Collectibles Expert Answers Collectibles Questions

Stay away from my Spider-Man #1!

I'm Vincent Zurzolo, President of Metropolis Collectibles.

Let's answer your questions from the internet.

This is Collectibles Support.

[upbeat music]

Joseph Nicklo asks,

What's the most expensive comic book

you've ever held in your hands?

Well, it's this one.

This is Action Comics #1,

CGC-graded 9.0, the Nicolas Cage copy.

And we just sold this comic book for what is now

a world record $15 million.

Nicolas Cage was a huge comic book collector

and our best customer.

This was his copy and in 2000,

it was stolen from his house in Los Angeles.

We recovered it 11 years later and sold it for Nick

for 2.2 million, which was a record at the time.

This comic book has been in the same collection since 2011.

And only recently, we were able to find a buyer

at $15 million.

This is the Holy Grail of Holy Grails,

the most important comic book,

and this happens to be the highest graded copy in the world.

Before Action Comics #1, we did have comic books,

comic books like this one with detectives,

funny animals, teen humor,

but there was nothing else like it until 1938,

Action Comics #1.

Action Comics #1 is the first appearance of Superman

and the first appearance of any superhero.

People immediately fell in love with Superman

and they wanted more.

Without this book, we wouldn't have the cottage industry

that grew out of it.

Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America,

and the list goes on and on.

It all started here.

@John_Connor_ asks, What's the most expensive Pokemon card

and the rarest?

Well, back in 2021, Logan Paul, the influencer,

purchased a Pikachu Illustrator PSA 10.0

for a record then, $5.3 million.

Why is this card so expensive? Well, only 40 copies

were ever manufactured, and in 1998,

they were given away at a Japanese fan contest.

And this happens to be

the highest graded copy known at a 10.

While I don't have a PSA 10 Illustrator,

I do have a PSA 10 Pikachu Van Gogh card.

And what makes this really cool is it was given out

at the Van Gogh Museum in 2023

and it caused a major disturbance that day.

This card is worth approximately $2,500.

Very rare, very tough to get and super cool.

Electronic_Round_389 asks,

How to grade comics and what does grading even do?

To give you an idea on how to grade a comic book,

I picked three different copies of Batman 259.

A low grade, a mid grade, and a high grade copy.

As we go higher in the numeric grading scale, from 1 to 10,

there are less imperfections on the comic book.

For instance, this 4.0 you can see

has a ton of wrinkles and creases and tears.

Quality is still decent and the page quality is good,

but you can see that there's a lot of little imperfections

on the spine, on the corners, paper missing,

and this gets graded a 4.0 or very good.

Next up, we have a mid-grade comic book, which is a 6.0.

Here we see a lot less imperfections and defects,

but you still have some.

Overall though, a really nice looking book

with great eye appeal.

And last but not least, we have the high-grade comic book.

This one, graded a 9.0, is almost perfect.

It looks just fantastic and has a great spine,

very square bound, beautiful pages,

and a beautiful back cover too.

To get a clearer picture of the differences

between a low grade and a high grade book,

I'm gonna show them to you together.

Here you can see really, really easily

that there are a lot more defects on this copy

than there are on this copy.

If you wanted to get your comic books graded,

you could ship them to my company, Metropolis,

or you could send them down to CGC,

or you can bring them to your local comic shop.

In all three cases, an expert will be able to look

at your comic books and tell you what the grade is.

If you get your comic book graded by CGC,

one thing you should know

is that it's not completely sealed.

We have to allow for gases that are in the comic book holder

to come out and for fresh air to get in.

So there are built into this system ways for that to happen.

Vin-zzz asks, Has anyone ever bought a prop

from the set of a movie? Is this even possible?

It's not only possible, but there's a whole world

of prop collectors out there.

I happen to be one of them, and I love props.

Being one inch closer to the movie

is just such an incredible feeling.

I'm gonna show you my favorite prop.

This is the Cosmic Cube

from Captain America, The First Avenger.

And I bought this at auction for $3,500.

