World's 10 RAREST Comic Books, According to CGC Census

[@chadmagee4107]

A few years ago I bought a coverless copy of The Funnies #1 from 1936. The seller did not know what he had. The price: $1. It may not be rare enough to make the list but it is a keeper. It has the first appearances of Captain Easy and Alley Oop in a comic book. Sometimes a gamble buy pays off.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Wow. that's great Chad. And, kudos to you for being able to pick out a coverless copy. How did you identify it?

[@Getyourbootsready]

This is now my favorite channel, this is the content I want

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi Daniel. Glad to hear my friend.

[@brychology]

I agree that X-Men #1 is not rare, but the demand for it is thousand of times greater than the demand for most of the super rare books you mentioned. I have this debate often with a friend who has an amazing GA collection. If 100,000 people want an X-Men 1, than 6000 graded copies isn’t all that much.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Thanks for the astute comment Nativeheart. Yes, a lively debate. I'm putting out a video later today about the 10 rarest silver-age books...and, I'm going to spend a little time defending the prevalence of Marvel silver-age keys!

[@JB-ou6fl]

This is an interesting video. Thanks for sharing the fruits of your research with us. I just subscribed to your channel.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

I appreciate it JB24, and glad to have you as a subscriber. I learned quite a bit through the process and will likely get a few more vids out of the research.

[@JB-ou6fl]

Please keep them coming. 😊

[@prenticehammond2003]

I was at an auction for the Walter Gibson estate in the 1980s I believe. Among my purchases were several copies of "The Idea that Led to Millions". All of the graded copies but one on CGC are mine and I believe the one that is not was one that I gave to a friend of mine who did sell it. This comic touts the benifits of using comics to advertise stuff. Inside it references the Whiz/Flash Wheaties books and the Disney books put out by Cheerios. I believe this book is rare because it did not reach the general public, its audience were most likely companies. Who know how many were just tossed in the trash. This book was sold on eBay about 2007 out of New Hampshire for $600.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi, Prentice. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like an interesting book. I love the stories of strange comics.

[@prenticehammond2003]

@@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 I would love to hear from others who have this book. To either verify it's rarity (my opinion) or to find out there are indeed plenty that survived.

[@georgekarpontinis2063]

Awesome video as always The first time I watched this video I was opening up a new box with a FF#1 & My 3rd Copy of TTA #27 in the last 3 months. Awesome books!

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Very nice George. Books I once owned and hope to get back in my collection one day.

[@georgekarpontinis2063]

Thank you my friend, love your knowledge on the books there is always homework to do. I keep upgrading on the TTA #27 but not so quick to sell the other copies. Did you know that FF#1. TTA #27 & FF #2 are the only 3 books with a 10c Cover that are superhero. I don't have a FF#2 due to all the high grades 8.5 or better was signed over Sue's body by Stan. TTA same thing. Take care!

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

@@georgekarpontinis2063 Hi George. I knew about the three but didn't know they were the only three. By the way, there were a few books from Atlas/Marvel around the same time that were originally printed with 10 cents. The 10 cents was "blacked out" and 12 cents was stamped on there. No super heroes, but cool. recalledcomics.com/Marvel10CentBlackedOutVariants.php

[@georgekarpontinis2063]

Wow! That cool I check that web site , Terry Hoknes from comicbook history confirmed the three I told you about that hit the newsstand it good to know about those others.

[@Doc_Dooom]

Always buy what you like. I bought FF52 and Giant size x-men 1 because they were popular and valuable, but those 2 never really had much significance to me so I eventually sold them. On the other hand, ST104 has the most hillariously stupid villain ever and a great cover and I would rather have a high grade copy of that. Some of the rare golden age books like Captain America Comics with the Nazis and bondage covers have significance and value to me, but others like that Punch comics with the skull on the cover dont seem to have any significance other than a nice cover, so I dont really see the big deal. Same with Silver Surfer #4.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi Jon G. I like the story of ST104. Pistol Pot Pete is one of the most ridiculous villain names of all time. I fee you regarding the emotional connection with a book. Sometimes for me, it's a particular copy of a book too. I'll have an affinity for it, and other copies I just don't care for it. Sometimes I can put my finger on it and other times I can't. Re early Caps. I love those too and used to have most of the 1-10 run. I particularly like the ghoulish minions. Thanks for sharing.

[@ComicCollectorGeek]

Great books I have a few that only have 1-2 on the census but are the types of books people would grade if they have. How can I find out if they are really as rare as I think they are?

