Value of comic book second appearance – Part 2 bronze age
I wrote about whether is it worth investing in 2nd appearance a couple of months back. In that article, I compared the value of Silver age 2nd appearances and found that in general, a high grade 2nd appearance equals or is about 20% lower than the value of a low grade first appearance. I was wondering if this relation is true for Bronze age comics which is the intend of this article.
For this comparison, I will be using mid grade rather than low grade for Bronze age comics since most collectors would not tolerate anything less than a 6 for this era of books. For high grade, I definite it as a 9.0 and above for bronze age, rather than the 8.0 that I used for silver age.
In terms of issues, I will picking only those that have a confirm movie or TV show so that we can see the effects of such media exposure on the value of the books. This will also serve as a guide for you to predict what is the price appreciation you can expect if you bet on 2nd appearances of certain characters who have not receive any confirmation.
| First appearance |
Grade |
Price | Second appearance |
Grade | Price | Year |
|
Hero for Hire 1 |
6.0 | ~$150 | Hero for Hire 2 | 9.0 | ~$110 | 1972 |
|
Marvel Premiere 15 |
6.5 | ~$113 | Marvel Premiere 16 | 9.2 | ~$60 | 1974 |
|
Marvel Spotlight 5 |
6.0 | ~$200 | Marvel Spotlight 6 | 9.0 | ~100 | 1972 |
| Tales to Astonish 13 | 3.0 | ~$1000 | Hulk Annual 5 | 9.0 | ~100 | 1976 |
| Spider Man 129 | 6.5 | ~$450 | Spider Man 135 | 9.0 | ~70 | 1974 |
|
Tomb of Dracula 10 |
6.0 | ~$120 | Tomb of Dracula 12 | 9.0 | ~90 | 1972 |
Overall, the evidence in Bronze Age shows that high grade 2nd appearance are worth something but not to the extend of a mid grade first appearance. Between the two, there is almost a 50% difference in value.
Some interesting notes
- Groot’s first appearance is already through the roof and yet folks are NOT buying up his 2nd appearance. His 2nd appearance in high grade is only 10% of his low grade first appearance even if it is a silver age book. Does this contradict the hypothesis that once prices are out of reach, collectors will go for 2nd appearance?
- There seems to some kind of undervaluation going on. Most high grade 2nd appearances are about 50% of its mid grade first appearance but for Punisher, his high grade 2nd app is only worth 15% of his mid grade first!
- In terms of value, Iron Fist seems to be the least desired among these keys.
- I left out Wolverine because his 2nd appearance happens to be in Giant Size X Men #1, which also contains the first appearance of the Modern X Men so it is a clean data point to use.
So, what do you think? Are bronze age 2nd appearances worth investing.
I believe that as the 1st appearances cross the $1,000
price threshold, that more people will begin to jump on the more affordable 2nd appearance. Once the 2nd app begin to disappear, there will be more demand for the remaining copies and prices will spike.
Great Site! I am also semi-retired and use multiple income streams to stay comfy. Rock On!
That is a good rule to follow. Unfortunately, it is not happening too much to Groot. His second appearance in Hulk Annual 5 is still quite cheap.