I've been offered 15,000,

and I just will never sell this piece.

I love this piece because it's from a pivotal point

in the movie where the Red Skull

is trying to get his hands on the Cosmic Cube.

The auction took place

at a comic book convention in Chicago.

I remember taking one of my clients with me

to the auction.

I won this piece and he stayed behind

and ended up bidding on the Captain America costume.

He won it for what I thought was an insane $250,000.

Years later, I got to auction that very piece off for him.

Before we shipped it out, I asked my shipping guys,

bring it into my office,

and I got to try on Chris Evans' Captain America costume.

It was amazing.

Tangthattangerine asks,

Any way to authenticate movie props

after they're in-hand?

One way is to screen match them.

This is a sword from Conan the Destroyer.

This is the sequel to Conan the Barbarian.

This movie was made in 1984, and yes,

this was held by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And the way you can tell if this is a real prop

is by screen matching it.

You can tell by the little imperfections

and dings on the sword and by looking at the film

if it actually is the same sword.

Collectors, auction houses, and dealers,

they sit down and watch the movie frame by frame

until they can tell that this is the actual piece.

And there's another way to test

the authenticity of a prop, it's called provenance.

For example, these are the gloves

from the opening scene of Enter the Dragon

where Bruce Lee is fighting against Sammo Hung

in the Shaolin Temple.

I saw these online on social media.

They were being auctioned

and I knew I could not miss my chance

to own such iconic props

from one of my all-time favorite movies.

Once the bidding started, it was hot and heavy,

but I kept bidding.

I was incredibly confident

because I've been collecting Bruce Lee for over 30 years.

And I kept bidding with incredible confidence

because I knew these were authentic

because of the provenance.

Here we have a certificate of authenticity

signed by Bruce Lee's student and friend, Taky Kimura.

So this is a prop where you know the provenance.

This was a friend and student of Bruce Lee.

NotoriousAmish asks,

Why exactly are misprints such a big deal?

Well, let's take this book for example.

Venom Lethal Protector #1 had a red foil cover,

except for several copies that got out to the public

with just black.

So the foil never made it onto the cover,

making these extremely rare and extremely collectible.

Why do people love misprints?

People love imperfections and rarities.

These pieces were not meant to get out to the public.

Much like the Inverted Jenny stamp,

these were never meant to be held by human hands.

The Inverted Jenny stamp has an airplane

that's put upside down on the stamp.

It's incredibly rare,

and it is the holy grail of stamp collecting.

How valuable is the Inverted Jenny?

Well, in 2023, one fetched a whopping price of $2 million.

Horusttheweebmaster asks,

Can someone explain what the different ages

of comics each mean?

Well, let's start off with the Golden Age of comics.

Boom! Marvel Comics #1.

This is the comic book that started

the entire Marvel Universe.

And it has the first appearance of the Human Torch.

Golden Age comic books run from the 1930s to the 1950s

and feature a lot of our favorite characters

like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Captain America.

And this CGC-graded 4.5 copy of Marvel Comics #1

is worth an astounding $400,000.

Next up is The Silver Age.

And here we have it from the late '50s to the '60s.

This is the period that launched the Marvel universe

of comic book superheroes that we all know and love today.

Here we have Amazing Fantasy 15, CGC-graded 8.0.

This is the first appearance ever

of Spider-Man in a comic book.

And this copy here is worth close to $350,000.

What made these Marvel superheroes stand out

was each one of them had a tragic flaw,

something that was going wrong in their lives.

If DC Comics was the establishment,

Marvel Comics was the counterculture.

And that's what makes the Silver Age so special.

Next up is the Bronze Age of comics, the 1970s,

with some of your favorite characters being brought

to life for the very first time,

including Wolverine in Incredible Hulk 181.

This is actually his first full appearance in a comic book.

This CGC-graded 9.8 copy is worth a whopping $65,000.

This is the Holy Grail of the '70s.

What action comics is to the '30s,

Wolverine's first appearance is to the '70s.