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi CCG. Yeah, that's so tough. I don't think there's a good way to know. I can tell you that many golden age books that are $200 to $500 in mid-grade are sitting on the sidelines. For example, I have about as many raw books of some Schomburg airbrushed covers as there are total # of books on CGC. I do have an insane amount, and I have hoarded them but I imagine there are at least 10x to 25x more books out there than on CGC census.

[@metarog]

Well done vid. There are rare bronze and younger comics like This Island Bradman and Supergear but perhaps they are just more obscure. Thanks.👍

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Thanks Metarog. I know there are some extremely rare modern variants and error books. If you haven't seen this website, check 'em out. recalledcomics.com/index.php

[@SouvenirProgramsHere]

Hey K, Very Funny Show. Best Comic channel on KZbin, by Far. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the Best use of the word "Lad" is by Lumpy's, Dad Fred Rutherford. Dig your Lounge Man. Great Lighting and Color Scheme. Less is More. That's what I tell the Wife. My Favorite Batman logo is from the TV Series in the '60s Starring Mayor West. Your shirt logo looks a little different, am I wrong ? Keep up the Good work. Its appreciated. Peace

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hey Tom. Good to hear from you. That's a deep pull on Fred Rutherford. Maybe I was evoking him subconsciously. Yeah, I moved my gear to the basement. Still working on the set up. Glad you like it. Yeah, the shirt logo is retro but not as retro as the TV show.

[@nighttigercomics7323]

Thank you for this vid. I've been discussing for years how the CGC census does not reflect rarity and scarcity of comic books. My collection is based on scarce golden age comics none which will mostly likely never go to CGC. I'm afraid of them destroying or losing my books.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Nighttiger! Great to to see you buddy. Yeah, trying to estimate the number of books in existence is an imperfect science at best. Can you recommend to me one of your videos with super scarce books?

[@nighttigercomics7323]

@@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 any that have golden age in the title. I just put one up today.

[@jacobbornowsky4013]

Great stuff Keston 🤙🏽

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Thanks Jacob. Much appreciated!

[@MetalBum]

Great video. 😊😊😊

[@TheArtKemist]

Schooled them great segment

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Haha. Thanks my friend!

[@donaldmiller9648]

I laughed at seeing X-Men 1 as rare ;-)....knew that couldn't be right as had four copies in my collection from wild pickups in 1970s...it and DD #1 were easy to find in those days...

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi Donald. Thanks for sharing. Your story sounds similar to a buddy of mine. He said he could remember going to early comic shows in the '70s and seeing someone with stacks of FF1 and X-Men 1. All the FF1s were $10 apiece and the X-Men 1s were $5 apiece. Those were the days.

[@raleighcomicbookcollector]

I'm actually looking for copies of: Fantastic Comics 3 (you highlighted), 22, Cap America Comics #nn (you highlighted), Marvel Mystery #nn (you highlighted)

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Sweet. You've got great taste. BTW: Do you know Tyler? Good friend of mine and badass collector in your neck of the woods.

[@raleighcomicbookcollector]

@@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 Anna's husband? I know of them - we have chatted before, not met.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Yes, exactly. They are good folks.

[@BigMoneyGripMCV]

Terry and the Pirates nn from 1941 Libbys Mail In has 4 and is def not cheap. Flash Gordon Raids Japan I think is like 7 copies and should be a $1k book. Did you have a minimum value here like $10k? Great video!

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Thanks Pokertubes. I’m impressed by the deep pulls: terry and the pirates and Flash Gordon raids Japan! I limited books to those in the “top books listed by overstreet.” Overstreet lists 100 books for gold, 50 for silver, 40 bronze and 25 for modern. That was the easiest way to put parameters on the project.

[@BigMoneyGripMCV]

@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 yeah that's perfectly understandable. I have that TatP book, I was surprised to see only 4 graded. I found out about Flash Gordon because I did some research on the Dell 4 Color stuff and I have the Harvey Flash #1 slabbed.

[@DanSchawbel]

The best comic KZbinr

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

You are too kind Dan. Trying to learn something new every video.

[@thecorporatelawgroup7093]

15 years ago I kept searching for Gerber 10s, etc and bought a lot of really rare comics. For several years I owned the only copy of Survey from Marvel, published in about 1948. But, rare means not much demand because no one can get one. 😀

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi CLG. Great to hear from you. Glad to see someone more obsessed with rarity than I am :-). Yep, I know exactly what you are talking about. If a book is too rare, it's out of sight, out of mind. My next video will talk about rarity (or rather relative rarity) of silver-age books. In my opinion, they are "Goldilocks" scarce. Not easy to find in the particular grade you are looking for, but can almost always be hunted down with a little effort and a lot of money.

