IRON MAN #260

Cover shows strong gloss and sharp, unblunted corners with no visible whitening or fraying at the edges. Spine appears tight with no visible stress lines or color breaks in this view, and there is no evidence of creasing, staining, or tears on the front cover. The book is housed in a protective sleeve which limits full assessment of spine ticks and edge microwear; interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Iron Man #260 arrived in September 1990 as part of the long, steady Michelinie-written run that defined the character through much of the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, with Mark D. Bright on pencils and Bob Layton contributing inks during this stretch. The issue falls into the workmanlike middle of the Silver Centurion-armor era, following the character through corporate intrigue and armored-hero plotting that characterized Iron Man's Copper Age stories, without introducing a new costume, villain, or supporting cast member that has gone on to attain independent significance in the wider Marvel mythos.

Market data reflects a book with limited differentiation across the grading spectrum: sales at 9.4, 9.0, and 8.5 all cluster near the same low-$20s price point, suggesting collectors are not paying a meaningful premium for incremental grade improvements. This flat curve is consistent with a high-print-run, direct-market title from this period that was widely available and has not developed the sustained demand seen in books tied to first appearances or landmark creative runs. The absence of any confirmed 9.8 sale, despite two such copies existing on census, further points to a thin, low-velocity market rather than genuine scarcity-driven pricing tension.

This is a book most likely to move through bulk Iron Man collections, dollar-bin sourcing, or completist runs rather than as a standalone investment piece. Lower-grade raw copies carry only nominal value and are typically acquired as run-fillers, while mid-grade raw copies see modest but real demand from readers assembling the full Michelinie/Layton stretch. A 9.8 slab would command a real premium purely on registry scarcity, since so few high-grade copies have been certified, but that premium exists independent of any storyline or character significance, and buyers should treat it as a condition-census play rather than a key-issue acquisition.