MARVEL TALES #140

Cover shows strong gloss and bright, unfaded colors with sharp corners and square edges. There is minor surface texture/waviness visible in the artwork area, likely from the protective sleeve or slight print handling rather than actual creasing, and no visible spine stress ticks or color breaks along the spine. No stains, tears, or writing are visible on the front cover; back cover and interior pages were not assessed.

Marvel Tales #140, cover-dated June 1982, is part of Marvel's long-running reprint anthology series that recycled classic Amazing Spider-Man stories for a new generation of newsstand readers. By this point in its run, Marvel Tales had settled into a steady rhythm of reprinting Amazing Spider-Man issues roughly one hundred numbers behind the original series, and issue #140 corresponds to Amazing Spider-Man #40, the 1966 Stan Lee and Steve Ditko story that revealed the origin of the Green Goblin as Norman Osborn. The material inside is unchanged from its original publication, offered here in the format and printing quality typical of early-1980s Marvel newsstand reprint books.

As a reprint title, Marvel Tales #140 carries none of the first-appearance or first-printing significance of the Amazing Spider-Man issue it reproduces; its market profile reflects that reality, trading as a common, widely available Bronze Age book rather than a sought-after key. Demand for these reprint issues tends to come from Spider-Man completists filling out long runs, from readers wanting an affordable way to experience classic Ditko-era stories, and occasionally from collectors interested in the cover art commissioned specifically for the reprint series. There is no meaningful scarcity pressure at any grade tier for this issue.

Collectors buy Marvel Tales #140 as inexpensive reading copies or as a budget-friendly way to own the Green Goblin origin story without pursuing the much costlier original Amazing Spider-Man #40. Mid-grade raw copies move steadily at modest prices in back-issue bins and online marketplaces, while high-grade slabbed examples appeal mainly to registry-set builders working through the Marvel Tales run rather than to Spider-Man key-issue investors. The book's trajectory across grades is typical of Bronze Age reprint material: gradual, unspectacular, and tied more to condition census rarity than to character or story demand.