For me, what makes the '70s so special

is you have a lot of offbeat characters.

The mutants from X-Men are becoming incredibly popular.

You've got characters like Swamp Thing and DeathLok,

and here we go with one of my favorite periods in comics,

the Copper Age of Comics,

which brought to life so many great characters

including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

This particular issue is graded 9.2 by CGC

and is worth approximately $15,000.

What makes it so special is this is the introduction

of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

They've never appeared in a comic book before.

What really makes the 1980s stand out

from any other period in time in comics

is the dark turn that they took,

from Watchmen to the Turtles to The Dark Knight Returns

by Frank Miller.

These comic books really set the stage

for what will end up being the modern age of comics.

Mussygirl89 asks,

Do people still watch or collect VHS tapes?

You know, in the last 10 years, VHS has become popular again

after going pretty much obsolete.

People are buying VHS tapes, watching them,

and they're getting so popular, just like vinyl records,

that manufacturers are starting to make new versions of VHS.

VHS collecting has gotten so popular

that there are grading companies like this one, VHS DNA.

VHS tapes are graded just like comics

or any other collectible.

You look for imperfections, you see

if there are any creases, any dents,

any wrinkles in the plastic wrap, and then you grade them.

Why would anybody collect VHS tapes?

Well, in our modern age where people are being bombarded

by tons of content on social media

and streaming, this takes you back to a simpler day

where you could focus on just the movie.

Another thing, a movie like Aliens, when you watch it

in VHS, it's muddier, it's inkier,

and you don't get all that detail.

And that's what makes it so special.

It simulates what you saw the first time you saw it

in the movie theater.

And finally, many of these movies were never digitized

and the only way you can watch them is on VHS.

You might've heard that Disney VHS is the place to be

if you're a vintage VHS collector,

but don't buy into the hype.

The rare and limited print runs of old horror movies

from the '70s and '80s, that's where it's at.

Yrguiltyconscience asks,

What's the most expensive or rare Star Wars collectible

and what does it go for?

The rocket-firing Boba Fett

is the rarest Star Wars collectible,

and one sold for a record-breaking $1.3 million.

Kenner manufactured the Star Wars line,

the original line, including this Chewbacca.

And what was cool about the original Boba Fett prototype

was it shot out the rocket from his back.

They quickly realized that kids might swallow this

and get hurt, so they never went to market with it,

and that's what makes it so darn rare.

Since it was a prototype, only a few exist in the world,

and that's what makes it so valuable.

And by the way, since we're on the topic of Star Wars,

about a year ago, I got to sell

one of the rarest Star Wars collectibles.

It was the helmet used by a Sand Trooper

in the original Star Wars.

Only six were manufactured,

and only three are known to exist today,

and this was one of them.

I ended up selling it for a fantastic six-figure number.

Pickle121201 asks, How many X-Men first issues

from 1963 do you think still exist?

Well, back in the '60s, they were printing a ton of these.

They used really cheap paper, so it was very inexpensive.

I guess they printed originally a half a million copies

of X-Men #1.

Only a fraction of those still exist today,

probably in the mid to high thousands.

And what I can show you right now are four examples.

What I'm holding in my hand is probably well over

$100,000 worth of X-Men #1s.

When Stan Lee first came up with this comic book concept,

it was about tolerance.

This was during the Civil Rights Movement.

And what he wanted to show was that people,

even if they're different, should be loved.

The original title for this comic book was The Mutants,

but his publisher at the time thought it sounded like evil,

bad guys, the mutants.

So he turned it into The X-Men,

named after Professor Charles Xavier,

the leader of the X-Men.

And since we're on the topic of Silver Age #1s,

I wanna share something else with you.

Here we have a stack of Amazing Spider-Man #1.

This is his very first issue,

the first appearance of J. Jonah Jameson,

the first appearance of the villain, the Chameleon,

and it's the first time he ever meets the Fantastic Four.

Spider-Man always appealed to me as a little kid

because he didn't have big muscles, he wasn't a grownup.

