Set Description:
Synopsis: In terms of the CGC Census, and not the value of the books, this is probably our best Marvel set, as 74 of our 81 books are 9.8s, and 75 are highest graded examples. All of our books are graded at least 9.6 and no worse than second highest graded, and seven issues, down from ten a couple of years ago, are single highest graded examples.
Background: Daredevil was created by Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby. He first appeared April 1964 in Daredevil #1 after the 1963 Marvel entrants of Avengers and X-Men. Writer/artist Frank Miller's influential tenure on the title in the early 1980s cemented the character as a popular and influential part of the Marvel Universe.
Daredevil is the alias of Matthew Michael "Matt" Murdock, a blind lawyer. While growing up in Hell's Kitchen in New York City, Matt is blinded by a radioactive substance that falls from an out-of-control truck after he pushes a man out of the path of the oncoming vehicle. While he loses his sight in the accident, his exposure to the radioactive material heightens his remaining senses beyond normal human ability, and gives him a "radar sense." His father, a boxer named Jack Murdock, is a single man raising his now blind son, who despite his rough upbringing, unconditionally loves his son and tries to teach him to form a better life for himself. Jack is later killed by gangsters after refusing to throw a fight, leaving Matt an orphan. To protect himself, Matt began training to hone his physical abilities and superhuman senses under the tutelage of a mysterious blind stranger named Stick, eventually becoming a highly skilled and expert martial artist.
Some years later, after graduating from law school with high grades, Matt seeks out the criminal element in Hell's Kitchen and starts his crime-fighting activities. Matt targets the local gangsters who murdered his father and succeeds in bringing them to justice. Eventually, donning a costumed attire modeled after a devil, Matt took up a dual life of fighting against the criminal underworld in New York City as the masked vigilante Daredevil, which put him in conflict with many super-villains, including his arch-enemies Bullseye and the Kingpin. He also becomes a skilled and respected lawyer after graduating from Columbia Law School with his best friend and roommate, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, with whom he becomes law partners, forming the law firm Nelson & Murdock.
Daredevil has appeared in various forms of media, including several animated series, video games and merchandise. The character was first portrayed in live action by Rex Smith in the 1989 television film The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, and then by Ben Affleck in the 2003 film Daredevil. Charlie Cox portrays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise, appearing thus far in the Marvel Television series Daredevil (2015–2018), the miniseries The Defenders (2017), the Marvel Studios film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and the Disney Plus television series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, while being set to appear in the upcoming series Echo (2023), and Daredevil: Born Again (2024).
Our Collection: These are books that I collected as a kid and I can still remember buying my first copy of Daredevil #1 at the local drugstore in Oxford, MS. While the books in this set do not represent the entirety of our DD collection, I think that, if I had it to do over again, I would probably have stopped our DD collection at Issue #80, as even that stretches beyond how far I collected these books as a kid. When I first started accumulating CGC books around 2000, I focused on 12 titles and took them from #1-100, or just collected the superhero portions of titles like Strange Tales, Journey Into Mystery, Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense. But when I decided to register our books as a means to organize our collections over 10 years ago, which were then stored in CGC boxes, I first registered our DDs in the #1-157 set, which picked up our issues #81-#100.
While I would love to acquire one of the three #2 9.8s if one ever becomes available at a reasonable price, this set is basically done and upgrades are not a high priority. All 81 books are pictured and described below.
Current Stats:
81/81 Books
74 9.8s-All Highest Graded
7 9.6s-2 Highest Graded
49 WP
29 OW/W
3 OW
7 Single Highest Graded
75 Highest Graded
6 Second Highest Graded
31 Pedigrees
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| The gallery tab shows only items with images. Click the thumbnails to enlarge. |
| Slot: |
Daredevil 1 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 1 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
2065130014
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Owner Comments
Issue #1 features the Origin and first appearance of Daredevil, (Matt Murdock). It also features the first appearance of sidekicks, Karen Page and Foggy Nelson. Our book is a very solid 9.6 of Daredevil’s entry into the Marvel universe. As such, it is tied for second highest graded trailing a pair of 9.8s, one of which sold in March 2021 for $250,000, which now looks like a relative bargain-if something that initially cost 12 cents could ever be considered a bargain at over a million times face value LOL.
For many years, Daredevil #1s in 9.6 could be acquired for $30,000-$40,000, but they have skyrocketed in value since COVID with sales topping out at as much as $150,000. Recent sales have come down a bit, so it will be interesting to see whether that decline will continue or is just a pause is the market.
We acquired our book in the 10/25/2011 CL Auction.*
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 2 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 2 |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1108461003
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Owner Comments
Issue #2 features the second appearance of Daredevil and Electro, as well as a Fantastic Four appearance. Our 9.6 is tied for second highest graded, trailing a pair of 9.8s, a WP one from the Pacific Coast Collection and an OW/W page copy from the Western Penn Collection. I was the second highest bidder for the Pacific Coast copy at a recent CL auction. I also negotiated to buy the Western Penn copy, but when I offered the owner his original counter, he not only rejected it, but raised the price $20,000. So somewhat of necessity I decided to settle for this 9.6, which was acquired in the 4/1/2021 CC Auction.
