Undervalued & Overlooked Comics 1/15 - Golden Age

It’s time as soon as extra for Undervalued and Overlooked Comics! This time we’ll be some Golden Age comics that might look good in any assortment.

Swan Song of the Timely Super-Heroes

The last concern of Sub-Mariner’s first sequence, Sub-Mariner #42, additionally occurs to be the final tremendous-hero comedian revealed by Atlas within the Golden Age. It had been a future for Subby.

He had been featured within the very first of Timely’s tremendous-hero books, Marvel Comics #1. Sixteen years later, he can be the ultimate tremendous-hero to obtain a comic book guide story till Fantastic Four #1.

There are 75 graded copies of Sub-Mariner #42 and so they don’t go up on the market that usually. There have been solely two gross sales in 2022: a 3.0 graded copy promoting in a ComicConnect public sale on March 18 for $518, and a 5.0 promoting a day later for $544 in an eBay public sale. 5.0 is probably the most plentiful grade with 12 graded copies, in order that’s our greatest place to search for tendencies.

The earlier sale occurred in January 2019 when it bought for $566. That’s down 8% over three years.

Clearly, contemplating it’s significance in comedian guide historical past and the downward trending worth, it’s value holding an eye fixed out for a duplicate the following time you see one come up on the market.

Laugh All the Way to the Bank

With our passion so targeted on Marvel and DC comedian books, and sometimes pre-Code horror comics, it may be simple to miss different wholesome elements of the passion, be they struggle, western, romance, or, on this case, Archie comics. Collectors of Archie comics are among the most tried and true you’ll discover within the passion; they know their topic remarkably effectively and are at all times on the hunt in a sector of the gathering universe that has change into more and more uncommon.

Which brings us to Laugh Comics #20. Published in Fall 1946, it was the primary concern in a sequence that might final 40 years. There are solely 29 graded copies within the CGC census. Despite that low census quantity, 4 copies traded arms in 2022. 4.0 is the most typical grade, and now we have a sale recorded on May 27 – a set worth eBay sale for $365.

That’s up 23% from an April 2021 sale for $296. Despite the rise in worth, it’s nonetheless an undervalued guide and ignored by all however Archie collectors. How typically are you able to discover a Golden Age first concern that includes a personality who has been in publication for greater than 80 years for below $500?

Tiny Census for Tiny Hero

Another area of interest space of the passion is collectors of Quality Comics. Well regarded for it’s (pardon the pun) high quality output from 1939 to 1956, a lot of Quality’s most essential characters would discover prolonged lives when DC bought the characters upon the corporate’s demise. Among their most well-known characters are Black Condor, The Ray, Phantom Lady, Blackhawk, Uncle Sam, and, after all, Plastic Man.

Also included in an inventory of eventual DC Freedom Fighters is Doll Man, the primary of Quality’s tremendous-heroes, and in addition the primary in a protracted line of shrinking tremendous-heroes that features the Atom, Ant-Man, and a number of others.

Cover dated December 1939, Feature Comics #27 is Doll Man’s first look. There are a scant 17 graded copies within the CGC census. Of these 17 copies, not a single one has come up on the market in practically two years. The final graded copy to promote was in February 2021 when a 2.0 graded copy modified arms in a Heritage public sale for $1,080.

A earlier sale in September 2019 was for $660, a pleasant 64% rise in worth. If you could find a duplicate in any respect, contemplate your self fortunate, and if you could find low grade copies round $1,000 and mid-grade copies round $2,000, contemplate your self luckier nonetheless.