The Four Color Media Monitor

Fox News reported about a specialty store in Milwaukee that's selling a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, Spider-Man's 1962 debut for colossal sums:

Rare comic books sometimes have a hefty price tag. There are various factors that warrant a specific comic book having more value than others.

A few elements that can add zeros to a comic book's worth are age, condition, the content and characters. For example, the volumes that include the first time a character appeared in a comic book provide more value to that book.

These specific factors have helped the "Amazing Fantasy No. 15" comic book sell for thousands, and in some cases millions of dollars. A comic shop in Milwaukee recently got their hands on one of these highly sought after comics.

Steve Dobrzynski, the owner of Collector's Edge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, released pictures on Tuesday, Oct. 17, of the "Amazing Fantasy No. 15" comic he acquired from a couple who brought it in to sell. The pair found it among the possessions of a deceased relative.

[...] In 2021, at an auction in Texas, a close to perfect copy of the book was sold for $3.6 million. When the comic was first sold, it hit the shelves with a price tag of a measly 12 cents. Back in 2011, a copy was sold by New York dealers ComicConnect for $1.1 million.

You can sell comic books like "Amazing Fantasy No. 15," through local shops, private sales or at auctions.

A comic books' condition plays a major role in how much it is worth. After receiving the comic book, Dobrzynski sent it off to Florida based comics and collectibles grading service, Certified Guaranty Company, which ranked the book a 3.0 on a scale of 0.5 to 10, with the worst condition ranking at a 0.5 and the best a 10. The copy obtained by Collector's Edge is a worn copy with small tears on the edges of the book. The copy of the comic received a higher grade than Dobrzynski had expected, a bittersweet moment for the shop owner.

Why do we need to keep hearing about all this, instead of queries as to whether anybody buys and reads reprints of these classics? As of today, the more these famous oldies are available in paperback and hardcover reprints, the more likely I am to buy them that way, and definitely not as individual pamphlets costing even in hundreds. There was a time I'd seen old copies sold at such levels, but today, I rarely do, save for conventions, and even then, I just don't see the point in buying them for such outrageous prices. It's also absurd to say "sometimes" when it's decidedly all of the time these days, if they're priced even in the hundreds.

And if there's anywhere these classic pamphlets should really be sold, it's to museums and other archives where they can actually be seen by the public. Alas, that hardly sounds like the case whenever these classics come into focus.

Labels: history, marvel comics, msm propaganda, sales, Spider-Man