Iron Man 2 comic books are heating up, and a Tales of Suspense #97, the first Whiplash (the movie villain) sold for $896.25 in CGC 9.6 on January 31st. This sale was at Heritage Auctions.

Keep up to date on Tales of Suspense 97

Several months ago I made a post about making money online with your comics. There are several ways to do this but one of the easiest is to create a blog and monetize it. Your blog can sell comic books, affiliate products, broker ads, sell your own collectible products, or just be a pure fan site and give great information.

The Comic Book Secrets blog uses Wordpress for the content management system. After trying a few different blogging solutions I have found Wordpress to be the best. Once people decide to run a website the next question I get is “how do I set it up?”,”how do I make money with it?” and “how do I get traffic?” I could take the time and put out my own product to explain all of this, but to me it would be a waste of time since someone else has already done it. I am an affiliate for Wordpress Wizard 2.0 and I recommend the product because it answers all of the above questions and so much more!

What exactly is it? It’s the ultimate wordpress and blogging coaching program in which you’ll find a series of more than 50 videos showing you everything you need to start a blog, get traffic and earn from it.

I have good news – Wordpress Wizard is running a $30 off promotion right now for a limited time!

If you want to start you own website, get traffic and monetize it, click here to find out more about Wordpress Wizard. Remember the special only last three days.

What if you you could read thousands of old comic books online without paying a penny?

If the owners of htmlcomics are to be believed not only can you do it, but the site is up and running as we speak!

These folks have thousands of comic books scanned and very readable. I just finished browsing a copy of Captain America #1!

The selection is truly amazing, from Action #1, Conan, Spider-man, Superman, to X-men, they are all there.

If you don’t want to risk ruining your collectible copy of a real comic book but still want the joy of reading, check it out.

I found a new website about all things Batman. If you are a Batman fan check it out, the webmaster has done a really nice job! You can see it here.

What a February it has been. 2 Comics and over $2 million realized. Yes, you heard it correct. What recession? Earlier this month and Action Comics #1 sold for $1 million and now, on February 25th, a CGC 8.0 copy of Detective Comics #27, the first Batman, sold for $1,075,000.00 – truly amazing.

The comic book sold at Heritage Auctions in Dallas and you can view a scan of the comic book below. This is a beautiful copy. Speaking of condition, what does a little restoration do to a comic book even if the apparent grade is higher? Well, a Detective #27 in CGC 8.5 apparent grade with restoration sold for 66,920.00 – quite a difference.

Are you interested in the Golden Age of comic books? If so you may want to check out “The Golden Age of Comic Books” website hosted by Bill Jourdain.

The Golden Age ran from the late 1930’s (Action Comics #1 is usually considered the beginning) to the late 1940’s. When the switch out of the Golden Age occurs is a subject of much debate. If you are a fan of the old collectible books take a look at Bill’s site, I think you will enjoy it, I know I do!

Well comic book fans, it’s been done. A comic book that sold for a mere 10 cents on the newsstand has sold for $1 million.

Yes that is correct, 1 Million Dollars.

The book in question is a CGC 8.0 copy of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman. The book was sold through comicconnect.com, the online presence of Metropolis Comics. You can see a scan of the comic book below.

This comic was held in a private collection for the last 15 years and is one of the highest graded copies in existence. It has off-white pages and is one of about 100 known copies.

Action Comic 1 The Million Dollar Comic Book

The Big Apple pedigree starts in 1939 and continues to the end of the Silver Age. The collector who put it all together was James Hilton.

Hilton died in 1968 and in 1993 that his nephew Ron discovered the comics. He too them to Christie’s Auction House where many of them were sold up until 2000.

Big Apple comic books have higher grades in the Golden Age books versus the Silver Age. This is due to the stacking of the comics and the storage of the Golden Age books in trunks, ensuring the older books received very little exposure to the elements.

One interesting fact about the collection – there are no books from 1949. If someone tries to sell you one watch out!

Click Here to see Big Apple comic books for sale – many at discount prices!

There are several factors that impact the final value or selling price of a comic book. Most people are aware of the importance of the title (usually the focus) character, the issue number (say #1), the grade or condition, and any important events (for example a new character intro or origin). One other factor you should be aware of is the artist who worked on the issue, and if it is a famous example of their work. For the most part artists fall into the nameless category and there is no impact on the the value. But for specific artists the price of a particular comic book issue can change significantly. Let’s look at a recent sale of a Contact Comics issue as an example.

In the January 31 Heritage Auction a Contact #11 CGC 8.5 (VF+) sold for $239.00.

But a Contact #11 CGC 7.0 (FN/VF) sold for $896.25! (See the issue here)

Why would a later issue in lower condition sell for such a premium? The artist with a famous cover! Issue #12 has a cover by L.B. Cole that is noted as one of his most interesting. He also was part of #11 but for whatever reason the science fiction cover of #12 is more popular.

The lesson here is a particular artist can have a great affect on the price of a comic book. Look for first artwork, generic work, and “famous covers” from the artist for issues that rise above the usual prices.

It looks like the Disney purchase of Marvel will be completed and now we need to sort out what this means to collector/investors in the comic book hobby. A recent article discusses some lesser known Marvel characters may be brought to the big and little screen. The implications of this could be huge for the back issue market for these lesser known characters. I don’t know what will happen, but I am definitely following several back issues for the first time in years. Some of the characters mentioned are Ant Man, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist, and Nova.

I’ll keep members updated on the latest news and my “comic books to watch.”