In January 2026 a copy of Action Comics #1 sold for fifteen million dollars, the most anyone has ever paid for a comic book. Seven weeks before that, a Superman #1 that three brothers found in a Northern California attic brought $9.12 million at Heritage. I lead with those two sales for a reason: one of them came out of an attic, in this state, from a family that had no idea. Golden Age comics are the lottery tickets of this hobby. Most of them lose, and the losers are worth a few dollars each. But the winners win big, and the only way to know which you have is to look.
This page ranks the hundred most valuable Golden Age comic books, meaning roughly 1938 through 1955, the era that starts with Superman and ends where the Silver Age begins. The rules are the same ones I use on the modern list: a documented sale gets its date and its venue printed next to it, and a figure I could not pin to a dated sale is labeled “reported” so you know exactly how much weight it deserves. Nothing here is a guess dressed up as a record. Where the honest answer is that the public market has no idea, the entry says that instead.
One more thing before the list. While the broader comic market has spent more than three years going sideways or down, Golden Age is the one era whose price index stayed positive, because the supply of these books essentially stopped growing decades ago. That is documented in GoCollect’s 2025 market report, not my opinion. If you are sitting on books from the forties, time has been on your side.
And if you already spot one of your books in the first dozen entries, you do not have to read the other ninety. Text a photo of the cover to (951) 515-9604 and I will tell you what I see.
Prices last checked August 9, 2026.
It’s a long page. Jump to where your books are:
- The seven-figure books
- The rest of the hundred, ranked by record
- The halfway mark
- Four books the public market cannot price
- Why you should never restore or clean a Golden Age book
- What a beaten copy is really worth
- Get a cash offer or an honest referral
The seven-figure books
Seven Golden Age books have publicly crossed a million dollars. Every one of them is here with the sale that proves it. If you think you own any of these, slow down, photograph everything, and do not let anyone touch the book until you know what you have.
1. Action Comics #1 (DC, 1938): the first Superman
| Documented high | $15,000,000 for a CGC 9.0, January 2026 private sale (ComicConnect/Metropolis) |
| Floor | Even a CGC 2.0 Qualified brought $625,250 (February 2026, Heritage) |
The most valuable comic book there is, and it isn’t close. That $15 million copy is one of only about two graded 9.0 or better, so the realistic auction benchmark is the $6,000,000 a CGC 8.5 brought at Heritage in April 2024. Any unrestored copy is a six-figure book in today’s market. Before you call anyone about one, me included, make sure it isn’t one of the well-known reprints, because those are common and this is not. A book at this level belongs at a major auction house, and I will tell you that to your face. What I can do is help you confirm what you have, quietly, before anyone else knows you have it.
2. Superman #1 (DC, 1939): the first superhero solo title
| Documented high | $9,120,000 for a CGC 9.0, November 2025, Heritage Auctions |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $25,000 for a low-grade complete copy (price guide, undated, and clearly pre-dating the 2025-26 sales) |
| Current market | $51,175 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Three brothers found that record copy in a Northern California attic, and at the time it was the highest public auction price any comic had ever brought. The 9.0 is a census-topping outlier, but the mid-grade market underneath it is very real: a CGC 6.5 brought $1,220,000 at Heritage in February 2026, and the Mile High 8.5 sold privately for $7,000,000 that same month. Even rough complete copies are serious five-figure books, and the undated guide floor almost certainly understates them now.
3. Batman #1 (DC, 1940): the first Joker and Catwoman
| Documented high | $6,000,000 for a CGC 9.4, February 2026 private sale (Heritage/SemperFi) |
| Floor | No verified low-grade sale to cite this pass |
Two of the greatest villains in fiction debut in one comic, which is why this book keeps company with Action #1 and Detective #27. Know that both of its headline records belong to the same single copy: the highest-graded 9.4 in existence, which made $2,220,000 at Heritage in January 2021 and then $6,000,000 in that 2026 private deal. Lesser copies are worth a great deal less than that, and a great deal more than almost anything else you could own.
4. Captain America Comics #1 (Timely, 1941): the Hitler punch
| Documented high | $3,120,000 for the CGC 9.4 San Francisco pedigree copy, April 2022 (Heritage) |
| Floor | A CGC 7.0 brought $339,760 in March 2022 (ComicConnect); $20,000 reported any-condition minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $73,200 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
First Captain America, first Bucky, first Red Skull, and the most famous cover of the Golden Age, published a full year before the US entered the war. The record copy is San Francisco pedigree, a collection known for exceptional page quality, and that provenance carried real weight: the same copy had brought $915,000 at Heritage in 2019, so a plain 9.4 would price below it. What convinces me the demand is deep rather than a one-off is the documented CGC 7.0 at $339,760, a mid-grade copy at a third of a million dollars.
5. Marvel Comics #1 (Timely, 1939): where Marvel starts
| Documented high | $2,427,777 for the CGC 9.2 Pay Copy, March 2022 (ComicConnect) |
| Floor | A CGC 2.5 brought $363,527 in the same 2022 auction; reported any-condition floors run $20,000 and up (undated) |
| Current market | $22,705 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The first Marvel comic, period: first Human Torch, first newsstand Sub-Mariner, first Ka-Zar. The Pay Copy record is pedigree-driven, because that particular copy carries the editor’s handwritten contributor-payment notes and is a unique historical artifact, so a plain 9.2 prices lower. The cleaner condition benchmark is the Windy City pedigree CGC 9.4, which brought $1,260,000 at Heritage in November 2019. Even so, the documented 2.5 at $363,527 tells you a rough, complete copy of this book is a six-figure comic.
6. Detective Comics #27 (DC, 1939): the first Batman
| Documented high | $2,318,000 for a CGC 7.0, February 2026, Heritage Auctions |
| Floor | Reported guide minimum around $100,000 (undated) |
The second-most-important comic book in the hobby, behind only Action #1. That February 2026 result set the record for the issue, and only six universal copies grade higher than the 7.0 that did it. Only 37 universal copies sit on the CGC census in any condition, which is why even the reported low-grade floor is a six-figure number. Same advice as the Action #1 above: at this altitude I am your first phone call, not your buyer, and the confirmation costs you nothing.
7. All Star Comics #8 (All-American/DC, 1941): the first Wonder Woman
| Documented high | $1,620,000 for a CGC 9.4, June 2022, Heritage Auctions |
| Floor | Reported around $9,000 for a poor but complete copy (price guide, undated) |
Wonder Woman’s true first appearance is here, tucked in the back of a Justice Society issue, not in Sensation Comics #1 as people often assume. The record has support underneath it: another 9.4 brought $1,342,000 at Heritage in February 2026, and a mid-grade CGC 6.0 made $66,000 in December 2022. Wonder Woman joins Superman, Batman, Captain America and the Human Torch on the short list of characters whose debut issue has cleared a million dollars at auction. If one of these surfaces in a Southern California collection, text me a photo of the cover and the indicia page and I will help you figure out where it should sell.
The rest of the hundred, ranked by record
From here down, the order follows the headline record for each book. Read the labels carefully. A “documented” figure comes from a sale I can put a date and a venue on. A “reported” figure comes from price guides or secondhand coverage and carries no date I could verify, so treat it as a shape, not a quote. Plenty of these records are also ten or twenty years old, which in this market means the book is probably worth more now, not less. I say so where it applies.
8. Phantom Lady #17 (Fox, 1948): the notorious Matt Baker cover
| Documented high | $456,000 for the highest-graded CGC 9.6, Promise Collection, June 19, 2021 (Heritage Auctions) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $1,000 (undated) |
The most famous racy cover of the Golden Age, drawn by Matt Baker and later reproduced in Seduction of the Innocent as evidence against the industry. Be clear about what the record is: a census-top pedigree copy from the Promise Collection, which is not what your copy will bring. The saner benchmark is the previous record, reportedly $121,000 in September 2019, which still shows genuine six-figure depth under the headline number. I buy Golden Age books in any grade, and this is one where even a rough copy is worth the drive.
