Throughout 2025, we’ve seen the comic book and original art markets set multiple new records. At the same time, we’ve seen values level out after the significant uptick that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. For an inside look at the sellers’ perspective, Scoop talked to comic and art auctioneers and dealers, including ComicLink Director of Marketing Rick Hirsch.

Scoop: How would you describe the current market for comics and original art?
Rick Hirsch (RH): Overall the market for comics and art from our perspective has been quite healthy. Not counting the key pandemic years of 2021 and 2022 when prices suddenly more than doubled on many key comics before falling back in 2023, the year of 2025 was our best year for auction sales by a large amount. Total sales were not far from the pandemic years, which we didn’t expect to see for some time.

Scoop: What were your biggest sales in 2025?
RH: Comic: Superman #1 CGC 3.5 for $370,000; art: Ron Frenz and Brett Breeding Amazing Spider-Man #252 page 8 for $130,000.

Scoop: What was your most surprising sale of the year?
RH: Comic: Marvel Super-Heroes #18 CGC 9.8 (first Guardians of the Galaxy) for $47,000; art: Steve McNiven Civil War #6 page 20-21 double page splash for $38,888.

Scoop: What buying trends caught your attention in 2025?
RH: Movie and TV show announcements had less of an impact on sales than we’ve seen over the past decade. Prices on most keys from the 1980s to the present continued to drop in most cases as the number of slabbed copies grew and the number of speculators fell. There are exceptions to this downward trend such as Robert Kirkman’s Invincible series, which has seen price hikes on key issues due to the popularity of the streaming animated series. On the other hand, Golden Age prices have been on an upward swing, especially for Batman and Detective Comics featuring popular Batman villains, Timely superhero comics, and classic horror covers. Silver and Bronze have seen a mix of up and down prices depending on the character and grade.

Scoop: Outside of comics and comic art, what type of collectibles were big sellers this year?
RH: Pokémon cards were big in 2025, with several record prices achieved for rare cards from the 1999-2008 period.