Fame and price come apart on this comic more completely than on anything else I have written about. Fantastic Four 52 value has to be quoted a grade at a time or it is meaningless.
It is the first appearance of the Black Panther, from July 1966, and two films have put the character in front of an audience that has never opened a comic.
Nothing at the top has sold in ten years
The CGC 9.8 line has five results in the record and the most recent of them is from November 2016. Nothing at that grade has come to public sale in nearly ten years, through the entire film run and the whole 2021 boom.
That is a strange gap for a book this well known, and it means the numbers people quote for a 9.8 are quoting a market that has not traded in a decade. I would not build anything on them.
The reason is straightforward once you know it. A 1966 Marvel that children read is not rare in readable condition and is genuinely hard to find near perfect, and the people who own the near-perfect ones have had no reason to sell.
For identification: 12 cents printed on the cover, July 1966 in the indicia, and no bar code anywhere. Marvel’s Milestone and Facsimile reprints of this issue both announce what they are in that same block of small print.
What the graded copies have actually done
CGC reported two of these. Note how old the top of the table is before you read anything else into it.
| Grade | Result | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 9.8 | $83,650 | Heritage Auctions, February 2016 |
| CGC 9.8 | $65,725 | Heritage Auctions, November 2016 |
| CGC 9.6 | $50,400 | Heritage Auctions, April 2021 |
| CGC 9.6 | $43,200 | Heritage Auctions, September 2021 |
| CGC 9.4 | $22,200 | Heritage Auctions, March 2022 |
| CGC 9.4 | $16,800 | Heritage Auctions, August 2023 |
| CGC 9.4 | $15,000 | Heritage Auctions, April 2024 |
| CGC 9.4 | $13,200 | Heritage Auctions, July 2025 |
| CGC 9.2 | $8,400 | Heritage Auctions, October 2024 |
| CGC 9.0 | $4,307 | eBay, March 2025 |
Only one high grade here has been sold often enough recently to say anything, and the 9.4 says it plainly: $22,200 in March 2022, $16,800 in August 2023, $15,000 in April 2024, $13,200 in July 2025. About forty percent off in three years.
The 9.6 pair from 2021 sits above it at $50,400 and $43,200, and nothing at that grade has sold since. Two sales five months apart at the very top of the last cycle, and then silence.
So the shape of this book is a top that stopped trading and a shoulder that has been drifting down ever since. Neither of those is what somebody expects when they call about the first Black Panther.
The 9.2 at $8,400 in October 2024 is where the ladder starts to look like a market again, and the 9.0 at $4,307 in March 2025 is the last rung before the part of the table most owners are in.
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 Fantastic Four #52 independently, and if their numbers disagree with mine it is worth finding out which of us is wrong.
Fantastic Four #52 value in each grade
194 sales tracked back to 2005; here are the three freshest in every grade.
| Grade | Sold for | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 9.8 | $65,725 | Heritage Auctions, November 17, 2016 |
| CGC 9.8 | $83,650 | Heritage Auctions, February 18, 2016 |
| CGC 9.8 | $16,730 | Heritage Auctions, November 21, 2013 |
| CGC 9.6 | $43,200 | Heritage Auctions, September 8, 2021 |
| CGC 9.6 | $50,400 | Heritage Auctions, April 1, 2021 |
| CGC 9.6 | $21,000 | Heritage Auctions, April 30, 2020 |
| CGC 9.4 | $13,200 | Heritage Auctions, July 25, 2025 |
| CGC 9.4 | $14,400 | Heritage Auctions, December 13, 2024 |
| CGC 9.4 | $15,000 | Heritage Auctions, April 17, 2024 |
| CGC 9.2 | $5,656 | eBay, June 24, 2026 |
| CGC 9.2 | $5,399 | eBay, June 8, 2026 |
| CGC 9.2 | $5,760 | Heritage Auctions, December 2, 2025 |