9. Detective Comics #140 (DC, 1948): the first Riddler
| Documented high | $456,000 for a CGC 9.6 Promise Collection pedigree copy, June 2021, Heritage Auctions |
| Floor | No verified low-grade sale to cite; the realistic high-grade benchmark is $40,800 for a CGC 7.5 (2021, per the same coverage) |
| Current market | $3,509 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
This record is the textbook pedigree fluke. That $456,000 copy is the sole highest-graded example on the census, from the famous Promise Collection, and it sold for ten times what the issue’s record had been just months earlier. The realistic ceiling for a very nice ordinary copy is the $40,800 a CGC 7.5 brought earlier in 2021. First Riddler is a genuinely good book to own; just don’t price yours off the outlier.
10. Flash Comics #1 (All-American/DC, 1940): the first Flash and Hawkman
| Documented high | $450,000 for the CGC 9.6 Edgar Church/Mile High copy, March 2010, Heritage; the record is sixteen years old |
| Floor | No verified low-grade sale to cite; only about 85 copies sit on the CGC census |
Jay Garrick and Hawkman both debut in a book with roughly 45 universal copies known, and the record belongs to the single census-topping Church copy, which had already made $273,125 in 2006. A 2010 price on a book this scarce badly understates today’s market, and while a $1,000,000 figure for that same copy circulates, it is undated and unconfirmed, so I won’t present it as a sale. Any copy of this comic, in any state, is a significant find.
11. Sensation Comics #1 (All-American/DC, 1942): Wonder Woman’s first cover
| Reported high | $399,100 reported for a CGC 9.6, reportedly 2017; guide lists the record undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $2,000 (price guide, undated) |
Let me clear up the most common mix-up in Golden Age collecting: this is not Wonder Woman’s first appearance. That happened in All Star Comics #8; this is her first cover and her second appearance overall, which is still a huge book. The mid-grade market is documented, with a CGC 5.5 bringing $40,800 at Heritage in December 2022, so even well-read copies carry five-figure potential.
12. Detective Comics #168 (DC, 1951): the origin of the Joker
| Reported high | $324,000 reported for a CGC 9.4, November 2022; date and price could not be confirmed against a primary source |
| Floor | No verified low-grade sale to cite this pass |
| Current market | $4,159 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
“The Man Behind the Red Hood” gave the Joker his first origin story, eleven years after his debut, and introduced the Red Hood identity along the way. The reported record belongs to a 9.4 with white pages, which sits at or near the top of the census for a 1951 book, so ordinary copies land far below it. Overstreet has ranked this issue among the top 100 Golden Age books, and the demand matches.
13. Wonder Woman #1 (All-American/DC, 1942): the first solo title
| Reported high | $291,100 reported for a CGC 9.0, reportedly 2016; guide lists the record undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $1,000 (price guide, undated) |
Her origin gets retold at length in her own book, completing the 1941-42 trio with All Star #8 and Sensation #1. The reported record is nearly a decade old, but the documented mid-grade market backs the demand: a CGC 4.0, a genuinely worn copy, brought $28,800 at Heritage in December 2022. That is the number I’d point to if you’re wondering whether your average copy matters. It does.
14. Detective Comics #33 (DC, 1939): the origin of Batman
| Reported high | Around $288,000 reported guide record, undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $10,000 (price guide, undated) |
The murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne is told here for the first time, which makes this the origin issue, two years before Batman #1 existed. I could not date the record sale this session, so it stays labeled as a guide figure. What I can say plainly is that 1939 Detective issues with this much story significance do not sell cheap in any condition.
15. Whiz Comics #2 (Fawcett, 1940): the first Captain Marvel
| Documented high | $281,001 for a CGC 9.0, the ex-Library of Congress copy, December 2012, ComicConnect |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $15,000 (price guide, undated) |
About the number on the cover: the first published issue says #2 because Fawcett used unpublished #1 ashcans, printed as “Thrill Comics” and “Flash Comics,” to secure the copyright, so collectors write it Whiz #2 (#1) and no true newsstand #1 exists. The character inside outsold Superman during World War II. The record copy is the census-topping 9.0, but a CGC 6.0 brought $176,000 in December 2011, so mid-grade demand is real, and both sales are old enough that today’s market likely sits higher. Find a Captain Marvel book this old in a family collection and I want to see the numbering box before anyone grades anything.
16. Suspense Comics #3 (Continental, 1944): the Schomburg trophy
| Documented high | $280,000 for a CGC 6.5, March 2022 (ComicLink Featured Winter Auction) |
| Floor | No cheap copy exists; even a CGC 2.0 has been reported at $109,800 (unverified, and the sale year is uncertain) |
Alex Schomburg’s hooded-menace cover made this the most valuable non-superhero pre-code book of the war years, and unlike most trophies in this section, the record is not a fluke. The same book brought a confirmed $173,275 in 2015, an 8.0 pedigree copy reportedly sold for $47,800 back in 2006, and even a beaten 2.0 has been reported at six figures. A mid-grade 6.5 at $280,000 is the market speaking clearly across a decade.
17. More Fun Comics #52 (DC, 1940): the first Spectre
| Documented high | $264,000 for a CGC 8.5, December 2022, Heritage Auctions |
| Floor | No verified low-grade sale to cite this pass |
| Current market | $1,912 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of Superman, created the Spectre, and his debut has been climbing hard: the prior best for the issue was $119,500 for a 9.2 back in 2006, and the 2022 sale more than doubled it in a lower grade. Anthology-era More Fun issues are scarce survivors, and this is the one everybody wants. A confirmed copy in any grade deserves a careful appraisal, not a stack price.
18. Action Comics #10 (DC, 1939): the third Superman cover
| Reported high | Around $258,000 reported guide record, undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $1,000 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $5,576 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Third time Superman appeared on the cover of his own title, and early 1939 Action issues are nearly as tough as the 1938 run. The record figure comes from a price guide with no sale date, so read it as a ballpark for a top copy, not what an average one brings. Low-grade copies are real money too, just a different order of magnitude.
19. Pep Comics #22 (MLJ, 1941): the first Archie
| Documented high | $252,100 for the highest-graded unrestored CGC 8.0, September 2017 (ComicConnect) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $9,000 for rough complete copies (undated) |
| Current market | $25,688 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The first appearances of Archie, Betty, and Jughead, and the top non-superhero Golden Age key outside of Disney. The record is not a one-off: a 7.0 reportedly brought $143,400 in November 2014, a 6.5 brought $135,000 in March 2015, and even a 5.0 reportedly reached $91,000 in December 2018, so six figures shows up well down the grade ladder. If any copy of this book is in your family’s boxes, in any condition, that is a phone call before anything else. If your parents kept Archie books from the war years, check the issue numbers on the Pep run first; I pay real money for the early ones.
20. Detective Comics #29 (DC, 1939): the first Batman villain
| Documented high | $231,800 for a CGC 7.0, February 2026, Heritage Auctions |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $5,000 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $14,170 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Batman’s third appearance, and Doctor Death makes his entrance as the first recurring Batman villain. Guides list a $276,000 record for the issue, but that figure carries no date and I could not verify it, so the documented February 2026 sale is the number I trust. Early Detective issues from 1939 are strong sellers in every grade, not just at the top.
21. All-American Comics #16 (All-American/DC, 1940): the first Green Lantern
| Reported high | $215,100 reported for a CGC 6.5, February 2018, Heritage; price and date come from secondary summaries |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $8,000 (price guide, undated) |
Alan Scott’s origin issue is genuinely rarer than most keys of its era, and it almost never trades in high grade, which is why the record belongs to a 6.5. That scarcity means the record understates the book: a $1,000,000 offer for a CGC 9.4 has been rumored, but an offer is not a sale and I won’t count it as one. If a high-grade copy ever hit the open market, the 2018 number would not survive the afternoon.
22. Captain America Comics #36 (Timely, 1944): the WWII-cover premium
| Documented high | $204,000 for a CGC 9.4 Promise Collection copy, June 2021 (Heritage) |
| Floor | $2,350 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $5,738 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering on one cover, the poster child for the premium that WWII covers command. The record is a Promise Collection pedigree copy sold during that collection’s fresh-to-market frenzy in 2021, and both the pedigree and the moment inflated it; a plain 9.4 would bring less. The gap between that record and the reported floor shows how steeply this book prices on condition.
