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The Stock Exchange – Saginaw Sizzlers

Published Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:00:08 -0600

Welcome to the first of what I plan to be a weekly look at the blue chip stocks of the comic industry, looking at the budget-busting Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age sales from the previous week. Here are the sales of note for the week of October 31 through November 6, 2011.

A large chunk of the big-ticket items from the past week come from the Saginaw Collection, a pedigree collection from Saginaw, Michigan featuring complete runs of a ton of key Marvel titles. Sparkle City Comics has been listing these exclusively on eBay and they have staggered sales rather than flooding the market all at once. Some of their sales this past week included the following:

Detective Comics #36 – While not a high-grade copy, coming in at a 4.0, this was just the seventh CGC-graded copy to sell in the last three years. The first appearance of Hugo Strange, this issue went for $6,666, 305% more than the last CGC 4.0, which sold back in 2005.
Detective Comics #37 – Also in 4.0, the last pre-Robin issue of Detective sold for $4,650, twice the price it went for in this grade back in 2006.
Captain America Comics #2 – While coming in at just 3.5, this copy also bears the signatures of Stan Lee and Joe Simon, making this a steal (well, relatively speaking) at $3,748.

The Stock Exchange – Saginaw Sizzlers

Thrilling Comics #44 – While appearing in Thrilling, he was known as Doc Savage, but to fans of Alan Moore's Tom Strong, he is known as Tom Savage. Whatever you call him, this cover features him parachuting into Hitler's car and taking his driver down. Coming in at CGC 8.5, this comic sold for $3,538.
Batman #11 – Amongst Bat-collectors, Joker covers are some of the most highly coveted back issues from the Golden Age. This issue features Joker on the cover and appearances by both the Joker and the Penguin inside, and the Saginaw Collection's 7.5 copy sold for $3,527.17.
Superboy #1 – Despite being a Golden Age key, the inflation other Golden Age titles have seen over the past 5-10 years did not touch this sale at all, with their CGC 7.0 copy selling for $3,375, which is less than it sold for in April 2004, and only barely more than the last one in this grade sold, in November 2004 for $3,300.

Flash Comics #103 – This second-to-last issue of the series is a difficult find no matter what the condition, and this collection featured the highest-graded copy, a CGC 9.0, but like the Superboy #1, this book went for a remarkably low price. This issue sold for just $3,550, which might not seem cheap, but this is cheaper than the 8.5 that sold in 2005 for $3,900.
Amazing Spider-Man #122 – Another bargain, the death of the Green Goblin sold for just $668.87 at CGC 9.6, making it the lowest-priced copy selling this year, with one having sold just two months ago for $900.

As for some highlights from some other dealers, first off we have a CGC 7.0 copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, Spider-Man's first appearance, that sold for just $9,500. How ridiculously cheap is that? The only other 7.0 sale this year went for $33,460 back in May, and the two sales last year were for $28,680 and $30,000. The last time this book went for less than $10K in 7.0 was back in November 2003.

Unlike his first appearance, Spider-Man's first issue seems to be doing pretty well at 7.0, with one selling Sunday morning for $10,000, the second consecutive sale at that price for this grade. The price on the Amazing Spider-Man #1 in all grades has been on the rise, and at 7.0 it is selling consistently for $1,000 more than it was last year.

Moving up to the Bronze Age, Incredible Hulk #181 had taken a hit of late price-wise, with 9.6 copies averaging over $5K in 2009, almost $4,300 last year, and less than $4,200 this year, with the most recent sale before this week having been for $3,701. At least for one auction, though, the downturn has ended, with one selling for $4,400. This is a comic that will always remain in demand, so I don't expect the drop in prices to last for long.

With the release of Conan the Barbarian on Blu-Ray and DVD, one might expect prices for the early Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor-Smith issues to be on the rise, but the exact opposite is happening instead. The most recent sale of a high-grade first issue, graded CGC 9.8, was for $3,050, a far cry from the $5,000 price recorded earlier this year for the same grade. At CGC 7.0, yesterday's sale for $91 is the lowest price in this grade in two years, and a VF/NM non-slabbed copy sold for $150, which is a savings of $143 off the average price for the past year if the grading holds up when the book is slabbed.

That said, Conan the Barbarian #24, the first full appearance of Red Sonja, has not taken any such hit, with copies in 9.8 and 9.6 going this week right around the average prices this book has seen all year, coming in at $600 and $171 respectively.

That's it for this week's look – next week, more budget-busters!

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