A Comic that “Started the Marvel Age” Didn’t Live Up to Its Fantastic Name at Auction

Collecting historically important comic books can be one of the most expensive hobbies for anyone who takes it seriously. Just like Pokemon cards and vintage action figures, comic books from the Golden and Silver Age of the medium can fetch amounts that put them well beyond the reach of casual buyers, with several having sold for millions of dollars in recent years. When it comes to Marvel Comics, there is one issue in particular that comic book legend Stan Lee often proclaimed as the story that “started the Marvel Age” of comic books, and that is Fantastic Four #1, which debuted in 1961 and featured Marvel’s first superhero team before the Avengers became a big deal. Yet in a recent auction, a copy of this very comic failed to live up to expectations, proving that every collectible is only worth as much as the last person in the room is willing to pay for it.

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During Heritage Auctions‘ most recent comic book auction on September 28,Fantastic Four #1appeared among the lots that included issues from many of Marvel and DC’s biggest characters. This particular example, graded CGC VG 4.0, became one of those occasions when the estimates and previous sales values did not line up with the hammer price on the day. Previous examples within the same grading level have sold for up to $18,000 and Overstreet’s guide has the issue listed with a valuation of around $16,000. For a comic that is among the most important in Marvel’s history, it is therefore surprising that the final sale price was just $11,224 including buyer’s premium, a whole $5,000 below expectations. Although any five-figure sum paid for a small book that was originally bought for pocket money is impressive, it is hard not see such a difference in price as a reminder that no comic books are guaranteed to live up to their valuations if no one present wants to buy it.

The Marvel Comic That Defined the Universe

The price of a comic book is often just a flex of the amount of money collectors are willing to throw into the ring in order to add a rare and iconic issue to their collections. However, the sale price of Fantastic Four #1 is not something that changes the significance of this issue in the grand scale of Marvel Comics. Created by Lee and Jack Kirby, the issue introduced readers to Marvel’s first family of Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm, sharing the story of how they became the Fantastic Four before pitting them against Mole Man. With its cover image of the team fighting Giganto – a scene that was recreated for the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduction of the foursome – the issue comes in at number three on Overstreet’s Top 50 Silver Age Comics, putting it among the best of the best.

The reason this sale did not quite manage to live up to expectations comes down to its condition and the relatively large number of similar examples that are available to buy frequently at auctions by Heritage and others. While some comics from around the same period are only available as one of maybe a hundred with similar gradings, this issue featuring the Fantastic Four is one of 204 that have been graded 4.0 in the CGC consensus, while a further 623 have been graded higher. This is the kind of detail that can influence the type of bidders it can attract, and more importantly the ones who will maybe skip the auction in favor of waiting for a better copy coming up at a later date. Fantastic Four #1 is still one of the most influential and important of its age, but the fact that the same comic will not be too far away from its next sale – along with several defects such as page wear and tear and creasing – is something that may well have ensured that this auction ended with a minor defeat for the seller, who probably expected a little more from the sale.

The Many Deaths of the Fantastic Four, Ranked

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