Heritage’s latest Sunday Internet Comics, Animation & Art Auction set a new in-house record with $573,095 in total sales. The weekly auction, which closed on March 3, 2019, was filled with 1,322 lots, anchored by several Silver Age keys.
This auction crushed the previous record of $466,512 set in August 2018, by $106,000. It also marks the fifth time in a year that Heritage’s weekly comics and art auction totaled more than $400,000.
“When you offer rare and/or highly desirable items, and offer them in large number, results like this are possible,” Heritage Auctions Vice President Lon Allen said. “Our weekly auctions have become an increasingly important part of our department, as serious collectors have acknowledged that our weekly auctions are can’t-miss events each week that produce lots of exceptional quality, which can bolster any collection. That formula led to this unprecedented result, and underscored Heritage’s place as the world’s top comics auctioneer.”
Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC 4.0 with the first appearance and origin of Spider-Man took the top spot, pulling in $26,400 after two dozen bids. Peter Parker got the second highest seller too, with The Amazing Spider-Man #1 CGC Apparent 7.0, featuring the first appearance of the Chameleon, hammering for $8,400.
Rounding out the top five were Journey Into Mystery #83 CGC 4.5 with the origin and first appearance of Thor for $6,600; The Incredible Hulk #1 CGC 1.8 with the first appearance of the Hulk, Rick Jones, Betty Ross, and Thunderbolt Ross for $6,600; and Planet Comics #1 CGC 5.5 with the origin and first appearance of Auro, Lord of Jupiter for $6,600.
Additional top lots were The Incredible Hulk #181 for $6,300, Fantastic Four #5 CGC 5.0 for $6,000 and #48 CGC 9.2 for $5,760, Infinity #1 original cover variant art by Humberto Ramos for $5,280, and Superman #14 CGC 5.5 for $5,040.