| CGC 9.0 | $4,800 | eBay, July 27, 2026 |
| CGC 9.0 | $5,368 | Heritage Auctions, July 23, 2026 |
| CGC 9.0 | $5,368 | Heritage Auctions, April 30, 2026 |
| CGC 8.5 | $3,080 | eBay, July 27, 2026 |
| CGC 8.5 | $3,299 | eBay, July 4, 2026 |
| CGC 8.5 | $2,500 | eBay, December 15, 2025 |
| CGC 8.0 | $2,500 | eBay, June 14, 2026 |
| CGC 8.0 | $2,300 | eBay, May 5, 2026 |
| CGC 8.0 | $2,653 | eBay, March 23, 2026 |
| CGC 7.5 | $1,448 | eBay, August 11, 2026 |
| CGC 7.5 | $943 | eBay, July 6, 2026 |
| CGC 7.5 | $1,399 | eBay, June 23, 2026 |
| CGC 7.0 | $825 | eBay, July 19, 2026 |
| CGC 7.0 | $1,399 | eBay, June 2, 2026 |
| CGC 7.0 | $1,050 | eBay, May 30, 2026 |
| CGC 6.5 | $854 | eBay, August 10, 2026 |
| CGC 6.5 | $799 | eBay, August 7, 2026 |
| CGC 6.5 | $690 | eBay, May 23, 2026 |
| CGC 6.0 | $800 | eBay, August 13, 2026 |
| CGC 6.0 | $790 | eBay, August 11, 2026 |
| CGC 6.0 | $585 | eBay, August 3, 2026 |
| CGC 5.5 | $699 | eBay, July 27, 2026 |
| CGC 5.5 | $599 | eBay, July 3, 2026 |
| CGC 5.5 | $699 | eBay, June 30, 2026 |
| CGC 5.0 | $641 | Heritage Auctions, May 14, 2026 |
| CGC 5.0 | $675 | eBay, April 29, 2026 |
| CGC 5.0 | $555 | eBay, April 23, 2026 |
| CGC 4.5 | $450 | eBay, March 8, 2026 |
| Raw | $406 | eBay, August 13, 2026 |
| Raw | $399 | eBay, August 4, 2026 |
| Raw | $591 | eBay, July 28, 2026 |
Every row above is a documented sale, verifiable in Heritage’s public Fantastic Four issue index and in CGC’s published auction reporting. The 9.8 rows are the oldest on the page, and the lanes below them carry all of the recent evidence.
A few hundred dollars, and that is the honest answer
Here is the part that surprises people. Sixty-two readable copies changed hands over the past eighteen months, and the numbers sit far below what the character’s profile suggests.
In the first two weeks of August 2026: a 6.5 brought $854, another brought $799, and three 6.0 copies brought $800, $790 and $585. July added a 7.0 at $825, a 6.0 at $650, another at $630, and two 5.5 copies at $699 and $599.
That is eleven sales inside six weeks, all between $585 and $854. It is one of the tightest bands on my whole list, and it means I can give a straight number on this comic over the phone with more confidence than on almost anything else.
It is also the conversation people find hardest. A comic that made two films is worth about the same as a decent pair of shoes in the condition most copies survive in, and no amount of fame changes what sixty-two recent sales say.
Selling a Fantastic Four #52
- Twelve cents, July 1966, no bar code. The Milestone and Facsimile editions both declare themselves in the indicia.
- Do not price off the 9.8 line. Nothing has sold at that grade since 2016 and those figures describe a market that stopped.
- Skip grading a readable copy. At six to eight hundred dollars the submission fee is a real share of the sale and the grade will not recover it.
- Keep #52 and #53 together. The second Black Panther appearance follows immediately and the pair sells better than either alone.
Send photographs and I will give you the number your grade actually supports, which on this comic is usually lower than the one you were expecting and is at least a real one.
Got the first Panther?
Photograph the cover corner — twelve cents, July 1966 — then the spine and all four corners straight on. Identification takes one shot here; the grade takes the rest. Text them all 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
- Fantastic Four #1. The start of the run, and the opposite case at every grade.
- The 100 most valuable Silver Age comics. And what each one really sold for.
- How much are my comic books worth?. The general version of the question this page answers for one issue.
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.
