GUEST: When I was a kid, I would go down to
a store in Pullman, Washington, and buy candy
and comics.
And my mom knew this, of course.
And so one day, I'm at work, and she calls
me and says, "I'm down at the auction."
They were selling stuff that people had left
in storage units too long.
And she said there were two boxes of comics,
and did I want to have her bid on them, and
I said, "Sure."
And so she brought them home, and in the box
were these two comics.
And about five months ago, she calls me, and
I had a whole bunch of stuff in their attic.
She said she needed me to come and take them
out of the attic because they were taking
up too much space and they were consolidating
stuff.
APPRAISER: Now, do you have any idea what
she paid for the box of comics at auction?
GUEST: Yeah, she paid $24 for the box.
APPRAISER: Only one box, but you said there
were two up for auction.
GUEST: There were two boxes, and she looked
in the other one, and there were some toys
in the top, but comics underneath.
And this one was filled with comics, so she
bid on that one, which to this day, I kind
of wonder what might have been in the other
box.
APPRAISER: Well, you brought in a tremendous
collection of comics.
But I chose only two.
We have The Avengers number one from September
of 1963, and Avengers number two from November
of 1963.
So the reason I chose these two comics is
because right now, the Avengers are very big
in the public consciousness.
In 2015, Marvel Comics released their latest
movie, "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and you've
got coming out in his first movie very soon...
GUEST: I heard about this-- Ant Man.
APPRAISER: Ant Man.
I mean, these are some of the most iconic
Marvel superheroes.
And it's written by Stan Lee, the art by Jack
Kirby, with just creators of such amazing,
amazing characters-- stuff we both grew up
with and grew to love.
And then we've got Avengers number two, and
it introduces a new character, the Space Phantom,
which, unfortunately, I don't think anyone
really knows about anymore.
One thing about comic books that really changes
the value on them is condition.
Now, these aren't in what we would consider
mint condition.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Far from it.
You've got creases by the staples, you've
got a section in here that is completely folded
back.
You've got what we call a rolled cover, which
means the cover is slightly offset.
Especially on this one, it's particularly
bad.
These are what we'd call "very good."
This one would be a "very good minus."
This one would be around a "very good plus."
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Kind of in that range.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Do you have any idea what the value
might be on them?
GUEST: I honestly really don't.
APPRAISER: At auction, in what we would consider
unprofessionally graded condition, this would
sell for around $450 to $550.
GUEST: Really?
Wow.
That's really cool.
APPRAISER: But Avengers number one, we estimate
in this condition, it would probably sell
at auction for between $4,000 and $6,000.
GUEST: No way!
You are kidding me.
In that condition?
Wow!
My mom is going to freak out.
I cannot believe that she kept them all these
years.
She's totally not going to believe this story.
Seriously, wow.
Oh, my God, it's unbelievable.
That is amazing.
I don't even want to touch them now.
(laughing)
GUEST: Mom, you did good.
(both laugh)
