Two copies of Marvel Mystery Comics #4, both graded CGC 7.5, both sold through ComicLink.
| Grade | Result | When |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 7.5 | $160,000 | March 2022 |
| CGC 7.5 | $133,000 | ComicLink, September 2025 |
| CGC 3.5 | $47,000 | ComicConnect, June 2024 |
Same grade, same auction house, neither pedigreed, three years apart. A difference of $27,000, or about seventeen percent, and the later sale is the lower one.
Why this particular comparison is worth trusting
Most of the time when two sales of the same book look comparable, they are not. One copy has a pedigree label and the other does not. One has white pages and the other is tan. One sold in a heated themed auction and the other in a routine weekly.
I checked both against the source before writing this, because a pedigree on either one would have made the comparison meaningless. Neither carries one. That leaves grade, venue and format matched, and the date as the main remaining variable.
It still is not a controlled experiment. Two comics at the same numerical grade can differ in page quality and eye appeal, and a quiet week can cost a lot on a book that rarely trades. But as evidence goes in this hobby, a matched unpedigreed pair from one auction house is close to the best available.
The practical reading: an unpedigreed 7.5 of this issue has traded in the $133,000 to $160,000 range, and the more recent number is the lower one. If somebody quotes you the 2022 figure, they are quoting the older and friendlier of the two. For a worn copy the useful number is different again: a 3.5 brought $47,000 at ComicConnect in June 2024, and that is the row most owners should actually be looking at.
Where it sits in the run
Marvel Mystery Comics is where Timely became a company. It began as Marvel Comics #1 and continued under the longer title, carrying the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Ka-Zar through the earliest years.
The first ten issues are all difficult and all carry value. Issue 4 sits in a stretch dealers describe as sellable in any condition, which is a genuinely unusual thing to be able to say about a 1940 comic. Issue 3 has the first Schomburg cover for the company. Issue 9 has the first superhero fight.
So the run matters more than the individual number here. If a Marvel Mystery from the first year turns up, the sensible assumption is that its neighbors are worth checking rather than that you have found the one good issue.
Reading a softening market without panicking
This is the third page in the program where the evidence points down rather than up, and it is worth saying what I think that means across the Golden Age generally.
The books that have softened in my data are mostly the ones that ran up hardest in 2021 and 2022. That period was extraordinary — pedigree collections coming to market, a lot of new money, and results that outran anything before them. Some of those levels were always going to be difficult to repeat.
That is not the same as a market in trouble. Books are still trading, the numbers are still very large, and the floor under early Timely material has risen enormously over any longer horizon. A seventeen percent step back from a 2022 peak is a different thing from a decline.
What it changes is timing advice. If you are holding for a rebound to a 2022 number, that is speculation and you should know it is speculation. If you want to convert a comic into money at a fair current price, the market will do that today without difficulty.
Selling a Marvel Mystery Comics #4
- Use the 2025 figure, not the 2022 one. The more recent comparable is the lower one and it is what a buyer will cite.
- Page quality is likely the swing factor. With grade and venue matched, the difference between those two sales was probably paper and eye appeal.
- Do not treat the early run as filler. The first ten issues all carry real money.
- No cleaning, pressing or tape. Timely stock from 1940 records everything.
If the honest read on your book is that it has softened, I will say so. On this issue the evidence points that way, and you would rather hear it from me than from an auction result.
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
- Marvel Comics #1, where the run starts.
- Marvel Mystery Comics #9, the first superhero fight.
- 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.
