Detective Comics #359 Value: Famous and Still Cheap

Two things about this comic are both true and they sound like they cannot be. It is one of the most recognised first appearances DC published in the 1960s, and you can buy a complete, honest copy of it for a few hundred dollars. Detective Comics 359 value lives in that gap.

Barbara Gordon puts on the cowl for the first time here, in a January 1967 issue, and the character has barely been off a screen since.

Why fame and price came apart on this one

DC printed a great many copies of this issue and people kept them. That is the whole explanation. Fame drives demand, but supply sets the price, and there is a lot of supply.

The book is also often confused with Batgirl #1, which is a much later comic, and with the Bat-Girl who appeared in the 1961 Batman #139. The 1961 character is a different person entirely. This issue is Barbara Gordon, and the cover says January 1967 with a 12 cent price.

There is also a 1967 UK printing with a pence price. It is a genuine DC of the period rather than a reprint, and it trades as its own thinner market.

A decade of movement at the top

One of these was reported by CGC; the rest are Heritage results. The dates matter more than usual here.

Take the 9.6 line on its own. $5,079 in February 2011, $66,000 in September 2021, $48,800 in May 2026. The grade went up thirteen times over a decade and has given back about a quarter of it since. The 9.4 did the same thing at a smaller scale: $3,107 in 2011, $10,980 in May 2026.

The $132,000 at 9.8 is a January 2021 sale and it has not been repeated. That was the start of the run-up rather than the end of it, which is unusual, and it means the single biggest number on this page is over five years old.

The 9.2 line is the steadiest thing here: $9,600 in August 2023 and $6,710 in March 2026. Down, but gently, and it is the highest grade on this page where more than one recent result exists.

What all of that describes is a book whose high grades were repriced by a decade of attention and are now settling. None of it touches the copies most people own, which is the next section.

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 Detective Comics #359 independently, and if their numbers disagree with mine it is worth finding out which of us is wrong.

Detective Comics #359 value in each grade

252 sales tracked back to 2007; here are the three freshest in every grade.

Every row above is a documented sale, verifiable in Heritage’s public Detective Comics issue index and in CGC’s published auction reporting. The lower lanes are where nearly all of the volume is, and where most owners will find their copy.

Why a readable copy is still a few hundred dollars

No other book in this batch has been traded this heavily in the grades people actually own. A hundred and ten of them changed hands since January 2025, and the numbers barely move.

Take August 2026 on its own. A 5.0 brought $582, a 3.5 brought $475, and three separate 4.0 copies brought $450, $525 and $575. Late July added a 6.0 at $900 and a fourth 4.0 at $550.

Five 4.0 copies inside three weeks, between $450 and $575. That is not a market anybody needs to guess at, and it is the reason I will give a straight number on this comic over the phone when I will not on most.

It also settles the grading question. At five hundred dollars a copy, the submission fee and the postage are a large share of what the comic sells for, and no realistic grade recovers that.

Selling a Detective Comics #359

1. Confirm the issue and the year. January 1967, twelve cents. The 1961 Bat-Girl in Batman #139 is a different character in a different book.
2. Check for the pence copy. A UK-priced 1967 printing is genuine and sells into a separate, thinner market.
3. Do not grade a mid-grade copy. The economics do not work at these prices, and the recent sales say so plainly.
4. Keep the run around it. The late 1960s Detective issues that follow carry the early Batgirl appearances and sell better as a block.

Send photographs and I will tell you honestly whether your copy is in the few-hundred market or the rare part of the table, because on this book most are the former.

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

• Brave and the Bold #28. The other DC first of the era, and the opposite case at the top of the market.
• Showcase #4. Where DC’s Silver Age starts, and a much scarcer book in every grade.
• The 100 most valuable Silver 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.