man? Amazing Fantasy #15. See the trend here? The first issue of a comic book is not always the first appearance of the character. You may be holding a comic that looks worthless but actually holds a lot of value! Make sure you check the price guides (as a research tool) to see if the comic book is historically important.
Big Name Artist – Big name artists also can bring in big bucks. Their first artwork and also their “runs” in specific titles can be worth more than the surrounding issues.
Collecting Comic Book Price Guides
One subset of comic book collecting that is often overlooked is the collecting of comic book price guides themselves. The other night I was thumbing through my tattered copy of the First Edition of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and it is a lot of fun to go “back in time” to the early days of comic book collecting.
The introduction to the price guide written by Robert Overstreet is a big departure from the state of the hobby today. In many ways it is an even more honest assessment of the accuracies and inaccuracies of the guide than you currently read. It was also fun to read his statements about how the condition of a comic book was starting to be important to pricing! The first edition (volume 1) presented prices for each issue in “Mint”,”Fine” and “Good” condition.
Want to see how far comic book values have come since 1970? Well, according to the guide you could pick up a copy of Action Comics #1 in “mint” for the low price of $300! Compare that to the Action Comics 1 sale earlier this year.
Want an X-men #1? How about $6 for a mint copy!
One side note about these old price guides. Just like old comic books, these price guides can be quite expensive and collectible themselves. Click on the link below to see some of the current going prices for the First Edition of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. Be careful, there is a first and second printing of Vol. 1.
Adventure Comics #40 Sells for $20,315
Adventure Comics #40 CGC 7.0 (Apparent), one of the ten most valuable comic books according to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, recently sold at Heritage Auction Galleries for $20,315. This issue features the first appearance of the Sandman.
