At long last, Hugh Jackman is bringing Wolverine into the MCU, and that’s sending collectors straight to the auction sites. Here’s your market update for Logan’s Bronze Age holy grails.

As of this writing, it has been 24 hours since the enormously crowd-pleasing Deadpool 3 news. Hugh Jackman will suit up again as Wolverine, and fans couldn’t be happier. Sure, there’s still the likelihood that Taron Egerton will take over the role when the full X-Men team hits the MCU, but that is beside the point. Now we’ll finally get to see that much-teased Ryan Reynolds/Jackman bromance on the big screen.

Now that the wolverine is out of the bag, it’s time to watch the prices soar for those legendary keys. 

INCREDIBLE HULK #180

No, Hulk #180 has not reached that holy grail status, but that’s not a bad thing. Certainly, higher grades aren’t dollar-bin finds, but at least you can have Wolverine’s first appearance without having to take out a loan. Traditionally, the most popular grade has been the 8.5, and it’s currently sitting at a $1,600 90-day average. The last sale was on September 1, so we haven’t seen the Deadpool 3 inflation quite yet, but it’s coming. 

The most recent sale of a CGC-graded copy was on September 27 when a 7.0 sold for $1,100, which is impeccable timing considering when the news broke. A day later, raw copies were earning as much as $500.

INCREDIBLE HULK #181

Here it is: the holiest of Bronze Age holy grails, Hulk #181. Complain all you want, first appearance purists, but Wolverine’s full debut is leagues ahead of #180, mostly because he’s on the cover art. 

Between 2020 and 2021, practically every grade was hitting record highs, but the entire market has settled since then, which has been good news for buyers. What’s better news for sellers is that values are on the way back up. 

As you would have assumed, September 28 saw a sales spike. At the top was a 9.2 that brought $10,500, which is in line with most recent sales. There also was a graded 7.5 which sold for $6,400. That happened to be about $700 over the 90-day average. For that matter, even the 9.8 facsimile edition first printing was earning over $100 the same day.

GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1

Of course, there’s no talk of Wolverine grails without mentioning GSX #1. Following Hulk #180-182, this is his fourth overall and second full appearance. The bigger picture is that his inclusion in the X-Men along with the debuts of Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler marked a new beginning for the then-struggling franchise. Still leaning more toward being a villain, Wolverine injected the title with much-needed attitude, and he was forever tied to the X-Men from that day forward. 

Being a grail, GSX #1, even in the lowest of grades, was already pricey. Luckily for buyers, the Wolverine news will impact those Wolverine-specific keys more so than GSX #1, though we are seeing an increase in sales volume. In fact, GSX #1s were moving faster than Hulk #181s. As of Thursday morning, most graded copies were maintaining their 2022 averages. Recent sales included a 9.6 that sold for $12,600 and a 9.2 that went for $8,100. As you might expect, the lower grades were popular as well, ranging from a 4.5’s $2,300 price tag to a $1,500 slabbed 3.0.

THE FLOODGATES ARE OPEN

With the already high values for the Wolverine grails, I wouldn’t expect to see records falling across the board anytime soon. However, the sales volume will continue to swell for these ever-popular key issues despite those lofty sticker prices. The fallout will be a bump for the more affordable Wolverine options, which we will cover in the near future.

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*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not represent advice on behalf of GoCollect.