THE CHAMPIONS #9

Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with only minor edge wear visible along the top and right border; a faint diagonal crease is visible near the top right corner. Spine appears mostly tight with no major stress lines visible, though slight whitening may be present at the extreme top. The book is bagged in plastic which limits full assessment of surface sheen and back cover; interior pages were not assessed.

The Champions #9 is a standard installment from Marvel's short-lived 1970s super-team title uniting Angel, Iceman, Hercules, the Black Widow, and Ghost Rider under one banner. Bill Mantlo's scripting and George Tuska's pencils carried the series through its later issues, with Gil Kane contributing striking cover work typical of the era's team-book output. The series itself is a curiosity of Marvel's mid-1970s roster experiments, folding together characters from disparate corners of the Marvel Universe, but issue #9 carries no first appearance, death, or other landmark event that collectors single out.

Market data reflects a book that trades almost entirely as a mid-tier Bronze Age filler title: census population is modest but not scarce, with the bulk of certified copies clustering in the 9.0-9.6 range and pricing that rises sharply only at the top end. The jump from roughly $16 at 9.0 to $60 at 9.6 and $120 at 9.8 shows the familiar pattern of a common book where grade rarity, not character or story significance, drives value. Lower-grade raw copies see little collector attention and correspondingly thin pricing.

This is a book bought by Champions completists and Bronze Age team-book runs collectors rather than key-issue investors. Mid-grade raw copies move steadily but cheaply as reading or run-filling copies, while high-grade submissions attract a narrow but persistent pool of census chasers competing for the relatively small pool of 9.6 and 9.8 slabs. Expect flat demand outside the top two grades and continued premium pricing concentrated at the CGC 9.8 tier.