STRANGE TALES #164

Cover shows moderate wear consistent with a mid-grade Silver Age book: mild corner softness at top left and bottom corners, faint spine stress lines visible along the left edge, and some minor surface rubbing especially near the top edge and yellow logo box. Colors remain bright with no major fading, tears, or creases visible, and the book is protected in a plastic sleeve which causes some glare but does not appear to be hiding significant damage. No writing, stains, or missing pieces are evident on the front cover. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed from this photo.

Strange Tales #164 arrived during the split-feature format that defined the title's late Silver Age run, pairing a Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD story with a Doctor Strange serial. By this issue the Fury feature was under the visual command of Jim Steranko, whose collage-influenced layouts and psychedelic page design were reshaping how Marvel's espionage strip looked and read; the Doctor Strange half continued the mystic serial that Stan Lee had shepherded since Ditko's departure from the character a few issues earlier. Neither story introduces a major first appearance, but the issue sits inside one of the most art-historically discussed short runs in Marvel's 1960s output.

Market data shows a typical mid-run Silver Age curve: raw copies in low and mid grades trade in the $20–$35 range with modest, steady turnover, while certified copies climb sharply from grade 8 upward, with 9.6 slabs fetching roughly $300–$350 and thinning out fast above that. The 320-copy Universal census reflects healthy survivorship for a 1968 cover-dated book, and demand is driven almost entirely by Steranko's authorship rather than any character debut, which keeps the book a steady presence in Silver Age Marvel sales without the volatility of a recognized key.

This is a collector's and completist's book rather than a speculative one: buyers are typically assembling a Steranko run, a complete Strange Tales set, or a Doctor Strange pre-solo-title collection. Lower and mid grades move consistently at modest prices as reading and run-filling copies, while high-grade certified examples, especially anything approaching 9.6 or better, see outsized premiums due to the scarcity of pristine survivors from a title printed on standard-era paper stock. A 9.8, largely absent from the certified population, would command a strong premium over the best confirmed sales on record.