A listing survey does not give the value of a booklet: it gives what sellers are asking for on a given day. As of September 6, 2026, what these requests reveal of Black Panther is less an amount than a distribution. On the first appearance in 1966, the announcements of certified copies were more numerous than those of raw copies - 110 against 73. On the series of the years 2000 and 2010, certification became marginal, a few units out of hundreds of announcements. It is this swing, not the median, that describes the market.
What a listing survey measures, and what it doesn't measure
We must set the limit before the numbers, otherwise the numbers say anything. The following numbers come from current announcements, noted on September 6, 2026. These are asking prices. No one has paid these amounts; sellers hope for them. Between hope and collection, the margin is sometimes wide: no column in the survey quantifies it.
This limit leads to a second, less obvious one. A median asking price describes the supply position, not the demand position. If the holders of a booklet agree to ask for a lot, the median rises; that no buyer follows will not change anything in the survey. A high number therefore signals seller confidence, which is real information but different from a value.
A question then remains: what can we honestly draw from such a survey? At least one thing, and it's solid. Next to the asking price, each listing indicates whether the copy is certified or raw. However, certification is paid for, takes weeks, and is committed before any sale without any return being acquired. The proportion of certified advertisements therefore records decisions already taken, at their own expense, by people who held the object. It is a trace of behavior, not an opinion: it does not depend on what a seller hopes for today.
The figures recorded on September 6, 2026
The survey covered the first appearance in 1966 and five series devoted to the character: the 1973 series in which the first followed story appears, that of 1977, then those launched in 1998, 2005, 2016 and 2023. For the series, the measurement covers the first twelve issues - and nothing beyond, which is a restriction that must be remembered.
On the 1966 issue, 73 listings for rough copies had a median of $550, with a range of $25 to $40,000. The 110 certified copy listings had a median of $781, ranging from $82 to $15,000.
Of the 1973 series, the sixth issue brought together 52 gross ads at a median of $117 and 36 certified ads at $212. The fifth, less famous, had 61 raw at $70 and 44 certified at $198. Beyond that, the series collapses: from the seventh to the twenty-fourth, the raw medians hold between $14 and $30, with two exceptions — the nineteenth at $55 out of 11 listings, the twenty-first at $40 out of 13. Certified listings are rare or absent.
Of the 1977 series, the first issue had 90 gross ads at $57 and 38 certified at $155. The next eleven held between $13 and $27 gross, with a handful of listings certified by number.
Of the 1998 series, the first issue had 118 raw ads at a median of $20 and 28 certified at $99. From second to twelfth, the raw medians fell between $5 and $17.
In that of 2005, the first issue displayed 90 gross ads at $10 and 13 certified at $100. The second brought together 63 gross ads at $50 and 72 certified announcements at $145 median — more certified than any other issue in the series, and five times more than the first.
In 2016, the first issue had 117 gross ads at $14 and 23 certified at $150; the next ones fell between $5 and $9. On that of 2023, the first displayed 134 gross advertisements at $6 and 4 certified, the following between $4 and $9.
1966 — more certified than raw
110 certified ads compared to 73 raw ones. This is the only issue in the survey where the proportion exceeds half. Getting certified has become the default.
2005, second issue — the anomaly
72 certified announcements, compared to 13 on the first issue of the same series. The survey records the deviation; he does not give the cause.
1973 — the fifth against the sixth
44 certified listings on the fifth, 36 on the sixth, while the sixth carries the highest asking price of the series.
2016 and 2023 — certification expires
23 then 4 certified announcements on the opening numbers, for more than a hundred gross announcements each. At $6 and $14 medians, the expense is no longer justified.
The word “valuation” suggests that a booklet has a value that it would be enough to note. Formulated like this, the idea holds up poorly: what a listing survey delivers is a distribution of requests, dispersed, dated, and without any observable purchasing counterpart.
Reformulated in terms of behavior, it becomes measurable: among the holders of a given booklet, what proportion considered the certification profitable? This question has a numerical answer, and it does not depend on what a seller hopes to obtain.
A seesaw, not a ladder
Arranged by date, these figures do not show a regular slope but a seesaw. On the one hand, the 1966 issue and, to a lesser extent, the two series from the 1970s: certification is common there, in the majority even on the oldest. On the other, everything that appears from 1998 onwards: certification becomes a minority gesture, then marginal.
