A copy of Captain America Comics No. 1, the 1941 debut of Marvel's star-spangled hero, sold for $716,750 this week at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, the top result in a sale built around a trove of Golden Age comics that had sat untouched for most of a century.
The comic, graded CGC 9.0, came from what Heritage is calling the Merrimack Valley Collection: a cache of 1940s comics that spent roughly 75 to 80 years in storage before resurfacing. Aaron White, a vice president at the auction house, said the books emerged in startlingly good shape for their age. "The condition of the books was stunning," White said, adding that collectors have been especially eager for top-grade examples of foundational Captain America and Batman issues.
Other lots from the same hoard performed strongly alongside the headline sale. A CGC 2.5 copy of Batman No. 1 brought $158,600, a high-grade Captain America Comics No. 3 sold for $268,400, and a copy of Wonder Woman No. 1 fetched $158,600. A related sale of original comic art, held the same week, included a Jerry Robinson cover for Detective Comics No. 68 — the first appearance of Two-Face — which sold for $475,000.
Combined, the comic book and comic art auctions brought in $18,174,129, according to Heritage's own tally of the results.
For a book that spent eight decades folded away rather than framed or displayed, the sale is a reminder of how much value can sit undiscovered in an attic or a basement box — and how eagerly collectors will bid once it finally surfaces.