The Incredible Hulk #181 Sets a Record - Highest Price Ever Paid for a Comic Book from the 1970's

March 12, 2011 - PRLog -- It's finally been done, and who better to do it than a green Goliath who goes by the name of The Incredible Hulk and his sparring partner Wolverine. In early March of this year, a high grade copy of The Incredible Hulk #181 featuring the first full appearance of Wolverine sold for $150,000 - the first time a comic book from the 1970's has sold for over $100,000. The comic book was sold by Comic Link, a well known comic book auctioneer which regularly sells high grade vintage comics.

The reason Hulk 181 is special is because it features the first full appearance of a popular character known as Wolverine - the same character who would go on to become a member of the X-Men and be featured in movies. Since around 1976, this book has steadily gone up in value almost every year since it was published. In fact, 1994 was the only year Hulk 181 actually went down in value according to the Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. Other years have shown increases as high as 213% with average annual rate of return around 37% from 1979 to 2008.

For those not in the know, comic books, like coins, can now be graded professionally. This particular copy of The Incredible Hulk #181 was graded 9.9 out of an almost impossible 10 by the grading firm CGC of Sarasota, Florida. This means the book was almost flawless - and had only a printing error of some sort and no damage done by anything outside of the printing process. It was also the only 9.9 graded copy in existence at the time of its sale and it is estimated by collectors it will probably be the highest existing graded copy for some time to come. That's because several thousand copies of this book have been graded thus far, and there is still no copy that has surfaced which has graded this high.

Wondering why Hulk 181 is worth so much? The best way to find out is to visit http://hulk181.com/, a fan site about, you guessed it, Hulk 181. To have a fan site dedicated to just one comic book is a good sign of just how popular this comic book has become. It is justifiably a great investment and seems to be as liquid as cash in any grade. Time to check those attics!

# # #

About Hulk181.com: Hulk181.com is a site dedicated to the most valuable and coolest comic book from the 1970's