23. Captain America Comics #74 (Timely, 1949): the horror pivot
| Documented high | $204,000 for the highest-graded CGC 9.2, a Promise Collection copy, June 2021 (Heritage) |
| Floor | $600 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $4,444 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
“Weird Tales,” the issue where Timely pivoted its flagship hero into horror, with a classic Red Skull cover and a spot on Overstreet’s Top 100 Golden Age list. Roughly ten CGC copies exist above 6.0, and the record copy is the single highest-graded one, pedigreed to the Promise Collection, so that price is what the best copy on earth brought at a hot moment, not what yours will. The late-run scarcity story in one book: a $600 reported floor and a $204,000 ceiling.
24. Action Comics #7 (DC, 1938): the second Superman cover
| Reported high | Around $188,000 reported guide record, undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $15,000 (price guide, undated) |
Collectors call this the poor man’s Action #1, which tells you how the hobby prices it: Superman only appeared on the cover of Action twice in 1938, and this is the second one. It is extremely scarce in any grade, which is why even the reported floor sits in five figures. The record here is a guide number without a date attached, so treat it as a rough marker rather than a comp.
25. Archie Comics #1 (MLJ, 1942): the first self-titled Archie
| Documented high | $167,300 including buyer’s premium for a CGC 8.5, February 2011 (Heritage Auctions, Dallas) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $4,500 (undated) |
| Current market | $5,101 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
For years this held the title of most valuable non-superhero comic, and the depth under the record is real: a 4.0 brought $24,500 and a 2.5 brought $23,500 in the same September 2017 ComicConnect event, with a restored 0.5 still fetching $5,949. Read the record with its age in mind, though. That $167,300 sale is fifteen years old, and while commentary speculates a top copy would bring far more today, speculation is not a price and I will not quote it as one.
26. Captain America Comics #46 (Timely, 1945)
| Documented high | $162,000 for a CGC 9.2 Promise Collection copy, June 2021 (Heritage) |
| Floor | $1,900 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $5,167 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
One of the most graphic WWII covers in comics, with infamous Holocaust imagery that makes it a heavy book in every sense. Same caveat as #36: the record is a Promise Collection pedigree copy sold at the peak of that collection’s 2021 debut, so the pedigree drove the price and an ordinary copy prices lower. Mid-grade copies are still solidly valuable, just nowhere near the headline.
27. Green Lantern #1 (All-American/DC, 1941): Alan Scott’s solo title
| Reported high | $147,500 reported for a CGC 9.0 double-cover copy, February 2012; the record is fourteen years stale |
| Floor | No verified low-grade sale to cite this pass |
A word about that record: it belongs to a double-cover oddity, a printing quirk collectors prize, so the saner high-grade benchmark is the $29,875 a standard 9.0 reportedly brought in November 2009. Both numbers are ancient by key-comic standards, and one of the great DC covers of the Golden Age has not gotten less desirable since. Expect a modern sale to land well above the old marks; I won’t pretend to know where.
28. Sub-Mariner Comics #1 (Timely, 1941): one of the big Timely number ones
| Reported high | $144,000 reported; secondhand data identifies it as a CGC 8.5 San Francisco pedigree copy, September 2021 (Heritage) |
| Floor | $2,900 reported minimum (undated) |
Namor’s first solo title, alongside Marvel Comics #1, Captain America Comics #1 and Human Torch #2 among the great Timely number ones. Notice the record is an 8.5 outselling a Larson pedigree 9.0 that reportedly brought $84,000 in 2019; that is the San Francisco pedigree’s page-quality premium at work, a known pattern, and it means a plain 8.5 prices lower than the headline. Run issues carry weight too, with reported records of $50,400 on #13 and $40,800 on #16, both undated. Sell a Timely number one through photos first: cover, indicia, centerfold. That is all I need to talk a real number.
29. Detective Comics #225 (DC, 1955): the first Martian Manhunter
| Reported high | Around $138,000 reported guide record, undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $430 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $1,000 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
J’onn J’onzz arrives in the very last months of the Golden Age window, and many collectors count this issue as the starting gun of the Silver Age. Condition is everything: a CGC 9.2 described as the only copy above 8.0 exists, which is where record money lives, while low-grade copies are genuinely affordable, unlike anything else this high on the list. If you have a reading copy, it’s a hundreds-of-dollars book, and that’s still worth pulling. This one turns up in fifties collections more than the thirties keys ever will, and I buy it in every grade.
30. Detective Comics #31 (DC, 1939): the Monk cover
| Documented high | $134,200 for a CGC 3.0, February 2026, Heritage Auctions |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $20,000 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $10,622 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Look at that grade again: a 3.0, a genuinely rough copy, brought $134,200. That is what one of the most iconic covers of the entire Golden Age does to a book’s value, and it means condition matters less here than almost anywhere else on this list. Guides report a record around $175,000, undated, and I’d expect a strong copy to test it.
31. Daring Mystery Comics #1 (Timely, 1940): the scarcest early anthology
| Documented high | $132,000 for a pedigree CGC 9.2, October 2024 (ComicConnect) |
| Floor | No published floor; a non-pedigree 9.2 brought $46,500 in 2014 (ComicConnect) |
The scarcest of the earliest Timely anthologies, with the first Fiery Mask by Joe Simon and a Schomburg cover. The 2024 record is pedigree-driven, nearly three times what the only prior 9.2 brought a decade earlier, so a plain copy prices well below it. Until that result repeats, I read it as one collector paying up for provenance, not the new going rate.
32. Startling Comics #49 (Nedor, 1948): the Schomburg robot
| Documented high | $132,000 for a CGC 9.6, Promise Collection, June 19, 2021 (Heritage Auctions) |
| Floor | None sourced this session; typical copies bring a small fraction of the pedigree record |
| Current market | $1,832 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Schomburg’s robot cover is one of the defining science-fiction images of the Golden Age, and it earned a six-figure result in the Promise Collection sale. That record belongs to a census-top pedigree copy sold in a landmark auction, and I captured no ordinary-copy comps to set against it. Assume a typical example lands far below the headline and needs its own research.
33. All Star Comics #3 (All-American/DC, 1940): the first superhero team
| Reported high | $126,500 reported for a CGC 9.6 Mile High copy, but that sale was in 2002 |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $2,300 (price guide, undated) |
The Justice Society of America assembles here, and every superhero team since, from the Avengers to the Justice League, follows the template this issue invented. The record is more than two decades old, from before the modern key market existed, and a comparable copy today would almost certainly sell for far more; I just can’t tell you how much more without making it up. Historic significance this large does not go out of style.
34. Detective Comics #38 (DC, 1940): the first Robin
| Reported high | $126,500 reported for a CGC 9.4 Allentown pedigree copy, but that sale was back in 2005 |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $10,000 (price guide, undated) |
Dick Grayson’s debut invented the kid sidekick, and the record for it is two decades stale, from a market that barely resembles today’s. What the modern demand looks like: a CGC 1.5 with a split spine and detached cover was bid past $15,000 at ComicConnect in April 2021, well over its guide value at the time. A fresh high-grade copy at auction now would almost certainly reset the record, but I won’t guess a number.
35. Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #1 (Dell, 1940): the most valuable Disney comic
| Documented high | $116,000 for the copy Heritage described as the only true near-mint example known, November 15, 2008 (Heritage Auction Galleries) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $300 (undated) |
| Current market | $1,374 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The most valuable Disney comic there is, and the anchor of every serious duck collection. The record deserves its asterisks: the sale is eighteen years old, the copy was described as unique in grade, and I found no newer comp to update it. A book this famous with a reported floor in the hundreds means most surviving copies are well-loved readers, and those still find buyers readily. Disney books from before 1950 are worth pulling out of any box you inherit; text me the covers and I will tell you which ones matter.
36. Planet Comics #1 (Fiction House, 1940): the first all-science-fiction comic
| Reported high | $108,670 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide; a single unverified figure) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $1,000 (undated) |
The first comic devoted entirely to science fiction, with a Lou Fine cover, and a book whose price history is murkier than its fame. The six-figure record is a single undated figure I could not verify against any completed sale. The famous Nicolas Cage copy, a CGC 9.4 from the Denver pedigree and one of only two at that grade, went to auction at ComicConnect in September 2021, but the result was never published, so treat the big number as a rumor with a comma in it.
