One of the most famous and most sought after brands of superheroes in the comic book world is the X-Men. The X-Men came all at once in their first comic book launch in September 1963. These characters, and the characters that have been added since then, have provided Hollywood and the comic book world with spin-offs and continued stories ever since. After analyzing the comic book sales, they are quite impressive!

X-Men #1 is a silver age comic and one that should be most recognized as a key issue to search for in comic book collecting. With a lot of first appearances of major comic book characters all at once, many collectors have this issue in their sights. A serious question is whether or not this can fit within most collectors’ budgets. It may be a case where the collectibles investors have taken over.

The goal of Collectors Dashboard is to evaluate collectibles as an alternative asset class. When collectibles cost tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more), it is pretty obvious that collectors with a passion for an item are frequently competing with investors who are simply wanting to buy the exact same asset to make a profit in the future. There are no assurances that investors can make a profit in stocks and bonds, so there are definitely no assurances that investors are guaranteed a profit in collectibles.

The CGC census lists 5,297 graded examples as this time of the X-Men #1 comic book. The highest population is CGC 3.0 with 590 graded examples, but the population keeps growing.

Fractional ownership, or share offerings, is a newer concept to some collectors. The Otis app has listed a CGC 9.2 graded X-Men #1 being sold in shares with an initial offering price of $75.00 per share and a drop value of $136,500. The app Rally Rd. recently exited a CGC 9.4 graded sample in June of 2021 with an initial public offering value of $240,000.00 for a sale price of $302,500 — for a gain of over 26%.

Some of those shares and fractional ownership buyers may also be comic book collectors. Some of the other buyers were just investors who bought shares to make a profit ahead — never seeing or holding that prized collectible asset. This is just some of the proof that investors are in the game of comic books and collectibles.

The Auction giant eBay has had several sales of the issue recently:

• May 5, 2021 CGC 1.8 restored sold for $6,450.00
• May 18, 2021 CGC 4.0 Off White/White pages sold for $15,455.00
• May 31, 2021 CGC 3.5 VG- sold for $15,600.00
• June 5, 2021 CGC 5.5 sold for $33,500.00
• June 8, 2021 CGC 1.0 sold for $6,893.55

Some of the higher graded CGC examples have been sold through Heritage Auctions. Only two examples are know to be graded CGC 9.8 and Heritage Auctions sold 1 the of 2 of them. Here are some of those sales that have been seen:

• July 26, 2012 CGC 9.8 NM/MT Pacific Coast Pedigree sold for $492,937.50
• April 1, 2021 CGC 8.5 VF+ 8.5 Off-white to white pages sold for $78,000.00
• January 14, 2021 CGC 9.0 off-white to white pages sold for $78,000.00
• November 15, 2012 CGC 9.2 white pages sold for $62,140.00
• November 15, 2018 CGC 9.0 off-white pages sold for $51,600.00

According to the website GoCollect.com a CGC 9.8 example was last seen being valued at $2,500,000 in 2021.

There are also many examples of the X-men #1 that are currently for sale on eBay (as of June 25, 2021, seller’s eBay handle included). We have included these by condition of 4.0 and higher rather than just by price:

• X-Men #1 CGC 4.0 Signed by Jack Kirby (skatkat16) for $35,000 or Best Offer
• X-Men #1 CGC 4.0 UK edition (comicmylars) for $45,000 or Best Offer
• X-Men #1 1963 CGC 4.5 (knicks_3000) signed by Stan Lee Label for $65,000
• X-Men #1 Marvel Comics CGC Signature Series 3.0 signed by Stan Lee (jay315) for $34,999.99 or Best Offer
• X-Men #1 CGC 5.5 (discheroes) for $36,000
• X-Men #1 CGC FN+ 6.5 Off White to White (qualitycomix) for $63,250
• X-Men #1 CGC 6.5 (mycomicshop) for $67,000
• X-Men #1 CGC FN+ 6.5 (richiehaney) for $85,000.00
• X-Men #1 CGC 7.0 (dutchman8789) for $59,999.00
• X-Men #1 CGC 7.5 (reeces_rare_comics) for $110,000 or Best Offer
• X-Men #1 CGC 7.5 (christyle28) foor $155,000 or Best Offer

And in another version, there is the so-called Giant Size X-Men #1 graded CGC 9.6 from 1975 that is the first appearance of Nightcrawler for sale at $30,000.00 also by ‘mycomicshop’ on eBay. Another example for sale is the Giant Size X-Men 1 graded CGC 9.8 for $90,000 by ‘primecitycomics’ and another CGC 9.8 for $80,000 by ‘lnl3002012’ on eBay.

Again, there are never any assurances that an asset price will rise after it is purchased. Many collectibles have seen their prices come back down to earth after a stellar rise from 2020 into early 2021. That said, there is a solid demand for the X-Men #1 comic book.

Since the year 2000, the X-Men have been featured in no less than 12 franchise movies and the overall movie ticket sales have reportedly generated $6 billion in revenue. The pandemic may have interrupted film-making for much of 2020 and part of 2021, but there is too much money on the line for Marvel’s owner The Walt Disney Company to not make and release more feature films of the X-Men. And comic book collectors know that upcoming films can drive the price of the underlying comic books (and their characters) much higher.