CAPTAIN AMERICA #338

Cover appears bright and glossy with strong color saturation and sharp corners visible in this photo; no creases, tears, or spine stress lines are evident. There is slight edge softness at the top left and a faint bend along the right edge near the spider-logo box, but overall the surface is clean with no notable print defects. The book is in a protective sleeve which limits full assessment of edge and corner sharpness, and the interior and back cover were not assessed.

Captain America #338 arrived in February 1987 during Mark Gruenwald's long tenure as writer on the title, a run that spanned much of the 1980s and reshaped the character's supporting cast and government entanglements. The issue is a mid-run Copper Age chapter rather than a landmark installment: it features no first appearance, death, or origin story, and its cover has not entered the canon of widely cited classic images. It nonetheless represents a continuous, well-documented stretch of Captain America's ongoing series that some collectors pursue for run completion.

Market data for this issue is thin, reflecting its status as a common back-issue rather than a sought-after key. Certified sales cluster in the mid-to-high grades, with 9.6 copies trading in the $30 range and lower grades commanding only single-digit dollar amounts. The scarcity of sales data across most grades, including a complete absence of confirmed 9.8 transactions, indicates limited collector competition for this particular issue relative to the many hundreds of other Bronze and Copper Age Marvel titles that see regular turnover.

This book suits collectors building complete runs of Captain America's 1980s Gruenwald-era stories rather than investors seeking growth or key-issue premiums. Raw copies in low and mid grades remain inexpensive and plentiful in the secondary market, while a top-graded slab carries a modest premium driven mainly by census scarcity rather than storyline demand. Expect steady, unspectacular trading with prices tracking overall Copper Age Marvel sentiment rather than issue-specific catalysts.