[@rauljordanpanganiban9702]

Good stuff!

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@rocketfighter8]

There go the values of my graded and raw X-Men #1's. How about doing a video of the top 10 highest CGC census counts? Maybe X-Men #1 (1991) will be the highest / least rarest?

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Haha. Thanks rocketfigher. Don't think you have to worry about the value of X-Men 1. And, it is quite a bit scarcer than most popular modern books. For example, Hulk 181 has 3x as many copies. NM98 has 5x. And, Spawn 1 is 6x. It's just doesn't belong on a rarest list across the hobby :-). I'll keep my eyes and ears open for a way to get hold of data re the most prevalent books. Good to hear from you, my friend.

[@williamhammock4821]

Your values are fine RocketFighter 8, it was a video on rare books, not expensive books. Although these books will be expensive to golden age collectors. Most people would not care to spend big money on these books. These are like super super niche for most people. To note, I worked at a comicbook store for like 3 years in the early 2000s. Never did a X-men #1 walk through the door. They feel common because of the internet, but honestly anything under 25K that is highly desireable counts as "rare" by proxy. Millions of people want that X-men #1, like only thousandsof people want that Archie book in the same way, and a hundred people want the other books which I already forgot what they were. I just watched this, and forgot the other books, but I do recall the dude shooting a hippo, that was bananas.

[@kryptoniterocks8245]

Managed to score a Amazing man #5. Complete low grade but such a not easy grail to find. Over 10yrs to finally find one

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Dang. A legitimate rarity and super cool cover. Congrats Kryptonite!!

[@Doc_Dooom]

What matters with rarity is how many people want it. There might be 400 xmen1 for every Famous Funnies1, but there are probbaly 4000 people who want xmen1 for every 1 person who wants Famous Funnies1.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Sure. Not trying to disparage x-men 1 as a collectible but rather point out that it is not close to being rare....although -- for whatever reason-- it keeps being listed as a rare comic book. BTW: You might like this video that speaks directly to the topic of desirability and rarity: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hn2kd5isaNmZj8k

[@mattjvictory]

Solid video, but you're not painting the full picture. For a title like X-Men 1, the "census" may be 5K+, but that's not the actual number, not even close; by my estimation it's at least 25-33% lower than that. Collectors have made cracking and resubmitting previously graded CGC comics an art form. The CGC census does not take that into account, unless someone willingly notifies them, or someone cracks and resubmits through CCS, but any real collector wouldn't use CCS (CGC) to press and clean a valuable copy like X-Men 1. The titles you mentioned are absolutely scarce, but an asterisk needs to be placed on practically every comic from every era as the actual number is substantially lower than what they say -- particularly silver age and up.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi Matt J. Great points. Yeah, I've been considering making another video about the "validity" of the census numbers. A number of factors can inflate and deflate the numbers on census relative to how many actually exist. The multiple submissions for the same book as you mention certainly inflates the numbers. On the other hand, many big time dealers will claim there are many more copies in the wild of silver and bronze age keys than have been graded. For, example, I've heard a prominent dealer estimate there are 15,000 AF15s in existence although only ~3,600 have been graded. So, books in the wild deflate the census numbers. Of course, no one has a great read on the in-the-wild numbers. Not on the exact topic, but I did create a more comprehensive video on comic book rarity if you are interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4rFlZWuqsqbopo

[@mattjvictory]

@@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 The mythical "warehouse find" is something we can't quantify simply because there's no proof, but there is countless examples of proof that collectors, even novice collectors today, play the "crack and resubmit" game in earnest and in very large numbers; especially considering that key comics, even with a .5 grade bump, could fetch the sellers thousands of extra dollars with a minimal amount of risk (if they know what to look for). Still, you have great content so keep on doing what you do, but that CGC "census" (presented as fact) has always rubbed me the wrong way.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

​@@mattjvictory Hi Matt J. Appreciate the conversation. Yeah, certainly am not trying to present CGC as fact. I think it is reasonably good to talk about relative scarcity among highly valuable books. Hope you have a great weekend...and please chime in on other videos!

[@mattjvictory]

@@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 Anytime. Keep on doing what you do!

[@Whalewraith]

If your simply going with print run and who could be bothered to cgc it I would expect some of Eric's Savage Dragons from the last few years to be non existent at a cgc grade.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi nathan. I've heard those book are rare too.

[@Getyourbootsready]

What is the most rare modern book

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

HI Daniel. With all the variants out there, it's tough to know which is the rarest. If you want to dig deep, I'd suggest this website: recalledcomics.com/ The owner keeps track of recalled, error, and rare comics.

