Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Vintage Paper | Tagged: hulk, marvel, Sales Record, Silver Age

The Incredible Hulk #1 Sells For Half A Million Dollars

Published Thu, 30 Dec 2021 11:12:09 -0600

Last updated Fri, 31 Dec 2021 18:35:19 -0600

Recently we looked at a bunch of copies of Hulk #1 that were selling for prices far above their Overstreet Price Guide levels. A copy of Hulk #1 at 8.0, with a price guide value of $58,600 ended up selling for over $188,000. Now Comic Connect reports that they have sold a copy in a 9.0 CGC grade in a private sale for $490,000, just ten thousand short of a cool half-million, the most money reportedly ever spent on Incredible Hulk #1.

"Highly-graded copies of Incredible Hulk #1 are notoriously hard to find, due to the cheap paper used and the smudging of the gray color on the front cover," notes Vincent Zurzolo, COO of ComicConnect.com, which handled the sale. While ComicConnect is known for its auctions, the company also conducts private sales, such as this one. Notes Zurzolo, "Vintage comic book values just keep going up across the board… The new owner of this book now owns a special piece of American mythology that will continue to gain in value," says Zurzolo. "It will be a cornerstone of his collectible investment portfolio. Incredible Hulk will only continue to get bigger with time, if you know what I mean."

He has a point. CGC reports they have graded twenty copies of The Incredible Hulk #1 at the same grade as this one, 9.0, ten copies at 9.2, and four at 9.4 – so there are definitely copies out there that will break the half-million barrier and go higher as a result. And it looks as if the Overstreet Price Guide entry for this particular issue will have to be updated by several degrees of magnitude.

The Hulk was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a combination of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Becoming one of Marvel's most iconic creations, the character of Hulk and Bruce Banner were first played in live-action by Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno in the 1978 TV series The Incredible Hulk, by Eric Bana in the film Hulk, released in 2003, Edward Norton in the MCU film The Incredible Hulk in 2008 and by Mark Ruffalo from the film The Avengers and most recently in Shang-Chi. Ruffalo will reprise the role in the upcoming Disney+ TV series She-Hulk.