Captain America Comic Hidden for 80 Years Sells for $716,750

A copy of Captain America Comics No. 1 that sat in a cardboard box for nearly 80 years has sold for $716,750 at auction. The 1941 comic came from the Merrimack Valley Collection, a recently found group of Golden Age books purchased off the rack by the original owner. The collection remained stored in the same box for decades. Heritage Auctions sold the comic during its Comic Books Signature Auction in Dallas, held September 24 through 26. The book received a 9.0 grade from CGC and became the top sale of the event, according to Overstreet. Captain America Comics No. 1 remains one of the defining books of the Golden Age. It introduced Captain America and Bucky, marked the debut of the Red Skull, and included the famous cover showing Captain America punching Adolf Hitler. The image arrived as America faced rising pressure to confront Nazi Germany before the United States entered World War II. Heritage officials said the collection’s condition was the real surprise. Most comics stored in ordinary cardboard boxes for generations do not survive in high grade. “For an original-owner collection that spent the last 75 or 80 years in a cardboard box, the condition of the books was stunning,”...