Comic Book Price Guide

A Short History

After World War II there was a big "to do" about comic books causing juvenile delinquency. A famous book Seduction of the Innocent by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and the subsequent Senate Subcommittee investigation brought about the comic book industry’s self-regulating Comics Code Authority. The result was a predominance of superhero comic books. The campy and popular 60's Batman TV series created a "bat craze" while the characterizations of those daring men and women in tights improved.

R. Crumb's Keep on Truckin’ and the underground comics of the late 60's and 70's were followed by the infusion of Japanese mangas and output from independent publishers like Dark Horse that enriched the industry.

Graphic novels, such as Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus: A Survivor's Tale, have helped legitimize comics. Hollywood adaptations like Catwoman, Daredevil, The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Hellboy, the X-Men and Spider-Man movies have been produced at an accelerating pace, keeping comics in the public eye.

Two Sotheby’s Prices

Several years ago, in June 2000, Clark Kent and Peter Parker went up for auction at Sotheby’s. The outcomes were pretty spectacular.

• Superman Action Comics No. 1, June 1938, DC Comics. The first appearance of Superman. Good to Very Good condition. $74,350.

• Spider-Man Amazing Fantasy No. 15, August 1962, Marvel Comics Group. The first appearance of The Amazing Spider-Man. Near mint condition. $55,375.

Comic Book Price Guide Recommendations

You can easily surf the internet to find comic book stores that describe their grading systems for determing comic book prices. The Web can also be used to compare retail prices. The Internet Comic Book Exchange is an auction house for comics. At Mile High Comics, a large, well-known comic book store, you can also read Tales From the Database, Chuck Rozanski’s fascinating column about the comic book industry. These articles include the story of his purchase of the Mile High/Edgar Church collection as well as the Mile High II Collection of 1.5 million comic books.

Bookstores near you also stock comprehensive comic book price guides. The two important ones are:

Comics Buyer's Guide Standard Catalog of Comic Books

Written by John Jackson Miller, Maggie Thompson, Peter Bickford and Brent Frankenhoff, this is a massive guide book put out each year by Comics Buyer’s Guide. Comics Buyer’s Guide, known as CBG, is also a monthly magazine about comic books that began as a weekly in 1971. They publish Comic Book Checklist & Price Guide too.

The CBG website has information about magazine subscriptions as well as a plethora of other useful comic book stuff like sales charts, forums, and an index to past issues of Comics Buyer's Guide and The Buyer's Guide to Comic Fandom.

The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide

This older guide book by Robert M. Overstreet was the standard for years. Their publisher’s website, Gemstone Publishing, also publishes Disney and EC comics.

CGC Comics

CGC Comics Guaranty LLC is a company that grades and prices comic books so that there is an industry-wide standard. You often see these slabbed comics, sealed in thick plastic protective containers, at comic book conventions. Comic book stores can be contacted about this service or you can send your special comics to CGC directly. Their website includes a glossary, comic book gallery, and a convention calendar. This third-party grading method has become so pervasive that GPAnalysistracks CGC comic book sales. In fact, many online comic book stores have forms for CGC Comics.

Official Comic Book Web Sites

• Dark Horse Comics
• DC Comics
• Marvel Entertainment