Forget the Red Skull, forget the Yellow Claw. Who are they, to lay claim to being the greatest villains Captain America has ever faced? Strap in and watch in terror as Cap and Bucky battle a band of hillbillies. Now that's scary! This GCG GD- 1.8 copy sold recently for $1,440.00, the power of Timelys in any grade. Even scarier, a year earlier an uncertified copy in the same grade sold via Heritage for over 2 grand. Al Avison and Syd Shores came up with this awesome cover.

When I think Golden Age Captain America, I think wartime, World War II to be exact. I think skulls of any color, swastikas and machine guns. Wartime comics will always have high demand, and covers like this can't go wrong. Will Eisner drew this doozy for National Comics #21, which sold recently via Heritage in CGC VF- 7.5 for $6,600.00 A very scarce book as well, with only seven CGC blue copies at the time of this report.

Does something seem... not quite right, when you assess this cover? Any time the title and content don't seem to align on a Golden Age book, that should set off potential scarcity alerts. If sales were dwindling for a given title, some publishers would just switch the genre, not changing much else. For Strange Worlds, Avon switched to the war theme for the last three issues, before canceling the title completely. This CGC VF- 7.5 is currently the Finest Known copy, and to be honest I'm surprised it didn't fetch significantly more than the $1,320.00 it sold for. Backing up the theory, this is one of only four CGC blue copies right now. The Nostomania Census, not surprisingly, is zero.

Four CGC Universal copies sounds damn scarce, right? How about two Universal copies? That's what we have here, and this copy of Crime Clinic #4 sold recently for $7,800.00. The current Overstreet value, as reported in the Heritage auction listing, is $102.00. There's a 50% chance this book would be the Finest Known copy, and it is. A low grade Uncertified copy slipped through the cracks on eBay a few years back, but y'all won't let that happen again, will you? Think about this, when have you ever seen this book? When have you ever seen any examples from this title? Not that you were actively looking, I get that. But there is a reason this title has flown under radar for so long.

What's this we have here? Low-grade, romance, Matt Baker cover, somewhat scarce, and sells for thousands of dollars. It's business as usual, that's what we have. Who can explain it, and where is that time machine so we can go back and buy these romance books so few cared about, for practically nothing? This CGC VG- 3.5 went for $5,520.00. I wonder why they stuck it in an oversized (magazine?) slab? I know some Golden Age books (e.g. Jack Armstrong) were slightly bigger than their peers, but I didn't think these St. Johns were.

Those confounding 9.9s! Last quarter, we had a 9.9 early Golden Age book (that in itself confounding) go for much less than I felt it deserved, yet we continue to have Modern Age 9.9s go for way more than business logic dictates. I give equal respect to a CBCS or CGC 9.9, knowing Steve Borock was the soul behind the gestation of each service. My point being, if they say it's a 9.9, it probably is. This book should never go for more than $500.00 though, IMO. Spider-Man 2099 is one of those books like Batman: The Killing Joke, where the materials going into the book, and the rigidity of the cover, lends itself to durability and high grades. Combine that with high print runs, and 9.9s or even 10.0s should not be a surprise. Think about how many of these a) were printed and b) sat undisturbed for decades. Be smart about your purchases.

This 9.9 is a bit of a different story. Does it justify a $3,840.00 sale price? Definitely not. This prestige format square-bound is also inherently likely to score and retain a high grade. It was produced during the peak glut years. Of course there will be a ton of high grade copies. There are almost 1,800 CGC NM/MT 9.8s right now! Think about all the submissions, and knowing that many left the facility at 9.8. There is nothing scarce about this book. Is there anything special about the book? Yes - Origin and first appearance of Bane, and a nice Glen Fabry cover.

If $900.00 seems high for a 7.5 FOOM (Friends of Old Marvel) #10 seems high to you, that's actually a big drop from peak sales a few years back. This fanzine exploded once people realized, hey, this is a new X-Men cover/feature, before the release of X-Men #94 or Giant-Size X-Men #1. The last CGC VF- 7.5 to go through Heritage went for $1,920.00, in 2021. Prior to that, it seemed like few collectors paid attention to this issue of FOOM or the FOOM fanzine in general. How did collectors miss this? And how low will it go? Personally I think sellers should keep cashing in while they can.