37. Phantom Lady #23 (Fox, 1949): the sister key
| Documented high | $108,000 for a CGC 9.4, Promise Collection, June 19, 2021 (Heritage Auctions) |
| Floor | None sourced this session |
| Current market | $4,350 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Another Baker cover riding in #17’s slipstream, and it cleared six figures in the same Promise Collection sale. Same caveat applies: that was a pedigree copy at the top of the census, sold in a landmark auction, and I found no ordinary-copy comps to anchor what a typical example brings. Price expectations should start well below the record and get proven upward.
38. Marvel Mystery Comics #9 (Timely, 1940): the first superhero fight
| Reported high | $107,000 reported for a CGC 9.4; secondhand data dates the sale to 2009 |
| Floor | Overstreet 2022 guide values, not sales: $5,100 in GD 2.0, $10,200 in VG 4.0, $15,300 in FN 6.0 |
| Current market | $2,390 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The first superhero-versus-superhero battle ever published, Human Torch against Sub-Mariner, under a classic Schomburg cover. The record is seventeen years old, and that is worth understanding correctly: copies stopped surfacing at auction, not demand. When high-grade copies do not trade, the record freezes while the market keeps moving underneath it, so the old number almost certainly understates what one would bring today.
39. Captain America Comics #2 (Timely, 1941)
| Reported high | $103,100 reported record sale (undated) |
| Floor | $2,000 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $4,235 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The second issue, with another classic Hitler cover. The reported six-figure record carries no date, so I treat it as an order of magnitude rather than a comp. Any copy in any condition is worth showing me.
40. Mask Comics #1 (Rural Home, 1945): L.B. Cole’s devil
| Documented high | $102,000 for a CGC 8.5, Promise Collection, June 19, 2021 (Heritage Auctions) |
| Floor | None sourced; almost no other public comps exist |
L.B. Cole’s devil cover is the pre-code-cover trophy, the image poster artists have borrowed for eighty years. The six-figure record comes from a single pedigree copy in the Promise Collection sale, and there is almost nothing else on the public record to price a regular copy against. When one sale is the entire visible market, the record is a fact about that auction, not a promise about your book.
41. Action Comics #2 (DC, 1938): the second Superman story ever
| Reported high | Around $95,000 reported guide record, undated; no dated sale verified |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $1,500 for a low-grade copy (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $12,000 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Every 1938 issue of Action is genuinely scarce, and this one holds the second Superman story ever printed. Oddly, it gets almost no news coverage relative to that scarcity, so the honest citation is guide records around $95,000 rather than a dated sale. If a nice copy surfaced at auction tomorrow, I would not be surprised to see it beat that number, but I won’t pretend to know by how much.
42. Superman #2 (DC, 1939): the scarce follow-up
| Reported high | Around $94,000 reported guide record, undated; no dated sale verified |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $1,000 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $1,938 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Any Superman comic with a 1939 cover date is a scarce book, and the second issue of the first superhero solo title rides directly in issue one’s wake. I could not verify a dated sale for this one, so the guide record is the only number I’ll print, labeled as exactly that. Given what its big brother has been doing at auction since 2025, an old guide figure here probably runs low.
43. Human Torch #2 (Timely, 1940): the solo title that starts at #2
| Reported high | $92,610 reported record; secondhand data identifies it as a CGC 9.4 sold in 2009 |
| Floor | $1,000 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $1,419 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The first issue of the Torch’s solo book, numbered #2 because it continued Red Raven’s numbering, which confuses sellers to this day. The record dates to 2009 for the same reason as several books on this list: the two known 9.6 copies have never sold at auction and high-grade supply simply dried up, so the old number sits there understating a market that never went away. Do not read a stale record as a soft market.
44. Four Color #178 (Dell, 1947): the first Uncle Scrooge
| Reported high | $90,000 reported for the Rockford pedigree CGC 9.6, November 2022 (snippet only; the listing could not be verified) |
| Floor | A CGC 4.5 sold for under $500 in June 2020 (eBay, per GoCollect), and a 4.0 reportedly went for under $200 |
“Christmas on Bear Mountain” introduces Uncle Scrooge, which makes this the single most important duck first appearance. The $90,000 belongs to a pedigree copy at the top of the census and I could not verify the sale, so the saner benchmarks are the documented low-grade results: mid-grade copies have traded in the hundreds, not the thousands. The grade-to-grade gap on this book is as wide as anything on this list, so an accurate grade matters more here than almost anywhere.
45. Phantom Lady #14 (Fox, 1948): the third Baker cover on this list
| Reported high | $90,000 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide; a single unverified figure) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $340 (undated) |
| Current market | $2,452 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The third of the Matt Baker Phantom Lady covers that collectors chase, and the one with the weakest paper trail. The $90,000 is a single undated figure with no grade or venue attached, so verify it against fresh sold listings before you plan around it. The reported floor in the hundreds says ordinary copies are attainable in a way #17 has not been for decades.
46. More Fun Comics #73 (DC, 1941): the first Aquaman and Green Arrow
| Documented high | $90,000 for a CGC 6.0, December 2022, Heritage; note this is a mid-grade sale, not necessarily the issue’s all-time high |
| Floor | No verified low-grade sale to cite this pass |
| Current market | $4,005 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Two Justice Leaguers debut in a single anthology issue, with Speedy thrown in for good measure, which makes this one of the most efficient key comics ever printed. Ninety thousand dollars for a 6.0 tells you where the real market sits; a high-grade copy would bring more, though I have no verified sale to quote for one. Books like this hide in anthology runs that people assume are worthless.
47. Detective Comics #35 (DC, 1940): the hypodermic needle cover
| Documented high | $88,450 for a CGC 6.0, February 2026, Heritage Auctions |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $3,500 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $9,205 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Another early Batman issue that trades on its cover, the notorious hypodermic-needle image, rather than a first appearance. The February 2026 result is a mid-grade sale; guides report a record around $120,000 for the issue, undated, so a top copy likely sits above what I can document. Scarce enough that copies in any grade find buyers fast.
48. Detective Comics #66 (DC, 1942): the first Two-Face
| Reported high | Around $85,000 reported guide record, undated, and it belongs to a single top-graded 9.2 copy |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $4,000 (price guide, undated) |
Harvey Kent, later renamed Dent, gets his origin and his scarred coin right here. Be careful with the record: it attaches to one census-topping NM- 9.2, so it says nothing about what an ordinary copy brings. Typical mid-grade and low-grade copies trade at a small fraction of it, with the reported guide floor around $4,000 for rough complete ones.
49. Action Comics #23 (DC, 1940): the first Lex Luthor
| Reported high | Around $72,000 reported guide record, undated; the highest-graded copy reportedly sold for $65,000 back in 2015 |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $1,000 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $1,195 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Superman’s arch-enemy debuts here, with red hair, and the Daily Planet gets its name in the same issue. Only about 167 copies sit on the CGC census and none grade above 9.0, so top-copy sales are rare events. The reported comps show the direction: a CGC 6.5 that brought $8,800 in 2012 reportedly made $37,500 in 2018. None of those figures could be pinned to a fetched primary source, so hold them loosely.
Halfway. If your arm is tired of scrolling and your boxes are within driving distance of anywhere in Southern California, the shortcut is a photo text to (951) 515-9604.
50. MAD #1 (EC, 1952): the satire landmark
| Documented high | $81,000 for the CGC 9.8 Gaines File Copy pedigree, March 2023 (ComicConnect) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $200 (undated) |
| Current market | $583 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Harvey Kurtzman’s first satire comic, and the most widely collected EC launch by far, with 724 graded copies on the census as of March 2026. Know what the record represents before you get excited: the Gaines File copies are publisher-kept pedigree books, that 9.8 is one of only eight, and the median graded copy is a 5.0 worth a small fraction of it. Plenty of copies exist, and most of them are honest mid-grade readers. I take EC books in any shape, and MAD #1 is a book where the honest grade matters more than the famous name.
