GUEST: I brought some Spider-Man comic books that belonged to my husband, and he was a collector since age 12.
APPRAISER: Well, so your husband bought these directly right off the newsstand.
GUEST: Every week. But he knew at that time that they were an investment, so he religiously bagged these things. Sometimes he would buy two: one to read and one to save. And I never had any closet space the entire time we were married, you know? (laughing)
APPRAISER: (laughs)
GUEST: He's, he's now deceased, but yes. So at any given time, we had 120 boxes in our house.
APPRAISER: So he was a real deal collector of comics.
GUEST: Absolutely. And he grew up in New York, so he would go to comic book conventions all the time. He met Stan Lee on a couple of occasions.
APPRAISER: "Amazing Spider-Man"...
GUEST: Hm.
APPRAISER: ...is by far one of the most, if not the most, iconic character when it comes to the Marvel universe today. I mean, just, everybody loves your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Now, with the comics that you brought in today, we have a complete run of issues 13 through 29. When you came up to the table, my head almost literally exploded, because when it comes to comics, condition is so important. And these are honestly as good as it gets, 'cause you have to think about it. These are from the '60s. You know, '64, '65. When it comes to the three books along the top, the reason why they're there, because out of the group of comics you have, they're your biggest key issues. Which, a key issue is first appearance of a character, uh, new costume, maybe a title change. So issue 13 is the nicest book in the collection. So on a numerical scale, that would be an 8.0 to 8.5.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Which is really, really good. But the history of that book is that it's the first appearance of Mysterio, Quentin Beck, which, for a long time, Mysterio was not well-known to, I'd say, the general collecting audience. But when he was finally played by Jake Gyllenhaal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that book just went through the roof. Also in relation to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU, "Amazing Spider-Man 14," first appearance of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn. And again, that character so iconic since the beginning, like, the original Tobey Maguire Spider-Man film back in the early 2000s. You had Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin, and he played such an iconic role. Which leads me to my third book here, number 15, the first appearance of Kraven the Hunter. Great antagonist throughout, uh, Spider-Man's life and series. He is going to be also entering the Spider-Man universe. He has a film coming out. So all three of these books are hotter than fire in the market today. And comics as a whole are one of the hottest things going in the market. Now, granted, you have a bunch of other good books on the table. Condition-wise, they all range from the lowest being about a 5.0.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And when we give this scale, it's out of ten. So when you have an 8.0 to an 8.5 out of a 1960s early Silver Age book, that is wicked high-grade. And I got to say, your husband did an incredible job preserving the collection. Are they something that you would want to keep, or are you looking to sell? Like, do you want to insure them or is it something that you would want down the road?
GUEST: I, I want to sell, 'cause I want to do some traveling.
APPRAISER: I think your husband is going to help you with traveling today. These all first would have to be put through the professional grading process...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...in order to maximize your value. Comic books are not child's play today.
GUEST: Yes, they're not.
(both laugh)
APPRAISER: They are serious financial investments. So when it comes to the entire group, the 17 Amazing Spider-Man comics you have here today, conservatively at auction, they would be $20,000 to $25,000.
GUEST: Oh, my goodness. (laughing): That's amazing. I just, I had no idea. You know, I really didn't.
APPRAISER: Really?!
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Well, hey, now you can go on vacation.
GUEST: (laughing) Absolutely. On several, as a matter of fact.
APPRAISER: (laughs)
GUEST: That's, that's terrific. (laughs) Oh, I'm thrilled.
APPRAISER: If you brought these in about three years ago...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...you would have actually only had about $8,000 to $12,000.
