274 Comic Books Gross Over Six Figures at Bodnar’s June 20, 2019 Auction

Throughout the years, Bodnar’s Auction has been fortunate enough to host some pretty fantastic vintage toy auctions here in New Jersey, but our sale on June 20th was one for the ages. In fact, it could be considered one of the greatest single-owner comic book auctions in recent history! 

We welcomed a standing-room-only crowd of more than 400 registered bidders — in addition to hundreds of absentees and multiple phone bidders — and we sold just under 300 lots of fantastic comics, mostly individually, with no internet bidding!

We’ll recap this epic sale shortly, after a brief bit of background.

The owner of these comics started collecting as a child, purchasing them from newsstands close to his home. After he read them, they were stored away for safekeeping. How many of us wish we shared his story? Instead, many of us lament that our parents threw out our comic book collections soon after we moved out to carry on with our adult lives! 

He was one of the lucky ones, which is part of what made these comics so rare and valuable to begin with. As an auction house, stumbling upon a collection as complete as this, and being able to bring it to market with absolutely no reserves, was truly like finding a unicorn. This is exactly what brought all the buyers out; they knew that these comic books had been purchased and taken care of by the same person for their entire lifespan.

 The highlight of the collection — and the day — was a copy of Amazing Fantasy 15, widely known in the comic book world as the first appearance of Spider-Man. The bidding began fast and furious with an in-house bidder opening the bid at $20,000. Between the large crowd and the bidders on the phone, the bidding quickly jumped to over $30,000. No one wanted to give up on what they considered a priceless gem of the comic book community! 

The comic book finally landed with a sale price of $36,800, a wonderful price for a comic that has not been graded. In fact, none of the books up for auction that day had been graded. The owner had just kept them stored well and wanted to simply let them go to other collectors who would appreciate them.

 This was only the beginning. Here are some other big moments from this massive day at Bodnar’s Auction: 

• A copy of X-Men #1, in excellent condition, went for $9,200. 
• A copy of Tales of Suspense #39 brought $6037.
• A great copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1 was sold for $8,337.
• Daredevil #1 was hammered down for $4,887.
• Avengers #4 sold for $4025.
• Fantastic 4 #48 went for $2760.
• Amazing Spider-Man #14 fetched $1725.
• Amazing Spider-Man #2 sold for $1380.00. 
• In total, the first 15 items at the auction sold for over $75,000!

At the end of the day, 274 lots were sold, totaling over six figures. The owner of the collection was thrilled, and everyone was able to take home a piece of this fantastic collection.

Bodnar’s Auction conducts monthly multi-estate auctions at the New Jersey Convention & Expo Center in Edison, N.J. Every month features over 500 lots of toys, dolls, and trains, in addition to an impressive selection of fine personal property, antiques and collectibles. 

Our next auctions will take place on July 27 and August 15, 2019. For more information about our legendary New Jersey toy auctions and other exciting sales, visit www.bodnarsauction.com or call 866-349-7378.