51. Captain America Comics #3 (Timely, 1941): Stan Lee’s first published work
| Reported high | $80,000 reported record sale (undated) |
| Floor | $1,000 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $7,473 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Stan Lee’s first published work appears here, a two-page text story, under a Schomburg cover. That footnote alone keeps this issue in demand beyond the usual early-Cap premium. The record figure is undated, so read it as shape, not a quote.
52. Crime SuspenStories #22 (EC, 1954): the severed-head cover Congress saw
| Reported high | $72,000 reported for a CGC 9.0 in January 2023, and $52,800 for an 8.5 in November 2022 (both via snippets; the sale pages could not be verified) |
| Floor | Overstreet’s 2020 guide put a Fine copy at $2,058, the best sourced anchor for this book |
| Current market | $1,546 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Johnny Craig’s severed-head cover, the one held up at the 1954 Senate hearings that helped end the pre-code era, which is why this issue outsells every other Crime SuspenStories. Two independent five-figure reports from 2022 and 2023 suggest the ceiling is real, but I could not verify either sale directly, so both stay labeled reported. For perspective, the same Gaines File 9.0 that would command five figures today brought $2,358 back in July 2003.
53. Batman #11 (DC, 1942): the Joker playing-card cover
| Reported high | $65,725 reported for a CGC 9.4, August 2016; the date comes from a secondary summary |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $400 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $1,971 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
One of the most famous covers of the entire Golden Age, the Joker fanned across playing cards, and only his third cover appearance ever. The record copy is a top-of-census 9.4 that had sold for $36,800 back in 2003, so the big number reflects one exceptional book. Mid-grade copies trade far lower, though a cover this iconic keeps every grade in demand.
54. Batman #2 (DC, 1940): early Joker and Catwoman
| Reported high | Around $63,000 reported guide record, undated; the dated comps are stale, like a reported $43,000 for a CGC 9.2 in 2010 |
| Floor | Reported around $200 for a poor but complete copy (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $2,224 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The Joker and Selina Kyle, not yet in costume as Catwoman, both develop in this second issue. Every dated number I could find is old: the 9.2 sale is from 2010 and a reported $13,000 CGC 6.0 sale is from 2019, so read them all as “at least” figures in today’s market. A 1940 Batman issue has not gotten cheaper since then.
55. All Select Comics #1 (Timely, 1943)
| Reported high | $63,000 reported secondhand for the top-graded NM- 9.2, in 2017 |
| Floor | No published floor |
| Current market | $2,077 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Another Cap, Torch, and Namor team-up title with a Schomburg cover, and another book where the highest-graded copy sets the visible record. The 2017 figure reaches me secondhand, alongside guide chatter of roughly $70,000 in NM, so hold both loosely. Mid-grade copies trade well below either number.
56. Amazing-Man Comics #5 (Centaur, 1939): Bill Everett’s first hero
| Documented high | $56,762.50 for the single CGC 9.4 on the census, February 20, 2014 (Heritage Auctions) |
| Floor | $4,000 for a CGC 3.5, March 11, 2019 (ComicConnect) |
Bill Everett created Amazing-Man the same year he created Namor, and this is the most valuable Centaur book by a distance. The record copy is the one 9.4 among roughly 30 on the census, and the sale is twelve years old, so it describes that copy and that day rather than the market. The realistic anchor is the documented 3.5 at $4,000, which tells you what a real-world copy actually does.
57. More Fun Comics #101 (DC, 1945): the first Superboy
| Reported high | Around $55,200 reported guide record, undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $300 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $560 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Superboy’s true first appearance and origin are here, not in the Adventure Comics run everyone remembers, and fewer than 60 unrestored copies exist on the census. A Promise Collection CGC 9.4 has been offered at Heritage, but I could not verify what it sold for, so I won’t guess. Given the census count, the undated guide record likely runs low for a strong copy.
58. Young Allies #1 (Timely, 1941): Bucky punches Hitler
| Reported high | $54,630 reported record sale (undated) |
| Floor | $1,000 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $1,576 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The first Young Allies, the first meeting of Cap and the Human Torch, and a famous cover of Bucky decking Hitler in front of the Red Skull. The reported record is undated, so treat it as a marker. You will see much bigger numbers floating around online for this book; the ones I traced came from a source whose figures do not hold up, so I will not repeat them.
59. Daredevil Comics #1 (Lev Gleason, 1941): Daredevil battles Hitler
| Reported high | $50,788 reported for the Vancouver pedigree CGC 9.6, undated (unverified snippet) |
| Floor | None sourced this session |
| Current market | $590 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The cover says “Daredevil Battles Hitler,” published months before Pearl Harbor, and it remains one of the great statement covers of the war years. The only figure I can attach to it is a reported pedigree sale with no date I could confirm, so treat it as a rough marker rather than a comp. A pedigree 9.6 also tells you nothing about a reading-copy example, and I found no low-grade sales to fill that gap.
60. All Winners Comics #1 (Timely, 1941): the all-star anthology
| Reported high | $50,000 reported secondhand for the Chicago pedigree CGC 9.6, back in 2011 |
| Floor | No published floor |
| Current market | $2,880 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Cap, the Torch, and Namor together in one anthology, with a Stan Lee text feature. The record copy was Chicago pedigree and, at the time, the only copy graded above 9.2, so provenance and census position drove that price and a plain copy sits below it. The record is stale because copies stopped coming to auction, not because demand cooled; secondhand guide chatter now puts an NM copy around $100,000, which I pass along as talk, not a comp.
61. Marvel Mystery Comics #4 (Timely, 1940)
| Reported high | $50,000 reported record sale (undated) |
| Floor | $1,000 reported minimum in any condition (undated) |
| Current market | $1,397 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Early Schomburg-era issue from the run dealers describe as sellable in any condition. The reported record carries no date, so I present it as shape, not a standing price. A beat-up copy is still a four-figure conversation.
62. All Select Comics #11 (Timely, 1946): the first Blonde Phantom
| Reported high | $48,000 reported record sale (undated) |
| Floor | $300 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $1,398 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The true first appearance of the Blonde Phantom, Timely’s headline heroine of the late 1940s, and a book that gets mixed up constantly: Blonde Phantom Comics #12, which continues this title’s numbering after the rename, gets called her first appearance all over the internet, and it is not. The market knows the difference even when the listings do not, with the reported record here at $48,000 against roughly $2,280 reported for BP #12. If you have either book, sorting out which one you actually hold is the first job, and it is one I do for free.
63. Adventure Comics #40 (DC, 1939): the first Sandman
| Reported high | $48,000 reported for a CGC 8.0, but that sale was back in 2012; a restored 9.2 reportedly brought $63,000 in 2004 |
| Floor | No verified low-grade sale to cite this pass |
One of DC’s scarcest early keys, full stop: roughly 22 unrestored copies on the census, and nothing above 8.0 has ever been to auction. Both reported records are more than a decade old, which means they badly understate what this book would do today; I just can’t responsibly name the number a fresh sale would reach. Wesley Dodds and his gas mask started DC’s mystery-man tradition here.
64. Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 (First Funnies, 1939): the true first Sub-Mariner
| Reported high | $43,000 reported record sale (undated) |
| Floor | $10,000 reported minimum in any condition (undated) |
Namor actually debuted here, in a movie-theater giveaway that predates Marvel Comics #1. Only eight copies are known to exist, three of them restored, so every sale is its own market and the reported figures are undated. Rarity puts a floor under this one regardless of grade; if you have any comic that looks like this, I want to see it before you do anything else with it.
65. Marvel Mystery Comics #10 (Timely, 1940): the battle’s finale
| Reported high | $42,250 reported for an unretouched CGC 9.4; secondhand data dates the sale to 2016 |
| Floor | $900 reported minimum (undated) |
The conclusion of comics’ first superhero war, with a giant Namor cover. This one has an unusually consistent trail for a Timely: secondhand data shows three 9.4 sales across a decade, including a Chicago pedigree copy at $37,000 in 2007 and a Billy Wright pedigree copy at $35,850 in 2012, before the unretouched record in 2016. The top-graded 9.6 has never sold publicly, and a 2016 record likely understates today’s market.
