Well, that escalated quickly! If you happened to be watching the winter auction over on CominLink.com, you may have noticed a bunch of rare comics going for ridiculous gobs of money. There were some great old Amazing Spider-Man titles, some Uncanny X-men (that I had never seen in 9.8 grades), and there were a bunch of other rare comics that showed the value power of collecting and speculating. There were a few books in the auction that took some huge market strides which I wanted to point out and analyze.
One of the biggest surprises was the rare 9.8 White Page copy of Werewolf by Night #32 that concluded in the winter auction, that ended about a week ago. This book is the first appearance of Moon Knight and highly sought after by collectors. With a Fair Market Value (FMV) of around $18,500, it was extremely shocking to see this auction copy go for $50,000...that equated to more than double the previous record sale for this comic at this grade. I can understand a book moving from $100 to $200, but doubling to $50K was extremely unprecedented. This was hyper-speculation run amok because of Black Panther and other MCU comic book price bumps. Although a great book to own, I can't imagine there is value at that sell price. On the up side...this may be a good sign for lower graded copies of Werewolf by Night #32 to make some big leaps soon as well...buy, buy, buy (For my Mad Comics Money types)! I am still excited to see if Moon Knight is an upcoming addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Another first appearance book that made a good jump over recent sales was Tomb of Dracula #10, featuring the first appearance of Blade the Vampire Slayer. FMV sat at $6,750 and the recent ComicLink sell saw the 9.8 White move for $8,900. I will let my colleague, Norman Robinson III, give you the details in his blog posting here, but it looks like speculators are big on Blade. His future is so bright, he's got to wear shades! Keep an eye on Blade as the speculation grows and settles after the release of End Game.
There were a couple great Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) titles that also showed some great strength on the market. Many early ASM titles saw jumps above FMV, whether they featured a character first appearance or not. This was not surprising, as I have noted, ASM books are a great way to see value grow over time, but I would have expected the release of End Game or Far From Home (or at minimum the build-up a month prior) to spur a price jump in the market. It seems that the only factor that has lifted prices in this instance is good old Supply & Demand! All this is wonderful, unless you are a collector trying to build your collection upward, because these price jumps are pricing many collectors out of the market, as I often say.
Do you feel like the value of graded books is becoming ridiculous? Does it turn you off to the long-term prospects of collecting, or are you happy to cash in? Drop your comments and join in the speculation!
