A Market on Fire
Vintage comic books may deal in fantasy worlds, but here in the real one, they are serious business.
The hobby right now is burning hotter than Ghost Rider’s flaming skull on the cover of his debut, Marvel Spotlight #5 — a comic from 1972 that originally cost 20 cents and recently sold at auction for $264,000.
For the past year especially, comic books have been making headlines fast and furiously for record-breaking sales. Just when collectors think prices can’t go up further, along comes another comic to shatter the previous highest one.
Last December, the finest known near-mint issue of Batman #1 from 1940 claimed the distinction of being the most expensive Dark Knight comic ever sold when it reached a world-record bid of $1,530,000 — a full week before it even officially headed to auction at Heritage Auctions. On the day of its official sale in January, vigorous bidding pushed the final world-record price to $2.2 million — a sale no doubt bolstered by the fact that this comic is the first appearance of the Joker and Catwoman, it is one of the top five issues in the hobby and it is the sole copy ever to receive a 9.4 grade from the Certified Guaranty Company.
Not to be outdone by a fellow superhero, #1 from 1938, in which Superman makes his debut, sold in April at online auction house for $3.25 million — a record-breaking price for any comic thus far. Not bad for originally being sold for 10 cents. According to , this particular 8.5-graded copy, found buried in a stack of old 1930s movie magazines, had been sold at least three times before, including in 2018 for more than $2 million. Other issues of #1 have also sold for historic prices: in 2014, an issue sold for $3.2 million on eBay.