66. Mystery Men Comics #1 (Fox, 1939): the first Blue Beetle
| Documented high | $41,000 for a CGC 9.0 Church/Mile High pedigree copy, 2017 (ComicConnect) |
| Floor | None sourced; only 39 copies on the CGC census |
| Current market | $1,265 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Dan Garret’s debut as the Blue Beetle, a character still in print at DC today. Hold the record loosely: it belongs to a famous pedigree copy, the sale is nine years old, and with 39 total copies on the census and a single 9.2 above it, the sale history is too thin to call a market. Scarcity is doing the work here, not a steady stream of buyers.
67. Detective Comics #58 (DC, 1941): the first Penguin
| Reported high | Around $40,800 reported guide record, undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $3,000 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $2,894 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The Penguin waddles in here, and first appearances of the core Batman rogues gallery all carry real money. No dated sale could be verified this session, so the guide record stands with that caveat attached. A book like this in any complete condition is worth a phone call before you let it go in a bulk lot.
68. Police Comics #1 (Quality, 1941): first Plastic Man and the original Phantom Lady
| Documented high | $38,838 for the single CGC 9.4 on the census, 2014 (per GoCollect; the auction venue was not named in the source) |
| Floor | No true floor found; a CGC 4.0 brought $18,000 in October 2022 (Heritage) |
Three first appearances in one book: Plastic Man, the Human Bomb, and the original Quality version of Phantom Lady. Weigh the record lightly, because that 9.4 is the only copy on the census at that grade and the sale is now twelve years old. The better signal is the 2022 result, where a mid-grade 4.0 still cleared five figures.
69. Four Color #9 (Dell, 1942): the first Carl Barks ducks
| Reported high | $38,400 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $100 (undated) |
| Current market | $600 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
“Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold” is the first duck comic Carl Barks drew, and Barks is the reason duck books have a serious collector market at all. The record is reported and undated; a CGC 9.0 headlined Heritage’s April 6, 2023 Dell and Gold Key showcase, but that result was never published where I could reach it. A newer, higher comp may exist somewhere, but I will not pretend to have one.
70. Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (Fawcett, 1941): Kirby draws the Big Red Cheese
| Reported high | $38,000 reported for a CGC 5.0, the highest-graded copy, reportedly 2016 |
| Floor | $5,878 documented for a CBCS 2.0 (January 2023, MyComicShop Prime Auction); guide minimum around $1,200, undated |
| Current market | $2,650 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Jack Kirby drew this first solo Captain Marvel book, and Fawcett printed it on paper so poor that the issue probably does not exist above FN 6.0. That grade ceiling is why the record looks modest next to the DC keys: a 5.0 here is a census-topping copy, not a mid-grade one. The documented $5,878 for a beaten 2.0 in 2023 shows what even rough copies genuinely bring.
71. Marvel Mystery Comics #2 (Timely, 1939)
| Reported high | $38,000 reported for a CGC 9.0 (undated) |
| Floor | $2,000 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $962 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Second issue of the retitled flagship, with early Human Torch and Sub-Mariner stories. The reported record is undated, so treat it as a marker rather than a quote. Any 1939 Timely in any condition is a book worth a phone call.
72. Superman #14 (DC, 1942): the patriotic shield cover
| Reported high | Around $35,000 reported guide record, undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $400 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $1,316 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
No first appearance here at all. This one trades entirely on Fred Ray’s eagle-and-shield cover, one of the most reproduced images in comics, which wartime readers and modern collectors both fell for. Cover books like this are grade-sensitive: the money is in sharp copies where that image displays, while worn ones stay in the hundreds.
73. Exciting Comics #9 (Nedor, 1941): the first Black Terror
| Reported high | $33,600 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $400 (undated) |
The origin and first appearance of the Black Terror, whose skull-and-crossbones chest made him the most reprinted public-domain hero of the revival era, and a book tied for the last spot on Overstreet’s Top 100 Golden Age list. The record is a reported, undated figure. A CGC 2.5 ran in Heritage’s September 18, 2025 auction, but that result was not published where I could reach it, so a fresher comp exists somewhere without a number I can honestly print.
74. Four Color #4, Donald Duck (Dell, 1940): Donald’s first comic book
| Reported high | $28,680 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $500 (undated) |
From the first Four Color series, this is one of the earliest Donald Duck comic-book keys, before Carl Barks ever touched the character. Make sure you have the 1940 Series I issue and not the later second series, because the numbering restarted and the values do not transfer. The record is a reported, undated figure, so confirm it against recent sales before setting expectations.
75. Pep Comics #1 (MLJ, 1940): the Shield beats Captain America to the flag
| Documented high | $27,600 for a CGC 8.5, April 2021 (Heritage Auctions) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $300 (undated) |
| Current market | $2,100 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
This is the first appearance of the Shield, the original patriotic hero, on the stands nearly a year before Captain America. Only 48 copies sat on the CGC census as of June 2026, with a single 9.2 at the top, so the sale history is thin by nature. The gap between the $27,600 record and the $300 reported floor tells you grade is everything here.
76. Marvel Mystery Comics 128-Page Issue (Timely, 1943): the five-copy monster
| Reported high | $26,000 reported for a CGC 6.5 (undated) |
| Floor | No published floor; with five known copies, every sale is its own market |
A rarity monster most collectors have never seen in person, with only five copies known. Pricing a book like this off a single undated report is guesswork, and I will say so plainly. If one of the five is somehow in your family’s boxes, that is a call I would like to get.
77. Mystic Comics #1 (Timely, 1940)
| Reported high | $25,000 reported secondhand for the top-graded NM- 9.2, back in 2006 |
| Floor | A FN 6.0 reportedly brought $3,800 in 2017 (secondhand) |
| Current market | $3,990 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
First Blue Blaze and Flexo, in an anthology that is brutally scarce in grade. The record is two decades old because copies stopped surfacing at public auction, not because anyone stopped wanting them; when the highest-graded copy last traded in 2006, the printed record can only lag. Both figures here reach me secondhand, so hold them loosely.
78. Marvel Mystery Comics #3 (Timely, 1940): the first Schomburg cover
| Documented high | $24,000 for a CGC 2.5, 2023 (Heritage) |
| Floor | No published floor; even low grades of the earliest issues carry five figures at auction |
| Current market | $2,176 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Read that record line again: a 2.5, not a 9.2, brought $24,000 in 2023, while a CGC 9.0 sold for $22,705 back in 2010. That is not a grade curve, it is a census artifact, because almost nothing of this issue survives in any shape. It matters historically as Alex Schomburg’s first Timely cover, the start of the most collected cover run the company ever produced.
79. Crime Does Not Pay #24 (Lev Gleason, 1942): the hair-on-fire cover
| Reported high | $21,600 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $250 (undated) |
The most sought-after crime comic of them all, thanks to a cover so lurid it became shorthand for everything the genre’s critics hated. The record is a single undated figure, so it tells you the ceiling has been five figures at some point, not what it is today. Low-grade copies reportedly start in the low hundreds, which makes this one of the more findable books in this section.
80. USA Comics #1 (Timely, 1941)
| Reported high | $21,510 reported secondhand for the Billy Wright pedigree CGC 9.2, February 2012 |
| Floor | No published floor |
| Current market | $500 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
One of the toughest Schomburg-cover Timely number ones to find in grade. The record is fourteen years old and pedigreed, which tells you two things: the Billy Wright provenance helped the price, and copies stopped surfacing at auction afterward, so the number is stale on the low side rather than a sign of a soft market. A plain copy prices below a pedigree copy, but a fresh high-grade example today would almost certainly reset this record.
81. Red Raven Comics #1 (Timely, 1940): Kirby’s first signed cover
| Reported high | $15,600 reported secondhand for a CGC 4.5, late 2025 |
| Floor | No published floor; Overstreet 2011 put a 9.2 at $24,000 (guide value, not a sale) |
Jack Kirby’s first signed cover work, on a title that lasted exactly one issue before its numbering became Human Torch Comics. The 2025 figure comes to me secondhand, so treat it cautiously, but a mid-grade 4.5 reportedly clearing five figures says the base under this book is real. A Mile High pedigree 9.0 exists in the census and has not shown a public price.
