Earlier this year, it was reported that a rare Superman comic sold for a record-breaking $3.25 million, narrowly beating the previous record of $3.2 million set in 2014. With many franchises continuing to grow, the demand for rare memorabilia is following suit.
Interested in finding out which superhero comics resell for the most, the personal finance experts at Money UK collated a list of superheroes and web-scraped current eBay listings to determine which character has the highest average reselling price.
The ten highest-selling superheroes in comics:
| Superheroes | Median resale price | Spider-Man | |
| 1 | Spider Man | $16,330 | $89,500 |
| 2 | X-Men | $13,200 | $245,000 |
| 3 | Batman | $10,413 | $3,500,000 |
| 4 | Wolverine | $9,997 | $42,950 |
| 5 | Incredible Hulk | $9,325 | $76,359 |
| 6 | Fantastic Four | $7,949 | $104,125 |
| 7 | Superman | $4,998 | $3,500,000 |
| 8 | Captain America | $4,997 | $41,643 |
| 9 | Iron Man | $4,925 | $90,242 |
| 10 | Thor | $4,766 | $44,000 |
The superhero comic that holds the most value to potential investors on average is Spider-Man. Money UK revealed that Spider-Man comics hold the highest median resale price, at $16,330 per comic, with the most expensive Spider-Man comic listed on eBay at $89,500.
X-Men are in second place, with a current median resale price on eBay of $13,200. The site’s most expensive X-Men comic is currently listed at $245,000.
Batman takes the third spot with a median current selling price of $10,413, Wolverine is fourth ($9,997), and the Incredible Hulk is fifth ($9,325).
The Most Expensive Comics:
The personal finance experts at Money UK can reveal that of all the superhero comics analyzed, Superman and Batman currently have the most expensive listings on eBay, priced at $3,500,000.
Taking a big jump down is Catwoman, whose most expensive comic is listed for $575,000.
The personal finance expert at Money UK, James Andrews, said: “There are a wide variety of reasons why people are fascinated by comic books: the artwork, the storylines, the escapism, and the emotional value they hold. Comic books not only carry on the legacy of so many great fictional characters but also increase in value as time goes on. Our research discovered that Spider-Man’s comics have the highest average resale price on eBay.
Despite being introduced to us back in 1962, these results just go to show how valuable the superhero is to fans across the globe. Fans are equally as excited by Superman, who holds the record for the highest-selling superhero comic at auction, with one supporter paying $3.25 million for a rare copy. Not only are comic books gaining more value than ever before, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time, and it shows no signs of slowing down.”
Some of their key findings include:
- On average, Spider-Man’s comics have the highest resale price of any other superhero comic
- From analyzing hundreds of sought-after superhero comic listings, findings show that Spider-Man resells for the most on average ($16,330)
- Placing second, with an average reselling price of $13,200, are the X-Men.
- Overall, Superman and Batman currently have the highest priced comics on eBay, at $3,500,000.
Methodology
- Money UK was curious to uncover which superhero holds the most value in comics being sold.
- To do this, Money UK utilized a list of 46 superheroes and input each superhero plus the word ‘comic’ into eBay, e.g., “Superman comic.”
- Asterix, The Atom, Elektra, The Rocketeer, The Shadow, and Zatara were excluded from the data due to insufficient eBay results.
- Money UK filtered the results by the highest-selling and highest-selling comics and web-scraped the first page of results, analyzing the cost of 2,000 superhero comics in total.
- To calculate the exchange rate for both currencies in dollars and pounds, Money UK used XE.com for the current and most accurate numbers. On 01/08/21, the rate was 1 USD = 1.38 and 1 GBP = 0.72.
- The median price for each superhero’s listed comic book was then calculated and ranked to reveal the superhero with the most valuable comic book memorabilia.
