Every CGC 9.4 sale of Showcase #34 in the public record happened between 2004 and 2007. Nothing at that grade has come up since, which means the most quoted figures for this comic describe a market two decades gone.
Above CGC 7.0, this comic has sold in public exactly twice in twenty years. Everything else anyone knows about what Action Comics #242 is worth comes from the readable grades, and this page works with what there is.
A CGC 9.8 of Silver Surfer #1 sold for $132,000 in January 2024 and $132,000 again in April 2025. Over the same fifteen months the CGC 9.6 lost half its value. This page is about what that combination means.
Almost every Silver Age grade I have documented has softened since 2024. The CGC 9.4 of X-Men #4 has done the opposite, rising from $15,000 to $21,600, and it is worth understanding why this book is the exception.
Showcase #8 has the second Silver Age Flash and the first Captain Cold, and the entire public record on it runs to a hundred and one sales since 2002. Seven of those are from the past eighteen months.
The Hulk is gray in issue 1 and green from issue 2 onwards, which is why the second issue is a key in its own right rather than an also-ran. The 225 documented sales behind it price it accordingly.
A CGC 9.8 of Avengers #57 has sold for $21,530 and a CGC 9.4 for $2,500. Four tenths of a grade are worth eight times the money on this book, which is the steepest top-of-ladder premium I have documented.
Aquaman had been in print for twenty-one years before he got his own title, which is why this 1962 comic is a first issue and not a first appearance. The 235 documented sales behind it are also the noisiest in this batch.
A CGC 9.6 of Brave and the Bold #54 brought $43,200 in June 2022 and $16,800 in July 2025. That is the steepest documented fall on any book I have written up, and the grades beneath it barely moved.
Batman #171 is sold constantly as the first Riddler. It is not — that is a 1948 comic — but it is the appearance that made him famous, and the market has decided that is worth paying for. The 225 documented sales show what.
