In what is believed to be a record price for a Copper Age comic book, a CGC-certified 9.9 copy of New Mutants #98, featuring the first appearance of Deadpool, sold for $12,250 in Pedigree Comics’ recent Grand Auction, which ended on Wednesday, November 11, 2009.

While there are almost 400 CGC-certified copies of this extremely popular issue, this is the only 9.9 Mint example graded to date by CGC. Deadpool, of course, was featured in this past summer’s feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine and is now slated for his own movie.

“We were completely blown away by the final bidding price,” said Doug Schmell, President and CEO of Pedigree. “Our pre-auction estimate was between $4,000-6,000 and the consignor had a fairly modest reserve of $3,750. Obviously, the heat of the moment and the desire to own the world’s only certified Mint copy of this great comic caused the bidding frenzy, and we were pleasantly surprised with the final result.”

The seller, Mike Pereira, is a self-described hard-core Deadpool, and he offered the following history of this particular comic:

I’ve always been a Deadpool fan since the day I read New Mutants #98 and since then, I was hooked. I’ve collected every book I could get my hands on with a mere mention of him as he made me laugh on so many occasions. For several years now, My X-box live name is vxxdeadpoolxxv and it won’t change anytime soon. Several original art covers of his first ongoing series had their place on my wall for some time as well.

Several years ago, there were only two copies of New Mutants #98 in 9.8 on the CGC Census and I had the opportunity to bid on one on eBay. I knew of a dealer who also wanted the book. I had lost the auction when the first one was offered and didn’t plan on repeating that mistake.

This time around, I had placed a bid so high that no one was going to outbid me this time around and in the final few minutes, the same dealer placed his final bid in the last minute or so and had to bid several times and ended up losing the auction. Once the auction ended, he emailed me and asked me how much I had as a max bid and I just replied “ a lot!”

I think I ended up paying like 280.00 or so for that copy which at the time was outrageous but my maximum bid was much scarier than that figure. I just had to have it! Normally, I’m not one to drop big bids on a book well over the “current going price,” but this was the exception for me. Some time later, the first(and only) 9.9 showed up and ended up selling for the publicly known price of $510 and again at that time, most thought this to be a crazy price. In 2006, I was watching the book on eBay and unfortunately, I didn’t get to place my max bid in time and lost the auction.

I felt crushed and after accepting defeat, I emailed the winning bidder, congratulated him on the win and told him how much of a Deadpool fan I was and loved the book. I had told him that if somewhere in the future, he ever decided to sell the book, I would not pass up the opportunity. He then responded and said that if he ever decided to sell it, I would have the first chance to pick it up. After sending him the email, I never thought that chance would ever come. I mean, this person didn’t know me and I didn’t expect him to keep my contact information so I just figured that I would most likely never have the opportunity to own that book again.

Somewhere in 2007, if memory serves me correctly, I got an email from the winner of that auction and he offered me the book as promised and gave me the first opportunity and was good to his word. I then simply asked his price and without question, sent him the money! I paid $840.00 for the book and I can’t tell you how much of a hard time my friends gave me for buying this book at that price. They all thought I was crazy. Since I loved the book and the character so much, it was easy to ignore and I have been happy about the purchase ever since.

Forward to 2009, I knew Deadpool’s popularity was really starting go take off. After reading several forums devoted to the character, and the Marvel Ultimate Alliance reviews all stating how much they loved Deadpool in the game, and then the movie announcement by one of my favorite actors (Ryan Reynolds), I figured that selling the book now may be the best opportunity to expose it to other fans interested in the book. After a few days of talking to a few other big comic websites which were all very helpful, I decided to go with Pedigree for several reasons. I’ve bought from them in the past and have always had positive experiences with them. Excellent customer service is huge to me. I’ve had many dealers who never respond to emails regarding books in inventory, buying/selling questions and no response at times which puts up a big red flag to me and I take my business elsewhere. In this market, you can find most books at several places so its easy to pick and choose who you want to do business with and again, Pedigree has been top notch with me in every way so far and I will continue to visit the site on a regular basis.

After talking for a few minutes with Doug Schmell from Pedigree, we agreed to place the book on consignment for the Grand Auction they recently had. I was telling Doug that I was guessing the book would hit my reserve but hoped between $4k to $6k on the high side. I was very attached to this book and had a hard time letting go. If the book had at least hit the reserve, I would have been satisfied and let it go.

The last day of the auction came and the book was up to $4,200 or so and I had gone with a friend of mine to grab something to eat. While we were waiting for our food, she checked the auction on her phone and within the 15 or so minutes it took for me to leave the house and get to the restaurant, the book jumped to $4,777! I was pretty happy.

We ate, then went home. It only took about 15 minutes for me to get home and when I got in the door, I played my messages and the friend I went out with was screaming on my phone to call her right away!

I called her and she screamed in the phone, “Oh my, god Mike! It’s up to $10,000!” I thought she was just messing with me and once I finally logged on to the Pedigree site, I almost had a heart attack right there! About 14 seconds left in the auction and I’m thinking “Wow! This book is gonna break a record and it’s gonna sell for $10k!”

I could finally go back and rub it in my friends faces who scoffed when I bought the book three years ago at $840 and I would be $10k richer!

I took off to another room in the house and a few minutes later, I checked the auction and found that it actually closed at a whopping $12,250!

I must have been on the phone for an hour with friends that night. I’ve never sold a book like this in my life and this was just a great day for me! I’ve had what I felt were decent books in the past like a very nice Daredevil #1 9.2, Incredible Hulk #181 9.6, Amazing Spider-Man #50 9.4, Fantastic Four #48 9.6, Iron Fist #14 9.8, Marvel Spotlight #5 9.6 (well centered, too), and several similar books. The New Mutants was still my favorite and I hated to see it go, but considering how well it did on the Pedigree website, I’d live with it!

I’ve recently been selling some of my books and taking care of other things on my agenda and hopefully putting some of the money back into the hobby. All in all, I’m happy with the decision and even though I was happy to see the book achieve the price that it did, I will still miss the book very much. Many have and will say that the book went for an extremely high price and they may be right but you have to consider that it took more than just one person for that book to achieve that lofty price tag proving that there are many Deadpool fans out there who see the potential in this character as much as I do and are willing to do what it takes to acquire the best of the best. Sometimes, you end up selling a book and you turn a profit but for me, I simply bought the book because I love the character and I wanted the best copy I could find. The best character in my collection deserves the best condition I can afford. That’s what I did.