The question I get is always some version of how close to Detective Comics #27 this is. It is a fair question and the answer is: not very close in money, but a great deal closer than almost anything else you could own.
Detective Comics #29, from July 1939, is Batman’s third appearance, and it introduces Doctor Death — the first recurring villain he ever faced, nine months before the Joker and Catwoman turned up in Batman #1 (Spring 1940).
Six sales in under four years
This is where the page earns its keep. Most 1939 comics have one famous sale and silence around it. This one has six documented results — enough to see the shape of the market, and even which way it is moving.
| Grade | Result | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 8.5 | $276,000 | Heritage Auctions, June 2022 |
| CGC 7.0 | $231,800 | Heritage Auctions, February 2026 |
| CGC 6.5 | $120,000 | Heritage Auctions, November 2024 |
| CGC 5.5 | $110,400 | ComicConnect, March 2025 |
| CGC 5.5 | $81,000 | Heritage Auctions, September 2023 |
| CGC 5.0 | $102,000 | Heritage Auctions, June 2024 |
Six documented sales in under four years is an unusual amount of evidence for a 1939 comic, and the shape is informative. Everything from 5.0 to 6.5 landed between $81,000 and $120,000, and inside that band the sale date matters about as much as the grade — the 5.0 brought $102,000 in mid-2024, more than a 5.5 had brought the autumn before. At 7.0 the price roughly doubles off the top of the band, and the 8.5 sits above that.
The clearest signal in the table is the grade that sold twice. A 5.5 brought $81,000 in September 2023, and another 5.5 brought $110,400 in March 2025 — up about a third in eighteen months. Two sales of one grade are not a trend line, but the direction is up, and it is documented at both ends.
The larger shape holds: the money on this issue is concentrated at the top of the surviving population rather than spread evenly. Below about 7.0 the market treats copies as broadly interchangeable — on the evidence above, the year you sell moves the number about as much as a grade point does. Above 7.0, bidders start competing for scarcity.
About the $276,000 you may have seen
Price guides list a record around $276,000 for this issue, usually with no date, grade or venue attached. When I first built this page I could not verify it. Now I can: a CGC 8.5 sold for exactly $276,000 at Heritage Auctions on June 16, 2022. That is the record for the issue, and it belongs in the table above rather than in a footnote.
Worth noticing alongside it: the $276,000 is the oldest sale on this page. In February 2026 a 7.0 — a grade and a half lower — came within twenty percent of it. I will not promise anyone that an 8.5 clears $276,000 today, but every mid-grade result since 2022 points the same direction, and it is not down.
The early Detective run, in order of what it is worth
These issues turn up together, and telling them apart is the difference between a fair price and a bad one. In rough order of value:
- #27 (May 1939) — the first Batman. Millions of dollars, and a category of its own.
- #33 (November 1939) — the origin, where the Waynes are killed.
- #29 (July 1939) — this one. Third appearance, first Doctor Death.
- #31 (September 1939) — the Monk cover, one of the most admired images of the era. A CGC 4.0 realized $174,000 at Heritage in November 2024, so a rough copy of #31 can beat a decent copy of #29.
- #38 (April 1940) — the first Robin.
That #31 line is the one that surprises people, and it is a good illustration of something worth internalizing: on early Detective, the cover image can matter as much as what happens inside. #31 has no first appearance in it at all. It has a cover collectors have wanted for eighty years.
So do not assume the issues sort neatly by number or by story significance. If you have a group of these, the sensible move is to have all of them looked at together rather than picking out the one you have heard of.
Selling a Detective Comics #29
- Confirm the issue number against the indicia. Early Detective issues are frequently misidentified, and #27, #29, #31 and #33 are wildly different books at wildly different prices.
- Leave it exactly as it is. Nothing you can do at home moves a 1939 comic up the scale, and several common instincts move it down permanently.
- Have restoration ruled in or out. On early Detective issues this is the question that most often changes the number, and it is not one to settle by eye.
- Use all six sales, not just the record. Anyone anchoring only to $276,000 is quoting a 2022 high, and anyone anchoring only to $81,000 is quoting a 2023 low that the same grade has since beaten. Most copies price inside the band between them.
Send me photographs and I will price yours against those six results and show you which one your copy sits nearest, at no cost. On a book with this much public evidence, there is no reason for either of us to be guessing.
Have a copy?
Send three photos: front, back, and the small print. That is all I need to tell you where your copy really sits.
Related
- Detective Comics #27, the first Batman, and the book people are usually comparing this to.
- Detective Comics #33, the origin issue, four months later.
- The 100 most valuable Golden Age comics, and what each one really sold for.
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.
