CGC-certified Captain America Comics #1 Set to Sell for Over $1 Million
Posted on 3/25/2022
An extraordinary copy of Captain America Comics #1 graded by Certified Guaranty Company® (CGC®) is set to join the million-dollar club. The Golden Age book, which features the origin of the superhero who later became a cornerstone of the Avengers, is the top lot in a Heritage Auctions sale on April 7-10, 2022.
Graded CGC 9.4, the copy in the sale (lot 91053) is one of the top three in the CGC Census. Two weeks before the auction, bidding had already reached $837,500 (or $1.005 million with buyer’s premium included). Heritage sold this exact copy in 2019 for $915,000, which is currently the record price for this title.
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CGC also attributed this book to the San Francisco Collection, one of the earliest pedigrees known to collectors. The collection is rumored to have belonged to Tom Reilly, who began collecting comic books in the late 1930s. After he was drafted into the military, he asked his parents to continue buying comic books for him. He was reportedly killed in action near the end of World War II, at which point the collection stops.
Captain America Comics #1 is about to join an elite group of comic book titles that have had at least one copy sell for over $1 million. The others are Amazing Fantasy #15 (first Spider-Man), Action Comics #1 (first Superman), Detective Comics #27 (first Batman), Superman #1, Batman #1 and Marvel Comics #1.
Published in 1941 by Timely Comics, Captain America Comics #1 by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon features the first appearance of Captain America, Bucky and the Red Skull. The classic cover that shows Captain America punching Adolf Hitler is historically significant, because at that time America was not yet at war with Germany. Before this book, comic book heroes mostly stayed silent on the war or fought generic substitutions.
Other CGC-certified highlights in the April Heritage sale include:
- an Amazing Fantasy #15 graded CGC 7.5 (lot 91050)
- an Amazing Fantasy #15 graded CGC 7.0 (lot 91051)
- a Batman #1 graded CGC 1.8 (lot 91052)
- a Fantastic Four #1 graded CGC 9.2 (lot 91059)
- a Fantastic Four #5 graded CGC 9.2 (lot 91063)
- an Incredible Hulk #181 graded CGC 9.8 (lot 91065)
- a Journey Into Mystery #83 graded CGC 9.4 (lot 91066)
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