Approximate
Condition Profile
MARVEL COMICS · 2/80 · NEWSSTAND
UNIT ECA-016982
AMAZING ADVENTURES #3
Marvel's Amazing Adventures reprints the original X-Men's Jack O'Diamonds and Vanisher story with a new Budiansky/Esposito cover
// Unit specification
| Publisher | Cover date | Era | Variant | Key attribute | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel Comics | February 1980 | Bronze | Newsstand | — | AVAILABLE |
// Copies in archive
| Unit | Grade | Variant | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECA-016982 | ~8.5 | Newsstand | AVAILABLE |
// Run position
// Condition analysis
Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with no visible creases or color breaks. There is minor edge wear at the top right corner and slight surface rubbing near the spine, but no major stress lines are visible. The book is in a protective sleeve which limits full assessment of spine tightness and surface texture; interior and back cover were not assessed.
// Valuation — market reference
| Bracket | Grade | Est. market value | Marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOW_RAW | 0.5 – 1.5 | $3 | |
| MID_RAW | 4.0 – 6.0 | $6 | |
| HIGH_CERT | 9.8 SLAB | $42 |
// Archive commentary
Amazing Adventures #3 (Marvel, Feb. 1980) is a Bronze Age reprint vehicle, republishing Jack Kirby's original 1960s X-Men story featuring Jack O'Diamonds and the Vanisher, with period-accurate inking by Chic Stone and Paul Reinman. The issue carries no new script or character debut of its own; its interest lies chiefly in reintroducing a lesser-known early X-Men villain team-up to a newsstand audience a decade after its first printing, alongside a fresh cover by Bob Budiansky and Mike Esposito. As with most of Marvel's late-1970s reprint anthology line, the book functions as an affordable entry point to classic Kirby-era X-Men material rather than as a standalone collectible event.
Market activity is thin and grade-driven rather than key-driven: certified sales are scattered across the curve with only a handful of transactions at any given grade, and pricing stays modest until the top of the census, where a solitary CGC 9.8 has traded well above the mid-grade norm. This pattern is typical of low-key reprint issues, where raw and mid-grade copies see negligible collector competition but pristine slabs draw a premium from census-completion buyers and X-Men-adjacent Bronze Age specialists rounding out full runs of the title.
This is a book for series completists, X-Men reprint-run collectors, and CGC registry participants chasing top-census slots rather than for buyers seeking first-appearance or origin-story significance. Raw copies in low and mid grade circulate cheaply and infrequently change hands at auction, while the pricing gap widens sharply toward 9.8, reflecting rarity at the top of the grade curve rather than any inherent narrative importance of the issue.
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