The dividing line does not follow the notoriety of the character, which has continued to grow over the period. It follows the price. Having it certified costs a roughly fixed sum, regardless of what the object is worth. Below a certain level, the expenditure exceeds what it can bring in, and the calculation stops there. The gross medians recorded say this quite clearly: $550 on the 1966 issue, $117 on the sixth of 1973, $57 on the first of 1977, then $20, $10, $14 and $6 on the four modern series.
This reading has an uncomfortable practical consequence. On modern series, comparing a certified asking price to a gross asking price makes little sense: the $150 certified median for the first issue of 2016 is based on 23 ads, compared to 117 gross ads at $14. There are not two states of the same market, but a market on one side and a niche on the other.
The two gaps the survey does not explain
Two observations escape the price explanation. Better to admit it than embroider around it.
The first concerns the second issue of the 2005 series. It carries 72 certified advertisements when the first issue of the same series carries 13, and its gross median — $50 — is five times that of the first. A number two who exceeds his number one at this point is not an accident of sample: the numbers are large on both sides. Something distinguishes this booklet, and this something does not appear in a price survey. Checking it involves opening the booklet or consulting the catalog, not measuring more ads.
The second concerns the 1973 series. The fifth issue carries more certified ads than the sixth — 44 versus 36 — while the sixth has the highest median in the series and is the issue that's being talked about. Here again, the difference is clear and the survey is silent on its cause.
These two cases illustrate the true usefulness of an ad survey: it does not conclude, it indicates where to look. A figure that surprises a large number of people is a well-asked question, which is better than an ill-founded answer.
Reading an Asking Price as a Value
Not a single one of these lines corresponds to a closed sale. They record a seller's expectation, dated, without the slightest acquiescence from the buyer.
Retain the median without the range
$550 median over a range of $25 to $40,000 doesn't sum up much. Dispersion is part of the result here.
Conclude with three announcements
Several issues showed only one or two certified copies. The percentage is calculated, it means nothing on this scale.
Forget what's not on sale
Only the published offer is included in the count. Where certified copies lie dormant in collections, the measured rate falls for no real reason.
Treat an isolated measurement as a trend
A single date gives no direction. Talking about evolution presupposes at least two comparable measurements, done in the same way.
Extend the first twelve to the rest
The 1998, 2005 and 2016 series have many more numbers than those measured here. Nothing in the survey applies to those not listed there.
Repeat the measurement, the only valid follow-up
Taken alone, a count does not establish any evolution: it sets a benchmark. The differences described above will only make sense on the second pass, when it will become possible to say whether the certified share of the second number of 2005 is maintained or deflates, and if the shift around 1998 holds in the same place.
Redoing the measurement requires few things, but the same each time. Note the date and time. Count raw and certified advertisements separately. Discard lots, reissues and derivative items, which inflate the numbers without affecting the booklet. Check that the number announced is indeed the one sought — this is the step most often neglected, and the one that distorts the most: on certain requests in this report, more advertisements were rejected due to the wrong number than retained. Finally, keep the number next to the median, otherwise the following figure will not be comparable.
The task is tedious; this is why two successive counts rarely follow the same protocol. A reading that cannot be compared to the previous one has only produced an impression.
This question goes beyond what a survey can resolve. It shows that as of September 6, 2026, raw copy listings had a median of $550 over a range of $25 to $40,000, and certified ones $781 over $82 to $15,000. Asking prices, therefore; the state of the booklet, its certification and the level assigned account for almost all of this amplitude.
Because the expense is amortized as soon as the booklet reaches this level. It costs a roughly fixed amount: compared to a median of several hundred dollars, it becomes a seller's reflex. This is the only issue in the survey where the gesture is in the majority, with 110 certified announcements compared to 73 raw ones.
The survey shows what the market does with it, not what to do. In the 2016 and 2023 series, the opening numbers showed a gross median of $14 and $6 for more than a hundred announcements each, with only 23 and then 4 certified announcements. At these levels, the expense exceeds what the price difference can yield.
The survey records it without explaining it: 72 certified ads and $50 gross median, compared to 13 certified ads and $10 on the first issue. The numbers are too large for a sample accident. The cause lies in the content of the booklet, which is verified in the catalog, not in an additional count of advertisements.
No: an isolated measure is incapable of doing so. A single date establishes a point, never a direction. A second count would be necessary, carried out with identical exclusions and the same number control, for the reconciliation to be effective; without this identity of method, the measured difference would come from the method as much as from the market.
One reading is only as good as the next
Dating your own counts and finding them the following year is what separates an impression from an observation. My Comics Collection archives the number retained at the same time as the figure, condition for two passages to correspond.