DETECTIVE COMICS #351

Cover shows notable wear including corner blunting at top and bottom right, edge wear along the spine with visible stress lines radiating from the spine area, and light surface soiling especially in the lower left dark area. There's a small crease/bend visible in the lower right corner and general handling wear consistent with a mid-grade vintage Silver Age book. The comic is in a protective sleeve which obscures fine detail assessment; interior and back cover were not assessed.

Detective Comics #351 arrived in May 1966 during the height of the "New Look" Batman era shepherded by editor Julius Schwartz, with a Carmine Infantino cover and interior art inked by Sid Greene over a Gardner Fox script. The issue introduces Arthur Brown, alias Cluemaster, a gimmick-obsessed villain who taunts Batman and Robin with cryptic clues before his crimes. While never a marquee Batman antagonist, Cluemaster gained lasting relevance decades later as the father of Stephanie Brown, who debuted as Spoiler and went on to become Batgirl, giving this issue a secondary hook for modern Batfamily completists beyond its status as a straightforward first appearance.

The certified population is substantial for a mid-1960s DC title, with 87 Universal copies recorded and sales activity spread across the full grade spectrum, indicating steady but unspectacular demand typical of a minor-key Silver Age issue. Pricing is flat through the mid and low grades, holding in the $36-$60 range from about 3.0 through 8.0, then accelerating sharply above 9.0 as the pool of surviving high-grade copies thins dramatically. That divergence reflects a book collected mainly by grade-conscious registry builders and Batman-villain specialists rather than broad key-issue speculation.

Expect this title to trade as a value-oriented Silver Age pickup in low-to-mid grades, appealing to Batman rogues-gallery collectors and readers assembling a run of 1960s Detective Comics rather than investors chasing headline keys. High-grade certified copies, especially anything approaching the top of the census, will command outsized premiums simply due to scarcity rather than character demand, and any sale at 9.6 or 9.8 should be treated as a condition-census event with limited pricing precedent.