Three sales of one grade, nine years apart, and two hundred and fifty-six dollars between the top and the bottom. Adventure Comics 247 value may be the most stable figure I have printed.
It is the first appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes, from April 1958, in what was meant to be a one-off Superboy story.
A one-off that ran for fifty years
Three teenagers from the future turn up to test Superboy, and the story was written as a single installment with no plan behind it. The Legion came back by demand, took over this title, and ran in one form or another into the 2010s.
The comic itself is a late-fifties DC in an anthology title, which means print runs were reasonable but nobody kept them. A hundred and sixty-six documented sales across twenty-four years is thin, and it is thinnest exactly where you would expect: at the top.
It is also worth separating from the Legion’s many later first issues and relaunches. Every one of those is an ordinary comic. This is the one.
To identify it: 10 cents, April 1958, no bar code, and Superboy on the cover with three unfamiliar figures.
The most stable grade on this site
This book has never appeared in CGC’s auction reporting, so none of these prices links out. Heritage supplied all but one.
| Grade | Result | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 8.5 | $19,200 | Heritage Auctions, February 2019 |
| CGC 8.0 | $14,400 | Heritage Auctions, April 2025 |
| CGC 8.0 | $11,400 | Heritage Auctions, March 2020 |
| CGC 9.0 | $11,352 | Heritage Auctions, August 2011 |
| CGC 8.0 | $10,755 | Heritage Auctions, July 2012 |
| CGC 7.5 | $10,456 | Heritage Auctions, August 2017 |
| CGC 7.5 | $10,260 | eBay, May 2026 |
| CGC 7.5 | $10,200 | Heritage Auctions, November 2018 |
| CGC 8.5 | $10,158 | Heritage Auctions, May 2008 |
| CGC 8.0 | $10,158 | Heritage Auctions, February 2013 |
The 7.5 line is the reason for this page. $10,456 in August 2017, $10,200 in November 2018, $10,260 on eBay in May 2026. Nine years, three venues between them, and a spread of two hundred and fifty-six dollars.
For comparison, the 8.0 half a grade above it has moved considerably over the same period: $10,158 in February 2013, $11,400 in March 2020, $14,400 in April 2025. Up about forty percent.
And the 8.5 above that is the volatile one, at $10,158 in May 2008 and $19,200 in February 2019, nearly double across eleven years with nothing in between.
So this book gets steadier as you go down, which is the opposite of the usual pattern and unusually convenient. If you own a 7.5, I can tell you what it is worth with more confidence than almost any other figure on this site.
The gap between grades is worth reading too. The 8.0 at $14,400 in April 2025 sits about forty percent above where the 7.5 has been sitting, and the 8.5 at $19,200 in February 2019 is a third above that again. Half a grade is worth real money on this book at every step.
And there is a single 9.0 result, $11,352 in August 2011, which is below what an 8.0 brought in 2025. Fourteen years is long enough that the higher grade tells you nothing about today, and I would ignore it entirely when pricing.
As with everything on this site, those figures come through CGC’s reporting of other companies’ auctions and Heritage’s own published results. GoCollect and PriceCharting track Adventure Comics #247 independently, and if their numbers disagree with mine it is worth finding out which of us is wrong.
Adventure Comics #247 value in each grade
166 sales tracked back to 2002; here are the three freshest in every grade.
