In December 2022 a CGC 8.5 copy of More Fun Comics #52 sold at Heritage for $264,000. The previous best anyone had managed for the issue was $119,500, for a higher-graded 9.2, back in 2006. The 2022 sale more than doubled the record in a lower grade.
That is a book being repriced, not a book drifting. And the reason is inside: this is the first appearance of the Spectre.
The other number, and why it matters more to you
Here is everything else I can document, and for most readers of this page these are the more relevant numbers.
| Copy | Result | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 8.5, unrestored | $264,000 | Heritage Auctions, December 2022 |
| CGC 7.5, Restored | $22,425 | ComicConnect, reported by CGC December 2022 |
| CGC 6.5, unrestored | $108,000 | Heritage Auctions, January 2025 |
| CGC 9.2, unrestored | $119,500 (reported) | reportedly 2006 |
Look at the two middle rows. The restored copy is graded a full point higher than the unrestored 6.5 that sold in January 2025, and it brought about a fifth of the money.
No grade point is worth that. What separates those results is the word Restored on one label, and the numbers in that table are the best argument I can make for leaving a comic alone that I have ever been able to write down.
Restoration on a book like this is usually invisible to an owner: a little color added over a spine tick, a tear sealed, an edge tidied. It was normal, responsible practice for decades. The market changed its mind, the label records it permanently, and a restored copy sells into a smaller and much more cautious room.
Which is why I would want a very careful look at any high-grade copy of this book before quoting on it. A comic from 1940 that presents as an 8.5 has either had an extraordinary life or has had help, and telling those apart is exactly what grading exists for.
Jerry Siegel, again
The Spectre was created by Jerry Siegel, who two years earlier had co-created Superman. That is a genuinely unusual line on a résumé — the same writer launching two characters who are still in print eighty-six years later — and it is part of why this issue attracts collectors who are not otherwise buying 1940 anthologies.
The character itself helps. The Spectre is a murdered detective who returns as an agent of divine wrath, which was a startling thing to put in a children’s comic in 1940 and has kept the character interesting to writers ever since.
More Fun Comics was an anthology, and anthology issues from this period survive badly. Nobody kept them as a run; they were bought, read and discarded. Whatever is on the census now is close to what exists.
The rest of More Fun is worth knowing about
More Fun Comics ran for years and produced more than one significant issue, which matters because these turn up in runs when they turn up at all.
- #52 — this one, the first Spectre, and the most valuable of them.
- #53 — the second Spectre appearance, and the one where his origin concludes. Considerably cheaper than #52 and still a real book.
- #73 — the first Aquaman and the first Green Arrow, in one issue. A CGC 8.0 realized $144,000 at Heritage in November 2024, so this is not a minor sibling.
- #101 — the first Superboy, from 1945.
Four genuinely valuable issues in one anthology title is unusual, and it means a stack of More Fun is worth going through carefully rather than pricing as a run. I have seen people identify the famous one and treat the rest as filler, and on this particular title that is an expensive assumption.
Why anthology comics survive so badly
There is a specific reason 1940 anthologies are scarce beyond general attrition, and it explains the grades you see on the census.
An anthology had no single character to build loyalty around. A reader who liked one strip flipped past four others, and there was no reason to keep the issue once it had been read — no run to complete, no collector market, nobody telling a child this was worth saving. Comics built around one hero at least got kept by fans of that hero. These did not.
The result is that the surviving population is small and skewed low. Which is exactly why an unrestored 8.5 could bring $264,000 and an unrestored 6.5 could bring $108,000, while a restored 7.5 brought $22,425: the market is paying enormous premiums for the handful of copies that came through intact, and paying very little for the ones that needed help getting there.
Selling a More Fun Comics #52
- Assume restoration is possible and let a grader settle it. On this issue the restored copy brought about a fifth of what an unrestored copy graded a full point lower did. It is not a question to guess at.
- Add nothing. Not tape, not cleaning, not pressing. If your copy is currently unrestored, that is its single most valuable property.
- Photograph the spine at a low angle. Along with the usual front, back and indicia shots, raking light down the spine is where added color tends to reveal itself.
- Do not price off the 2006 figure. It is twenty years old and the 2022 sale showed how far behind it had fallen.
Photographs are free and I will tell you which of those two markets your copy is in, or that I cannot tell from a picture, which on this issue is an honest answer more often than sellers expect.
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 #33, where a restored 9.0 sold for barely more than an unrestored 4.5.
- 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.
