THE INCREDIBLE HULK #118

Cover shows a vertical crease/scratch running through the Hulk's raised arm and torso area, plus some minor surface wear and a small crease near the lower right corner. Corners appear reasonably sharp with slight blunting, and there is some minor discoloration/wear along the left spine edge. The book is in a plastic sleeve which adds glare in places, obscuring fine detail. Interior and back cover were not assessed, and pre-1977 books have no direct/newsstand distinction.

The Incredible Hulk #118 arrived in August 1969 during Herb Trimpe's long, defining run as the series' primary artist, working alongside Marvel's Silver Age creative machine at the tail end of the era. The issue is a standard mid-run installment of the title rather than a landmark chapter in Hulk lore — it carries no first appearance, origin revision, or character death, and its cover, while emblematic of Trimpe's dynamic monster-battle style of the period, has not been singled out by price guides as a classic image in the way earlier or later issues in the run have been.

Market data reflects that status: values climb steadily but not steeply through the mid grades, with FMVs in the $35-45 range holding through 4.5 to 6.5 before rising more sharply above 9.0, consistent with a well-collected but non-key back-issue that draws steady CGC submission volume (381 Universal copies census-graded) without speculative spikes. The thin sales record at 9.8 — just two transactions against sixteen certified copies — signals that top-grade demand is real but limited to condition-census completists rather than broad key-issue buying pressure.

This is a book for Silver Age Hulk run-builders and Trimpe art collectors rather than key-issue investors: raw copies in low and mid grades trade as affordable filler for long-boxes and reading sets, while pressure concentrates only at the extreme high end, where scarcity of true Gem Mint survivors — not narrative importance — drives the price. Expect it to move steadily but modestly across most grades, with outsized premiums reserved for the handful of top-census slabs.