[@kryptoniterocks8245]

Too many silver age books are volatile in there own right which is what you are seeing in the market today. Hulk 181s are books that are not rare and yet being sooo many out there they are not absorbed at a fast enough rate to ckeep the price fluctuating higher and higher. Which is why you can see soooooo many 9.0s or 9.2s on the market that won't push every year.. You get a golden age massive key issue that is rare they become more of a asset because the scarcity of such books become highly sought after when a so called book let's say Fantastic Comics 3 comes out. So little supply bigger demand.. Too much supply becomes stagnant demand.. Which is where we are at today now

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

With all that said, the market has gotten too hot for the silver age keys imho. Fly-by-night speculators can artificially inflate demand, which artificially inflates prices. The major silver-age keys still have an incredible base of fans with deep pockets so I'm not concerned about them or hulk 181 in the long run.

[@User8vfjhejf]

@@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 Exactly, the fanbase for silver/bronze marvels is so huge, plenty will be kept off the market, the prices will climb over the long term as their popularity increases.

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

I thought 128 + 4 equaled 133.

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Haha. That’s exactly why I worked out the math for viewers ;-)

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

@@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842 🤣

[@uFELLA]

Hi. Interesting video, thanks again! Unfortunately, the video misrepresented the scarcity of Silver Age books by overlooking the rarest category of Silver Age books. The UK price variants are a tiny subset of the original print run of most Marvel SA books (when the printing plate was modified for the changes to the cover for the pence or cents version), after which the variants were set aside for the trip across the Atlantic. Consequently, these U.K. price variants are rare versions of most of Marvel's SA issues, including essentially ALL of the keys. The CGC census tables that you looked at were just for the cents versions; they all have a second table below it for the UKPVs. Fantastic Four #1 has only 31 UKPVs among CGC's 2755 graded books, or 1.1% of the total. 31 is the SAME number of copies on the census for PepComics22, which was #10 in your list of scarcest GA keys. Journey into Mystery #83 only has 33 UKPVs and Tales to Astonish #27 only 23 UKPVs, which also compare favorably. Fantastic Four #2 has 16 UKPVs on the CGC census, less than your #9 (Fantastic Comics #23 w/ 26) and your two tied at #7 (Wonder Comics #1 and Tec #7 w/ 23), and just one more than your #6 (Famous Funnies Series 1 #1 w/ 15). The FF#2 UKPVs total is close to your #5 (Marvel Mystery Comics 132-pager) and your #4 (Captain America Comics 132-pager), which had about 12 or 11 on the census, if I recall. Incredible Hulk #2, with only 14 UKPVs on the census, also compares favorably to most of your top-10 GA list. So UKPVs are scarce in general, and some of them compare favorably with the scarcest of the GA keys. Even the X-Men #1 you chose to single out is telling. There are 5725 of the cents version on the CGC census, compared to only 105 UKPVs, making UKPVs just 1.8% of the total out there. Despite X-Men #1 being the most "common" of Overstreet's top 50 SA books, the measly 105 UKPVs for XM1 is lower than the census totals for many of the Golden Age books in Overstreet's top 100, including Superman 1, Bat 1, Captain America Comics 1, etc.! The Silver Age UKPVs are also generally nonexistent in grades above 7/5/8.0. Surprising, isn't it?

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi Creme, Appreciate the thought and time you put into the excellent post. You make a compelling point re the UK price variants. And, I admire the way you compare some of the golden age figures in the video against particular UKPVs. BTW, I own an Avengers 1 UK variant, so am familiar with UKPVs. Nevertheless, I don't think I misrepresented the silver age given the context of the video. I limited the books to those listed as the most valuable by Overstreet for golden, silver, bronze, copper, and modern. Overstreet doesn't parse out the UKPVs in the silver age so I didn't include them. On the other hand, Overstreet did list out the 35cent variant for Star Wars 1, 2, 3, and 4. Overstreet also included several variants for Copper and Modern books. Those books were eligible for my list but none cracked the top 10. As an aside, some modern books not listed by Overstreet have outrageously rare variants. I tend to dismiss these as they are manufactured rarity. What I appreciate about the UKPVs is that they are naturally occurring rarities. I can't imagine Marvel printing them in low numbers with the goal of making them rare. And, I have respect for that. Please keep the great comments coming. I love hearing from knowledgable collectors, and differences of opinion makes for great conversation!

[@Whalewraith]

The uk variants are criminaly overlooked by the collecting community. I wonder if one day there will be the 'Newstand' bump?