Auction lot surprise revealed a weird Spider-Man sales stat from 1991

I was digging through a stack of old comics at an estate sale last month when I found a beat-up copy of Spider-Man #1 from 1990. The owner had taped a printout inside showing sales figures for that era. Turns out that issue sold over 2.5 million copies at the time, which I knew was big. But what got me was that the guy wrote a note claiming it was the single highest selling comic of the entire 1990s for Marvel. I checked online and it seems like that's real, it beat out X-Men #1 too. Anyone else run into wild numbers like that from old collector notes?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscar39021d ago

The claim that Spider-Man #1 was the highest selling comic of the 90s for Marvel sounds right on paper, but I'd push back a little on that note from the collector. You gotta remember, X-Men #1 from 1991 sold over 8 million copies total with all those variant covers, even if the base issue was lower. Sure, Spider-Man #1 hit 2.5 million and that's huge, but the gimmick with X-Men #1 was a massive marketing push that blew past it. I've seen old sales breakdowns from that time where X-Men #1 actually outsold Spider-Man #1 by a long shot when you add up every cover. So that guy's note might be a little off unless he was just talking about a single cover version, not the whole run.

the_john19d ago

So that estate sale guy was basically counting with his fingers and toes when he wrote that note. 2.5 million copies is a lot, but X-Men #1 had like 8 million copies across its four covers, which is basically printing money at that point. It's like saying you sold the most hot dogs at a baseball game but forgetting the guy next to you sold five times as many with a "buy one get three free" deal. That collector's note is about as reliable as the guy who swears his 1993 Superman #75 is worth a fortune because "everyone knows the death issue is rare.