The comic book market is hot as ever. One of the prized books in our comic book speculative frenzy is Giant-Size X-Men #1. This book sold on eBay for $22,500! It is the first appearance of the new improved modern X-Men.  A book that is so popular the LCS in my town had one copy and sold it inside of one afternoon, it had only been at the store a few hours.

Truly people are looking for these Bronze Age keys and will pay big "quatloos" for them.  The X-Men titles had been overlooked for years. It is a tad bit shocking to see them go for the price of a low-grade Amazing Fantasy #15. What has inspired the increase in price for Giant-Size X-Men #1? Has this happened across the spectrum of comics? Why is the comic book market so hot right now?

Giant-Size X-Men #1

This comic book is the first appearance of the all-new X-Men. These characters are quite possibly the most popular team of superheroes of the 80s and 90s.  The number of first appearances is one of the largest for Marvel in any one book. It has "the first appearance of Colossus, the first appearance of Storm, the first appearance of Nightcrawler, the first appearance of Thunderbird, the first appearance of new X-Men, and the second appearance of Wolverine." The X-Men, finally get, none other than Wolverine on their team.

Chris Claremont

Who created this mass of new superheroes? The capable writer Chris Claremont created the X-Men, but he wasn't alone. He worked with Len Wein, and Roy Thomas, to name a few. In addition to the prolific writing, the comic art was done by the team of Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum, and Werner Rother. Yep, this comic book from 1974 was a good vintage to be sure. The superhero world would never be the same. The Modern X-Men had arrived!

IRS says more stimulus checks will land on March 24 - CBS NewsCurrent Events

The last year has been huge for comics. Business is booming, and speculators are absolutely on fire. Prices, well prices have never been higher. After almost a year of unbridled passion for comics both buying and selling, well, it should be coming to a slowdown at some point. That is, however, not the case.

Speculative Fuse 

In my opinion, the latest round of stimulus checks has lit the fuse for the speculation bomb that is our comic book market. Be careful you're not holding one of those pricey books when the market explodes. After all, that kind of speculation could blow off digits like an M-80 in your hand during July Fourth! What are the return trends in Giant-Size X-Men #1?  Furthermore, how does it compare to a Silver Age key like Silver Surfer #1?

Title Grade Last Sale CGC Census Return
Giant-Size X-Men #1 9.6 $11,000 395 +20%/ +132%
9.8 22,500!!! 201
Silver Age Silver Surfer #1 9.6 $13,200 43 N/A
9.0 $6400 232 +54.4%

Silver Surfer vs. Giant-Size X-Men

It is tempting to simply say that Silver Surfer is victorious and leave it at that. But honestly, 9.6 for Silver Surfer #1 reached as high as $13,200 in 2020. But, now the dominant book is Giant-Size X-Men #1. It has sold on eBay at $22,500 and at a return trend of positive +145%! Further, if you want truly sick numbers check out the lower grades for this book. The prices have climbed +632% over the past four sales from 2015 thru to 12/2020.

Conclusion

Our current comic book market is one of the hottest markets I have ever seen. Many knowledgeable people in the industry are comparing it to the crazy 90s comic book boom and bust. During that time, comic book speculation became an off-the-hook gambling mentality. People chased books with no clue as to the value. Speculators were storing Modern Age books of no value in storage lockers. Books like the X-Men #1 (1991) were simply hunted to the point of delirium. The result was a comic book market collapse and many retail establishments going out of business.

Now, we have a market on stimulation steroids fueled with crazed online buying due to the pandemic.  The key factor for this burst of buying is the added stimulus checks. How will this end? Who knows? I definitely believe history will not repeat itself as speculators are a tad savvier than they used to be. That said, I predict within a year everything will be relatively back to normal (God willing). Hopefully, we should see this level of speculation subside. Either that, or books like Giant-Size X-Men #1 will be approaching the $100K barrier. At this point, nothing would shock me in comic book speculation except the level of denial for people that think it can go on forever.