Approximate
Condition Profile
MARVEL COMICS · 10/85 · DIRECT EDITION
UNIT ECA-018845
AVENGERS #260
Roger Stern's Avengers with a Secret Wars II tie-in appearance of the Beyonder
// Unit specification
| Publisher | Cover date | Era | Variant | Key attribute | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel Comics | October 1985 | Copper | Direct Edition | — | AVAILABLE |
// Copies in archive
| Unit | Grade | Variant | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECA-019301 | ~9.2 | Direct Edition | AVAILABLE |
| ECA-019366 | ~9.2 | Direct Edition | AVAILABLE |
| ECA-018845 | ~9.0 | Direct Edition | AVAILABLE |
| ECA-019401 | ~9.0 | Direct Edition | AVAILABLE |
| ECA-022086 | ~9.0 | Direct Edition | AVAILABLE |
| ECA-019326 | ~8.5 | Direct Edition | AVAILABLE |
// Run position
// Condition analysis
Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with only minor handling wear; a faint vertical crease is visible near the upper left near the Marvel box, and slight edge softness appears along the right border. No major spine stress, color breaking, or creasing is evident, and the book is protected in a plastic sleeve. Interior and back cover were not assessed, which limits the grade to a conservative near-mint estimate.
// Valuation — market reference
| Bracket | Grade | Est. market value | Marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOW_RAW | 0.5 – 1.5 | $2 | |
| MID_RAW | 4.0 – 6.0 | $5 | |
| HIGH_CERT | 9.8 SLAB | $70 |
// Archive commentary
Avengers #260 arrived in October 1985 under Roger Stern's long stewardship of the title, during the period when Marvel's company-wide Secret Wars II event was rippling through its core superhero line. The issue folds the Beyonder's ongoing fascination with Earth and humanity into the Avengers' own continuity, with art handled in the polished, classic house style typical of the mid-1980s Avengers run. It is a solid example of the era's crossover-driven storytelling rather than a book built around any single landmark event, first appearance, or origin.
The certified population is large and the sales history consistent rather than sparse, and the fair-market curve reflects that reality: values sit in a narrow band across mid and high grades before a sharp premium emerges only at the very top of the census. That pattern is characteristic of a well-collected but non-key Copper Age issue, where demand is driven almost entirely by completists building a run of Stern's Avengers rather than by speculative interest in any single scene or character debut.
This is a book that circulates mainly through curated Avengers runs and dollar-bin discovery rather than headline auctions. Raw copies in low and mid grade hold modest, largely stable value as run-fillers, while the market's real activity concentrates at the CGC 9.8 tier, where a comparatively small pool of pristine, well-centered copies commands a clear premium over everything beneath it. Collectors completing Stern-era Avengers sets or targeting Secret Wars II tie-ins are the natural buyers across all grades.
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