| Grade | Sold for | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 9.0 | $11,352 | Heritage Auctions, August 17, 2011 |
| CGC 8.5 | $19,200 | Heritage Auctions, February 21, 2019 |
| CGC 8.5 | $10,158 | Heritage Auctions, May 22, 2008 |
| CGC 8.5 | $4,600 | Heritage Auctions, October 12, 2002 |
| CGC 8.0 | $14,400 | Heritage Auctions, April 30, 2025 |
| CGC 8.0 | $11,400 | Heritage Auctions, March 5, 2020 |
| CGC 8.0 | $10,158 | Heritage Auctions, February 21, 2013 |
| CGC 7.5 | $10,260 | eBay, May 8, 2026 |
| CGC 7.5 | $10,200 | Heritage Auctions, November 15, 2018 |
| CGC 7.5 | $10,456 | Heritage Auctions, August 10, 2017 |
| CGC 7.0 | $9,600 | Heritage Auctions, March 5, 2024 |
| CGC 7.0 | $8,800 | eBay, August 10, 2022 |
| CGC 7.0 | $9,000 | Heritage Auctions, April 1, 2021 |
| CGC 6.5 | $7,200 | Heritage Auctions, December 13, 2024 |
| CGC 6.5 | $6,000 | Heritage Auctions, November 15, 2018 |
| CGC 6.5 | $8,365 | Heritage Auctions, November 17, 2017 |
| CGC 6.0 | $7,500 | eBay, December 2, 2025 |
| CGC 6.0 | $999 | eBay, February 20, 2025 |
| CGC 6.0 Conserved | $4,450 | eBay, July 23, 2022 |
| CGC 5.5 | $4,636 | Heritage Auctions, May 14, 2026 |
| CGC 5.5 | $6,750 | eBay, February 7, 2024 |
| CGC 5.5 | $5,700 | eBay, July 1, 2022 |
| CGC 5.0 | $4,495 | eBay, April 25, 2026 |
| CGC 5.0 | $5,975 | eBay, February 5, 2026 |
| CGC 5.0 | $1,545 | eBay, January 20, 2026 |
| CGC 4.5 | $2,233 | eBay, May 22, 2026 |
| CGC 4.5 | $2,838 | eBay, September 16, 2024 |
| CGC 4.5 | $3,600 | Heritage Auctions, January 2, 2022 |
| CGC 4.0 | $3,000 | eBay, April 20, 2025 |
| CGC 4.0 | $2,500 | eBay, December 7, 2024 |
| CGC 4.0 | $1,800 | eBay, November 4, 2024 |
| CGC 3.5 | $2,325 | eBay, February 23, 2026 |
| CGC 3.5 | $1,780 | eBay, October 7, 2024 |
| CGC 3.5 | $1,833 | eBay, July 29, 2024 |
| CGC 3.0 | $1,725 | eBay, July 27, 2026 |
| CGC 3.0 | $1,560 | Heritage Auctions, December 2, 2025 |
| CGC 3.0 | $1,800 | eBay, November 19, 2025 |
| CGC 2.5 | $1,700 | eBay, June 28, 2026 |
| CGC 2.5 | $1,007 | Heritage Auctions, May 14, 2026 |
| CGC 2.5 | $1,098 | Heritage Auctions, May 14, 2026 |
| CGC 2.0 | $933 | eBay, May 1, 2026 |
| CGC 2.0 | $736 | eBay, January 6, 2026 |
| CGC 2.0 | $1,450 | eBay, July 9, 2025 |
| Raw | $641 | Heritage Auctions, July 23, 2026 |
| Raw | $500 | eBay, May 28, 2026 |
| Raw | $1,149 | eBay, April 22, 2026 |
Every row above is a documented sale, verifiable in Heritage’s public Adventure Comics issue index and in CGC’s published auction reporting. No grade above 7.0 has more than four sales behind it, which makes the 7.5 lane’s consistency all the more surprising.
Ten sales, and a wide spread
The record thins out badly under 7.0. Ten sales in eighteen months is not much to work from, so treat what follows accordingly.
They run: a 6.0 at $7,500 in December 2025 and another at $999 in February 2025, a 5.5 at $4,636 in May 2026, three 5.0 copies at $5,975, $4,495, $4,300 and $1,545, a 4.5 at $2,233, a 4.0 at $3,000, and a 3.5 at $2,325.
The two 6.0 results, $999 and $7,500, are seven and a half times apart. With ten sales in eighteen months there is no way to say which is representative, and I would not pretend otherwise.
The 5.0 lane is more useful: $4,300, $4,495 and $5,975 cluster reasonably, with one outlier at $1,545. Call a readable 5.0 a four-to-six thousand dollar comic and expect to have the conversation.
Selling an Adventure Comics #247
- Ten cents, April 1958. Every later Legion first issue is an ordinary comic; this is the debut.
- A 7.5 is genuinely quotable. That grade has moved by $256 in nine years.
- Expect a range below 7.0. Ten sales in eighteen months, and two of them seven times apart.
- Grading is worth it here. Every documented grade carries four or five figures.
Send photographs and I will tell you which part of this ladder you are on, because one grade of it is the most predictable number on this site and the rest is not.
First Legion?
The cover is the check: Superboy with three figures nobody recognizes, 10 cents, April 1958. Photograph it with all four corners in frame, because the corners set the last half grade. Text it to me.
I read every request myself.
Send photographs and I will place your copy in its grade lane against the same recent sales you can read above. Where you take it next is your call, and the options for selling in Southern California are worth knowing either way.
Related
- Action Comics #252. The first Supergirl, a year later, and another late-fifties DC key.
- The 100 most valuable Silver Age comics. And what each one really sold for.
- Selling graded comics. Worth reading on a book where every documented grade is four figures.
Cover images on this page are shown small, for identification, with the publisher credited in the caption. If you are a rights holder and want an image removed, contact me and it comes down.