82. Journey into Mystery #1 (Atlas, 1952): before Thor moved in
| Reported high | $13,750 reported record sale (undated); a CGC 7.5 reportedly brought $9,600 in 2019 (secondhand) |
| Floor | $200 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $681 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
First issue of the Atlas horror and suspense anthology that Thor would take over a decade later. That connection keeps Marvel collectors bidding on what is otherwise a pre-code horror book, and the reported 7.5 result suggests mid-grade copies do most of the trading. The record figure is undated, so treat it as shape rather than a standing price.
83. Tales from the Crypt #20 (EC, 1950): the first issue under the famous name
| Reported high | $12,600 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $120 (undated) |
| Current market | $600 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
There is no Tales from the Crypt #1, and that fact has confused sellers for seventy years. The series continued Crypt of Terror’s numbering, so #20 is the first issue under the famous title, and it carries a premium for exactly that reason. The record here is a reported, undated figure, so verify against fresh sales before treating it as current. Horror from this era sells even beaten up, and I buy pre-code books every month. Photos first, straight number after.
84. Crime Does Not Pay #22 (Lev Gleason, 1942): the comic that invented true crime
| Reported high | $12,600 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $150 (undated) |
| Current market | $1,300 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The first true-crime comic, the book that launched an entire genre, picking up its numbering from Silver Streak. The data on it is thin and conflicting: the undated $12,600 record sits alongside an older report of a 7.0 bringing $4,800 in 2011, when only nine copies above 6.0 were said to be known. Historically important, commercially murky, and I would price any copy from current sold listings rather than either of those figures.
85. Marvel Family #1 (Fawcett, 1945): the first Black Adam
| Documented high | $10,600 for a CGC 5.5, January 2023, MyComicShop Prime Auction; a record for that grade, not necessarily the issue’s all-time high |
| Floor | $2,650 documented for a CGC 1.5 in the same January 2023 auction |
| Current market | $2,029 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Black Adam’s first appearance and origin, and the movie era pushed it hard: that 5.5 sale doubled the $5,250 the same grade had brought in 2019. Higher-grade copies trade privately and at the big houses, and an all-time record above this almost certainly exists, but I could not verify one, so I won’t invent it. Both figures in the table are documented sales from the same auction, which makes this one of the cleanest data rows on the page.
86. Plastic Man #1 (Quality, 1943): the solo debut
| Documented high | $10,200 for a CGC 7.5 Promise Collection pedigree copy, 2022 (per GoCollect) |
| Floor | CGC 2.5 copies sold for $1,440 in January 2023 and $1,320 in August 2023 |
| Current market | $1,410 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Plastic Man’s first solo title, and one of the few books in this section with a tight cluster of recent public sales. A non-pedigree 7.5 brought $7,200 in the same 2022 reporting, so the pedigree premium on the record copy is visible but not wild. Low-grade copies trading steadily in the low four figures makes this one of the easier Quality keys to price honestly.
87. Whiz Comics #25 (Fawcett, 1941): the first Captain Marvel Jr.
| Reported high | Around $9,150 reported guide record, undated |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $220 (price guide, undated) |
| Current market | $1,075 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Freddy Freeman debuts here, and if his look seems familiar, it should: Elvis Presley modeled his stage style on Captain Marvel Jr., right down to the hair. As Fawcett keys go this is the affordable one, with low-grade copies in the low hundreds. The record is a guide figure without a date, so treat it as a rough ceiling.
88. Captain America Comics #78 (Atlas, 1954): the last issue
| Reported high | $9,000 reported record sale (undated) |
| Floor | $160 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $709 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The end of the original run, from the short-lived commie-smasher revival, with a John Romita Sr. cover. Last issues of long Golden Age runs are quietly scarce because nobody was paying attention when they shipped. The figures are undated and reported, so hold them loosely.
89. Crypt of Terror #17 (EC, 1950): where Tales from the Crypt actually starts
| Reported high | $8,963 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $60 (undated) |
| Current market | $552 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
This is the first issue of the title that becomes Tales from the Crypt three issues later, which makes it the launch point of EC’s horror trend. Both figures here are undated reports, so read them as a shape, not a quote: a high in the four figures and a floor low enough that worn copies are genuinely affordable. EC collectors are a loyal bunch, and these books sell in every grade.
90. Weird Science #12 (EC, 1950): the number-one issue numbered twelve
| Reported high | $8,800 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $50 (undated) |
| Current market | $513 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
EC’s flagship science-fiction title starts at #12, another numbering quirk that trips up sellers who assume they have a mid-run issue. It is the true first issue, and priced like one. A 9.6 reportedly sold in November 2018, but the price never surfaced where I could see it, so the undated $8,800 report is the only ceiling figure I can offer, with all the usual caveats.
91. Weird Fantasy #13 (EC, 1950): the companion launch
| Reported high | $8,300 reported record, undated (a dealer price guide) |
| Floor | Reported minimum around $10 (undated) |
| Current market | $420 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Weird Science’s sister title launched the same month with the same numbering quirk, starting at #13. The reported record sits right alongside its companion’s, and the reported floor is barely above cover-price territory, which is the widest spread in the EC section. Both numbers are undated, so treat them as rough boundaries rather than a market.
92. Adventure Comics #103 (DC, 1946): Superboy’s run begins
| Reported high | $8,000 reported for a CGC 9.6 Big Apple pedigree copy, reportedly July 2014; no figure for this issue could be verified against a primary source |
| Floor | Reported around $700 in FN 6.0 and $200 in GD 2.0 (secondary summary, unconfirmed) |
| Current market | $278 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
This is where Superboy’s feature moves into Adventure Comics and begins the long run that decades later gives the world the Legion of Super-Heroes, in 1958, outside the Golden Age entirely. It is a run-starter, not a first appearance; Superboy actually debuted in More Fun Comics #101. Honest money here is hundreds of dollars, low thousands in top grade, and I list it for completeness because collectors ask about it constantly.
93. Eerie #1 (Avon, 1947): the first all-horror comic book
| Reported high | A CGC 8.0 reached a $5,750 bid at Heritage on November 18, 2021; that is an in-progress bid, not a completed sale price |
| Floor | None sourced; Overstreet’s 2021 guide valued a VF 8.0 at $6,285, a guide number rather than a sale |
The first all-horror comic book, three years before EC got there, and ranked second on Overstreet’s Top Ten Horror Comics list. I want to be precise about the only figure I have: $5,750 was where the bidding stood on an 8.0 during the auction, not what the book finally sold for, and I never found the hammer price. With seven copies in 8.0 and ten higher on the census at the time, it is scarce enough that any sharp copy deserves a careful, current search before you price it.
94. Strange Tales #1 (Atlas, 1951): pre-code horror begins
| Reported high | $5,530 reported record sale (undated) |
| Floor | $300 reported minimum (undated) |
| Current market | $1,358 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The launch of the pre-code Atlas horror flagship that would eventually become Doctor Strange’s title. Dealer guides note this material seldom turns up better than VG, and that the run’s most extreme covers carry the premium: #28, the skeleton cover, has a reported record of $17,000 against this first issue’s $5,530, both undated. Condition scarcity, not the issue number, does the work in this corner of the market.
95. Miss Fury #1 (Timely, 1942): the book the guides can’t price
| Reported high | No public sale for #1 itself; the series’ reported secondhand top is $4,255 for a 9.4 in 2019, not confirmed as a #1 |
| Floor | No published floor; the top-graded CGC 9.2 has never sold at public auction |
The first comic-book appearance of June Tarpé Mills’ Miss Fury, the earliest major superheroine created and drawn by a woman, whose newspaper strip predates Wonder Woman. The public record is almost empty: the highest-graded copy has never crossed an auction block, and as of late 2022 no 9.0 had traded publicly in seven years. When a book this significant has no comps, guide prices lag reality badly, and the honest move is an appraisal, not a printed number.
96. Black Cat Mystery #50 (Harvey, 1954): the White Heat cover
| Documented high | $3,010 for a CGC 9.4 File Copy at Nate D. Sanders Auctions (sale reported March 2019) |
| Floor | None sourced; low-grade copies appear at auction regularly |
| Current market | $775 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Lee Elias’s radioactive-face cover is the ultimate Atomic Age horror image, reproduced in every history of the pre-code era. Here is the honest part: for all that fame, the documented ceiling is four figures, not five, and that record was a high-grade File Copy. Iconic covers and big money are not the same thing, and this book is the proof I point to when someone assumes a famous cover guarantees a famous price. If your pre-code horror is rough, that is normal, and it is still worth a call.
