Amazing Spider-Man #135The Punisher has a huge fanbase, several volumes of comics, movies, TV series, and the recent successful Netflix series. Yep, Punisher is here to stay. Can speculators or investors score big money with the second appearance of Punisher? The Punisher is basically Dirty Harry in a spandex skull suit. He might not be the most popular superhero of the Bronze Age; but certainly, he is one of the top five characters at the very least. Normally we would review Amazing Spider-Man #129 for his first appearance and it's astronomical returns. In this case, we are looking at the Punisher's second appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #135. However, the second appearance is staging a bit of a coup and installing itself as a top-dog of the Punisher franchise.

Essentially Amazing Spider-Man #129 has sold as high as $15,500 in grade 9.8 CGC. Now that amount would fill up more than a few long-boxes of Punisher 2099 to be sure. Unfortunately, the contender took ASM #129 out back and played target practice with comparative return trends. Can the second appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #135  actually outperform the first full issue of the Punisher? Let's do an after-action report and find out what happened?

 

Amazing Spider-Man #135 (Long-Term 20 yrs)

Title Grade Last Sale CGC Census Return
Amazing Spider-Man #135 9.9 $20,400 2 +533.5%!!!
9.8 $3,799 30 +99%
9.2 $299 252 +41.7%
6.5 $84 89 +21.7%

 

Amazing Spider-Man #135 (Long-Term 20 yrs)

Amazing Spider-Man #135The second appearance of the Punisher was in Amazing Spider-Man #135 with a script by Gerry Conway and the remarkable John Romita and Ross Andru on pencils. The long-term returns are staggering, even with a potential skew of only two sales in 9.9 Grade. Someone purchased grade 9.9 on Heritage for $3,320 on 2/2005. The next big sale was 14 years later also on Heritage. The price? Same book, 14 years later and it sold for $20,400 11/2019 the same grade. Imagine that, $20,500 is a down payment on a house in most parts of the country. Let us do the math; that is $17,080 over 14 years or $1220 a year! No property taxes, very little maintenance, this was a near-perfect investment. The most shocking thing about Amazing Spider-Man #135 is it is only a second appearance!

Perhaps its time we all gave a little more preference toward the second appearance of characters. Especially major characters from the Bronze to Modern Age.  It clearly has the top numbers vs the first appearance in this match up. I guess that is the rarified air that 9.9 grades exist in. How is the first appearance in terms of returns?

 

 

 

Amazing Spider-Man #129

The first appearance of the Punisher was in Amazing Spider-Man #129. Gerry Conway wrote the script, Gil Kane was the first one to pencil Punisher along with Ross Andru in 1974. This is the first appearance of the Punisher and a small-time supervillain the Jackal. John Romita worked on the inks on this comic book. The highest price paid for Amazing Spider-Man #129 was a whopping $15,500 in grade 9.8 CGC three years ago in 2017. How has this stalwart key held up since?

 

 

Title Grade Last Sale CGC Census Return
Amazing Spider-Man #129 9.8 $15,500 143 +32.7%
9.2 $1920 913 +24.6%
6.5 $890 883 +31.2%

 

Amazing Spider-Man #135Like a Punisher strike to the solar plexus, the returns for Amazing Spider-Man #135 are stunning at the very least. What are we seeing with the second appearance? Why, would it be worth more money than its counterpart (regardless of the 9.9 grade)? Cheaper prices, simply have more buyers; after all, it is only worth about a third of the price. Therefore, it is going to get better trend returns. Something that all speculators should be wary of when you buy a book; is there a group of people that want it and can afford it? That is why GoCollect is very useful in sifting through prices from profit. Think of GoCollect as the IR-sniper rifle that helps improve your speculative score.

 

Amazing Spider-Man #135Conclusion

The cold hard truth, Amazing Spider-Man #135 should be on everyone's radar for when the Punisher series or movie is revived. A few months ago, late in 2019, there were rumors on the internet of Punisher and or Daredevil or both returning. Wouldn't the Punisher reappearing be great? I sure think so. The after-action report on Punisher Amazing Spider-Man #135 beats on return trends, and the 9.9 beats on the gross amount as well vs. ASM #129. Both books should be in your arsenal, speculator or investor doesn't matter, over the long haul both are winners and clearly on target.