MARVEL TALES #36

Cover shows noticeable surface wear including creasing near the top edge and along the Spider-Man figure, a spine that appears slightly stressed with minor color break, and light staining/discoloration visible near the center-right of the main panel. Corners show mild rounding and there is some waviness/warping to the paper stock suggesting past moisture exposure or handling. The book is bagged, obscuring finer surface details, and the interior and back cover were not assessed.

Marvel Tales was Marvel's long-running reprint vehicle, recycling Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man stories for readers who missed them the first time or could not afford escalating back-issue prices. Issue #36, cover-dated August 1972, falls within the title's steady march through Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's original Spider-Man run, presenting an early Ditko-drawn tale with period-appropriate cover art in the Marvel Tales house style. As a reprint, it carries no first appearances, deaths, or creator milestones of its own; its value rests entirely on being an inexpensive, still-collectible entry point into classic Ditko-era Spider-Man storytelling.

Market data reflects that reality: certified sales are thin across the grade spectrum, with fair market value hovering in the tens of dollars through the low-to-mid census population and only modest gains at the top end. The 9.6 tier has produced a handful of recent sales averaging roughly two hundred dollars, and no 9.8 has yet traded, underscoring how few high-grade survivors exist for a title that was read and discarded rather than preserved. Demand is driven less by speculation and more by completists building full Marvel Tales runs or Spider-Man reprint collections, and by buyers seeking affordable exposure to Ditko artwork without paying original-issue premiums.

This is a book for range-and-run collectors rather than investors chasing appreciation: raw low- and mid-grade copies remain widely available and cheaply priced, suitable for reading copies or filling gaps, while true high-grade certified examples are scarce enough to command a real premium relative to the rest of the curve, even without direct sales data at the top. Expect steady, unspectacular demand tied to nostalgia for the reprinted material and long-term interest in complete Marvel Tales and Spider-Man reprint sets rather than any independent key-issue draw.