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Captain America #1 Has Bids Of Almost Two Million Dollars

Published Thu, 07 Apr 2022 08:57:13 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Thu, 07 Apr 2022 09:35:16 -0500

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Today, as part of Heritage Auctions' Platinum Session auctions, Captain America Comics #1 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby from 1941, part of the San Francisco Pedigree collection, graded at CGC 9.4, is going under the hammer. And from proxy bids alone, it already has almost two million dollars in bids. It's the first appearance of Captain America, in an excellent grade from over eighty years ago, from a time when no one was preserving these publications. Heritage Auctions previously sold this copy in August 2019, when it sold for $915,000. Just by the current bid, that's 50% up in four years.

Captain America Comics #1 San Francisco Pedigree (Timely, 1941) CGC NM 9.4 Off-white to white pages. Not just one of the most sought-after comics in the hobby, but one of the nicest copies ever seen of it, and from one of the most famous collections! That combination puts this among the most desirable comic books Heritage has auctioned to date.
The distributor markings combined with the "Tom Reilly" stamp in the middle of the back cover identify this as being from the storied San Francisco Pedigree collection. Many a Golden Age collector ranks this pedigree near the top, with some putting it behind only the Edgar Church/Mile High hoard. And the story of the collection being brought into a show in Berkeley, California in 1973 has entered collecting lore.
We have always loved Bob Overstreet's description of the significance of this book: "Simon & Kirby's most classic creation; a patriotic paragon that set the comics market reeling. A trend setter." And Jim Steranko summarized the impact: "the classic heroic figure — the comics had found a reason to exist… Captain America was an unprecedented success. The first issue sold out. The super hero business became the comic publishers' Holy Grail." A top seller it may have been, but that doesn't mean copies are readily available now. Heritage has at times gone an entire year without offering a single copy in any grade. Please zoom in on our scans to your heart's content, and if your mission is to find a flaw, you'll have a very hard time doing so. As you compare this copy to other Captain America Comics #1s in our archives pay special attention to the back cover — the backs of this issue always seem to have some sort of smudging or darkening, but on this San Francisco copy the quality shines through. And that's true even compared to other pedigree copies, of which we have offered a few in our day. It's particularly noteworthy that the Mile High copy is no competition for this specimen, being both a couple of grades lower and restored. The two copies that are even with or ahead of this one on CGC's census are also pedigrees: the 9.8 Allentown and 9.4 Denver copies.

We'll be keeping an eye to see what Captain America Comics #1 hits when that hammer finally lands.