He was a kid like me, and he had all the problems

that every one of us had when we were kids.

There was always somebody bigger picking on us,

and you never had any money in your pocket.

Maybe the girls weren't always going after you.

So a lot of us could relate to poor Peter Parker's problems.

These six copies of Amazing Spider-Man #1

are worth in total over $150,000.

Here's a question from Quora.

What aged vintage toys are worth a lot?

Toys from the '70s, '80s, and '90s

are incredibly popular and highly collected,

from Star Wars to Aliens.

You name it, and people love it from this time period.

Now what happens is as people get older,

they hit a certain point where they can start

taking discretionary income and buying things

that they remember from their childhood.

So collectibles, toys, go in a 30-year cycle.

Right now, toys from the early 2000s,

like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Tamagotchi

are becoming increasingly popular.

So don't throw those out.

And by the way, I bought a great toy from my childhood.

Check this out.

This is from the '70s,

and I remember getting this Christmas morning,

Dragun from the Shogun Warriors.

Pew, pew, pew, pew.

[Kids] Mission accomplished!

@AedraRising asks,

Like, are video game collectors supposed to not play

the video games they love so much?

Well, there's no hard and fast rule.

Some people like to play video games

and some people like to collect and invest in them.

If you wanna collect and invest in a game,

you get 'em certified, like this centipede game from WADA.

How do you grade a video game?

It's very similar to comics, cards, and VHS.

You're grading the imperfections or lack thereof

on the holder, on the box,

and also looking at how the wrapper is so tight,

so perfect, without any wrinkles, without any tears.

This Centipede video game is factory sealed

from 1983 in mint condition.

Graded by WADA, you can see

there are no imperfections on it, the box is perfect,

the wrapper is perfect, and it's great.

But even if you have just a cartridge,

you can also get that graded as well.

If you wanna start collecting video games,

you can collect NES, SNES,

and if you wanna hit that sweet spot of that 30-year-old,

nostalgic resurgence of interest,

go with PlayStation 1 and Xbox.

By the way, I've got a great video game story.

Check this out.

Couple years ago, I meet Mike Tyson at an event.

He's busy, hundreds of people around him,

and I finally corner him.

I say, Mike, could you please sign my punch-out?

Grabs his pen, starts to sign it,

and just as he is, somebody calls, Hey, Mike,

and he looks up and he signed half of it

on the spot where we cut it out

and half of it on the plastic.

I'll never sell this,

and it makes a great conversation piece, and it's mine.

@jpalmiotti asks, and that's a friend of mine,

super comic creator Jimmy Palmiotti,

We are seeing super high prices on original comic art.

Now I know for a fact more people than ever are collecting,

but why do you think the prices are rising so quickly?

I think what makes comic art so darn special

is each page is one of a kind.

This is a production piece of art from X-Men #1

by none other than Jack The King Kirby,

one of the greatest comic book creators of all time.

He basically invented the Marvel way of storytelling.

Super bombastic fight scenes,

action like you've never seen before.

Comic art appreciation harkens back

to several different golden rules.

People are buying what they love.

It's unique.

It's rare.

It was basically thrown away for the most part.

So anything surviving is really, really valuable

and really cool.

You may be asking yourself,

why are these in black and white and comics are in color?

After this process of penciling and inking,

copies were made of it and the colorist

would color those copies and the editors

would adjust the colors until they got it just right

and then sent it off to the publishers.

And yes, it's true, the prices are going up, up and away.

I bought this piece of art about 15 years ago

for probably around $35,000

and I've already turned down offers

of a quarter of a million.

Thirsty's New and Used asks,

What is the rarest comic of all time?

Is it this one?

And there's a picture of New Adventure Comics 26,

which is an incredibly rare book from 1938.

And yes, probably the toughest DC comic to find.

New Adventure 26 was printed in a very, very low print run.

So there are very few survivors

that have made it close to 100 years later.

But on the other hand,

we also have from Marvel, or Timely at the time,

Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1,

which was a giveaway with the first appearance

of the first Marvel superhero, Sub-Mariner.

