From 'FF' #1 in 1961 Through the End of 2015

B-Bop Comics is offering for sale a complete collection of every Marvel comic book published from Fantastic Four #1 in 1961 through the end of 2015. The collection does not include comics from Marvel predecessors Atlas and Timely or any issues of Kid Colt or Rawhide Kid, which started with Atlas and continued under the Marvel imprint, but it does include all Marvel magazine-size editions, original graphic novels, and treasury editions.

B-Bop Comics, which bought the collection from a longtime Kansas City customer last July, is asking $200,000 for the complete Marvel run, which it is marketing as one lot until February of 2016, when, if it has not already been sold to a University or a library, the collection, which consists of between 32,000 to 34,000 pieces, will be broken up and sold piecemeal. The collection is currently stored in 106 long boxes plus additional boxes of non-comic-size books.

B-Bop Comics’ Frank Mangiaracina told ICv2 that the collector who compiled the collection (and wishes to remain anonymous) was a pharmacist, who began collecting as a child and bought the vast majority of the books at newsstands, though he occasionally had to fill in gaps with after-market purchases. For example he had to buy Amazing Spider-Man #14 (first appearance of the Green Goblin) from a classmate for $1, and the seller ridiculed him for paying that much for a 12-cent comic.

In general the earlier books, which the original owner purchased as a child, are in “lesser condition,” but from the early 1970s on almost all the books are like new (“vfine to mint) condition. The collector’s favorite childhood comics were the Jack Kirby books, and the early Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Thor titles show the effect of their owner’s enthusiasm, while the Amazing Spider-Man issues are in slightly better shape.

It was at the urging of the collector that B-Bop Comics decided to offer the collection as one unit, and, given the size of the current culture footprint of Marvel Comics characters, it would seem likely that some progressive, pop-culture savvy institution will seize this opportunity, but if not, Mangiaracina estimates the books are worth almost twice the collection’s 200K asking price if sold individually.