Four books the public market cannot price
These last four are not the cheapest books on this page. They sit here because no reliable public sale exists to rank them by, which for a seller is its own kind of information: when a book almost never trades in public, the price guides are guessing, and whoever helps you sell it had better say so out loud.
97. Silver Streak Comics #6 (Lev Gleason, 1940): the first Daredevil, and good luck finding one
| Reported high | None found; public comps barely exist for this book |
| Floor | None sourced; only 54 copies on the CGC census |
The first appearance of the Golden Age Daredevil, squaring off against the Claw, and a book so scarce that few copies have traded at public sale in the past five years. A CGC Apparent 6.0 ran in Heritage’s October 16, 2025 auction, and even that result was not published where I could reach it. When a first appearance this significant has no quotable record, that absence is the story: whoever owns one sets the conversation.
98. Jumbo Comics #1 (Fiction House, 1938): the rarity with almost no price history
| Reported high | No verified single-copy record exists; the best reported individual sale is $3,947 for a 4.5 in August 2015 (unverified snippet) |
| Floor | None sourced; public comps barely exist |
| Current market | $2,484 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
Fiction House’s first comic, the first Sheena, and shop-era work from the young Will Eisner, in an oversized format that made surviving copies scarce. You may see an $83,650 figure attached to this book, but that May 2006 result was for a lot of Jumbo #1 through #8, not one issue, and quoting it as a single-copy price is exactly the kind of thing this list exists to avoid. The honest summary is that public comps barely exist, which for a 1938 book is itself the point.
99. All Winners Comics #19 (Timely, 1946): the first Marvel super-team
| Reported high | None I can responsibly print; public comps are essentially nonexistent, and the few secondhand figures that exist contradict each other |
| Floor | No published floor |
| Current market | $913 for a raw copy (PriceCharting eBay-sold index, August 2026) |
The first appearance and origin of the All-Winners Squad, a 43-page epic uniting Cap, Bucky, the Torch, Toro, Sub-Mariner, Whizzer, and Miss America, which makes it the first Marvel superhero team story. For a book of that importance, the public sales record is remarkably thin, and the scraps that surface disagree with each other, so I would rather print nothing than print a guess. This is exactly the kind of book where an appraisal against current private-market activity beats any list, this one included.
100. Human Torch #5, Fall 1941: the battle issue, and a numbering trap
| Reported high | $6,000 reported record for “Human Torch #5” (undated), and the source does not say which of the two 1941 #5s it means |
| Floor | $340 reported minimum (undated), with the same ambiguity |
Here is a trap that catches buyers and sellers alike: Timely published two Human Torch #5s in 1941, one in Summer and one in Fall, and the Fall issue, the famous full-length Human Torch versus Sub-Mariner battle, is the key. Every figure I could find for “#5” fails to say which issue it covers, so I will not pretend those numbers describe the battle issue specifically. Before we talk price on this one, we establish which #5 you have, because the difference matters more than the grade.
Why you should never restore or clean a Golden Age book
The single most expensive mistake a Golden Age owner can make is trying to improve the book. The market proved it twice in the last two years, in the cleanest way possible: same auction house, same books. At Heritage in July 2026, an unrestored Action Comics #1 graded 4.5 brought $1,525,000 while a restored copy graded two full grades higher, a 6.5, brought $427,000. In November 2024, an unrestored Detective Comics #27 graded 0.5, with brittle pages, sold for $312,000 and beat a restored 5.0 from the same sale outright.
Restoration means color touch, tape, trimmed edges, married pages, cleaning, anything done to make the book look better than it survived. Graders catch it, the label turns purple, and the price falls off a cliff; the grading guide covers what inspectors actually look for. So: no tape on splits, no erasing, no pressing arranged by a well-meaning relative, nothing. A rough, untouched copy is money. A pretty, restored copy is a fraction of it.
What a beaten copy is really worth
Most Golden Age books that walk into my life are not pretty, and on the top keys it barely matters. A complete, unrestored Action Comics #1 graded 0.5, the lowest grade CGC gives, sold for $408,000 at Heritage in September 2023. A Detective Comics #27 at the same grade brought $312,000 in 2024. Even a Superman #1 missing its back cover has reportedly traded in the $66,000 to $96,000 range depending on the front, and fragments of Action #1 covers have been slabbed and sold. On books at that level there is no such thing as too rough to matter.
Below the mega-keys, the discount for condition gets steep. Batman #1 in a 2.0 brought $102,000 at Heritage in January 2024 while a 7.0 brought $630,000 the same month, roughly a six-to-one spread. That is the honest shape of this market: completeness first, originality second, grade third. Which is why the only wrong move is deciding your copy is worthless before anyone qualified has looked at it.
Pedigrees: when the name on the label outruns the grade
Some records on this page belong to pedigree copies, books from famous collections like Edgar Church’s Mile High find, the San Francisco collection, or Heritage’s Promise Collection, and I have flagged them in the entries because a pedigree price is not your copy’s price. The premium is real, though. A Promise Collection Captain America #1 graded 3.5 sold for about what an ordinary 5.5 brought a year later. If a grandparent bought comics new off the stand and kept them, that provenance story is worth telling whoever handles the sale, because pedigree status gets printed on the grading label and follows the book forever.
Selling Golden Age comics
Here is how I actually work with Golden Age material, and it depends on what you have. For most of the books on this page, I am a direct cash buyer anywhere in Southern California: photos first, an honest number, and I come to you. For the books at the very top of this list, the seven-figure tier, the right venue is a major auction house, and I will tell you that plainly and help you get there without being taken advantage of first. What you get from me either way is the same thing: someone who knows what he is looking at and tells you the truth about it before you sign anything.
Old comics in the family?
Do not clean them, do not tape them, do not let anyone “help” yet. Photograph the covers where they sit and text them to me. I will tell you what deserves a closer look, what it is roughly worth, and what I can pay, anywhere in Southern California.
Straight answers on Golden Age books
What counts as Golden Age?
Roughly 1938 through 1955. The era starts with Action Comics #1 and Superman, and it ends where the Silver Age begins, with the new Flash in Showcase #4 in late 1956. Some collectors carve out an “Atomic Age” for the postwar years, but most of the hobby, and every major price index, treats all of it as Golden Age, and so does this page.
My book is incomplete or coverless. Is it worthless?
On ordinary books, missing pieces hurt badly. On major keys, no. Incomplete Superman #1 copies have reportedly sold for five figures, and graded fragments of Action #1 have real markets. Never throw away a damaged Golden Age key, and read the damaged comics guide before you decide anything.
Why do some prices here have dates and others say “reported”?
Because they are different kinds of number and I refuse to blend them. A documented figure is a sale with a date and a venue I could verify. A reported figure comes from price guides or secondhand coverage, often years old, and on scarce books like these the old records usually understate today’s market. The “current market” lines are a third kind: PriceCharting indexes actual eBay sold listings, I pulled them in August 2026, and where its Golden Age data failed a sanity check against documented sales, the entry simply has no such line rather than a bad one. Check a fresh sold listing before you plan around anything printed here.
The price guide says one number and a dealer offered another. Who is lying?
Probably nobody. Guides lag this market badly because so few copies trade, and any dealer’s offer has to leave room for grading costs, auction fees, and time. What you should expect from anyone who wants your books is the reasoning behind the number, out loud. That is what shops actually pay explained honestly, and it applies double up here.
Keep going
- The 100 most valuable modern comics, if your boxes are from 1992 on.
- The 100 most valuable Silver Age comics, for the books of 1956 to 1970.
- The inherited collection guide, since that is how most Golden Age books change hands.
- How my appraisals work and how I handle slabbed books.
- The general valuation guide for everything else.
Cover images on this page are shown small, for identification, the way a price guide shows them. Many Golden Age publishers are long defunct and their covers are in the public domain; where a publisher’s rights are active, the cover appears under fair use with credit. If you are a rights holder and want an image removed, contact me and it comes down.