In my career of 40 years, I've only bought

and sold maybe two or three copies.

If somebody found a complete copy of this, at minimal,

I think it would be worth about $50,000.

Here's a question from the comic book collecting subreddit.

What's the first comic book you ever bought

that started your love of collecting?

That's an awesome question,

and I've got the book right here.

When I was a little boy,

my big brothers bought me this comic book,

Astonishing Tales 31.

And I didn't know who this guy was,

but I wanted to figure it out.

I remember going through the pages and seeing the colors

and the costumes, and I could not put it down.

And this comic book is such a big part of why

I fell in love with the whole art form

and with comic books in general.

The cover is by Ed Hannigan and Bernie Wrightson,

who I later got to meet in person as a professional

in comic books, but this is the book that started it all.

OfficialKnockout wants to know,

my uncle gave me a ton of his comics

he has been collecting since the '90s to try and sell.

I know nothing about them.

Where would I start to really understand

how to look them up and value them?

One thing you can do is pick up a copy

of the Overstreet Price Guide.

This is the Bible of comic books

and has every single comic book ever made.

Another way to find out the value of your comic books

is to go to either a local comic store,

our office is here in Midtown Manhattan,

or a great comic book convention in your location.

When you go to these conventions,

you're surrounded by dealers from all over the country,

and they can give you an idea

as to what your comic books are worth.

LiPerezRey asks, Metropolis Comic,

I found my old POG collection from the '90s.

How many millions of dollars is it worth?

Ready to cash in?

Well, since he's a member of the staff here,

we're going to ask him to bring on his collection,

and I'm gonna do a free appraisal.

Wow, that's a lot of POGs.

Let's take a look at them.

In the early 90s, POGs became really popular.

They moved their way west, actually from Hawaii,

through the United States mainland.

And I remember I was at a San Diego Comic-Con

and these appeared out of nowhere.

They're cardboard discs that feature anybody

from Pocahontas to Michael Jordan.

They became incredibly popular in the early to mid-90s.

POGs are generally worthless,

unless maybe they're in sealed packs like this.

And especially, there was a set made for Jurassic Park

with holographic dinosaurs on the POGs and the slammer,

and these are collectible.

In fact, a set sold recently for $2,500.

If you wanna know what these are worth,

I actually could trade you for some Beanie Babies,

another fad collectible from the '90s.

Here you go.

The Beanie Babies craze was incredible.

People couldn't get enough of these.

You'd buy them in every type of shop you could imagine,

from comic book and collectible stores

to your local pharmacies.

They were everywhere,

and some of them were thought to be incredibly scarce.

Unfortunately, the interest in Beanie Babies died down

and the collectible aspect of them disappeared.

An oversaturation of the market for Beanie Babies

really caused the downfall

and the lack of interest later on over the years.

The moral of the story is try to collect things

that have true scarcity levels to them,

not manufactured collectibles.

And also, most importantly, buy what you love.

I remember when these showed up at San Diego Comic-Con,

it was probably like 1994,

and I was like, What the [beep] are these?

And why are people collecting little cardboard circles?

Dealers were coming up, Do you wanna buy some POGs?

I was like, No.

[beep] wave asks, What is your favorite,

rare, or valuable book and why?

Well, I happen to have right here

one of my favorite pulps of all time.

This is from October 1933.

It is Weird Tales.

And this cover is painted by none other than

the legendary pulp painter, Margaret Brundage.

They showcased some of the greatest science fiction,

horror, and fantasy stories ever written.

These pulps were made with pulp paper, hence the name.

It was very inexpensive,

and they could produce tons of these.

This one was 25 cents.

Pulps were widely read by the general public

and were incredibly popular.

These are the predecessors of comic books

and many of the great science fiction, fantasy,

and horror stories started in the pulps.

For example, Conan started in the pulps.

HP Lovecraft's Cthulhua, Mythos, started in the pulps.

Those are all the questions for today.

Thanks for watching Collectibles Support.

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