Greed has certainly run rampant during this pandemic, as sellers have sometimes doubled the prices of books that have sat unsold for years. As my son said to me, it’s a good thing we acquired most of our books many years ago, we could never put together our collection today at these prices. No truer words were ever spoken, it has become a market of speculators rather than collectors.
2022 Update: I usually hate to see an expansion of the census at the top, but in this case since I don’t own a 9.8, I really don’t mind. In that vein, it’s noteworthy that there are now three 9.8s, so maybe I will get another shot at upgrading this book in the future.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 3 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 3 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
2087158003
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Owner Comments
Issue #3 features the Origin and first appearance of, the Owl (Leland Owlsley), who becomes a recurring villain in the Daredevil series. Our 9.8 is one of just two topping the census. We at one time owned both 9.8s, but made the mistake of selling the other when we needed to raise money for other purchases. We acquired the book in the 12/3/2019 CL Auction.*
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 4 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 4 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
2087158010
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Owner Comments
Issue #4 introduces the Purple Man, Zebediah Killgrave-how did they come up with some of these names LOL? This copy hails from the great Western Penn collection, which is probably the only one to rival the Pacific Coast pedigree. It is one of the four highest graded ever certified by CGC. It was also part of the Doug Schmell Collection auctioned off by Heritage in July 2012.*
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 5 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 5 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0010133002
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Owner Comments
Pacific Coast copy and one of two highest graded as of 12/2019. It was also part of the Doug Schmell Collection auctioned off by Heritage in July 2012.
Acquired in the December 2019 CL auction.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 6 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 6 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1026145006
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Owner Comments
Daredevil battles the Fellowship of Fear in DD #6, which marks Daredevil’s last appearance in his yellow costume. It is a Curator pedigree and the single highest graded copy as of 12/2019. It was also part of the Doug Schmell Collection auctioned off by Heritage in July 2012. We acquired the book in the December 2019 CL auction.
2022 Update: Our book was knocked out of being the single highest graded example in 2022 by a far inferior book to this collector’s eyes, which admittedly aren’t great LOL. The other one lacked both a pedigree and WP and was poorly cut. At least it actually went for more than we paid for this one.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 7 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 7 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0705528012
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Owner Comments
Issue #7 features Daredevil battling Sub-Mariner. There are no 9.8s of this key issue, which marks the first appearance of DD’s new uniform. This book is the Pacific Coast copy and one of three highest graded, as of 12/2019. It was part of the Doug Schmell Collection, which was auctioned off by Heritage in July 2012. We acquired it in a CL auction on December 15, 2019.
Issue #7 has always demanded a premium over every other DD issue, except #1, probably because of the appearance of DD’s new uniform, along with the appearance by iconic hero/villain Sub-Mariner. We initially overpaid for our book in one of those crazy CL auctions when all of the serious bids are made in the final 10 seconds. However, the market has done us a favor in this case, as the last 9.6 to sell was a non-pedigree copy without white pages, which nonetheless still sold for a premium over what we paid for this one. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose....
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 8 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 8 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0996840004
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Owner Comments
Issue #8 introduces the unique Stilt Man, alias Wilbur Day, who will be a recurring DD adversary. This book is one of seven highest graded and was part of the Doug Schmell Collection auctioned off by Heritage in July 2012. We acquired the book over seven years later in the December 2019 CL auction.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 9 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 9 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0102380001
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Owner Comments
Issue #9 features the first appearance of the Organizer. This copy was also part of the Doug Schmell Collection auctioned off by Heritage in July 2012. It is currently one of four highest graded. Acquired in the 12/15/2019 CL auction.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 10 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 10 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1479687011
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Owner Comments
Issue #10 features the first appearance of the Ani-Men. This copy is one of just three 9.8s and was acquired in a ComicConnect auction ending on May 2, 2017.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 11 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 11 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1449929004
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Owner Comments
Issue #11 features an Ani-Men appearance and the revelation of Abner Jonas revealed as the Organizer. Our WP 9.8 is one of two highest graded. We acquired the book in the 2/24/2021 CL Auction.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 12 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 12 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
4242420009
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Owner Comments
Kazar makes another appearance in Issue #12. Our book comes from the Twin Cities Collection and is the sole 9.8 in the census-and it even has white pages to boot. We acquired the book in the March 2017 ComicConnect Auction.*
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 13 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 13 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0101379003
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Owner Comments
Issue #13 features the first appearance of vibranium and appearances by Ka-Zar, Zabu and the Plunderer. This issue also explores the Origins of Ka-Zar and the Plunderer. While there are lots of 9.6s in the census, I like to think this is the second nicest copy in existence as it has white pages and comes from the Pacific Coast Collection. It is tied for second highest graded trailing a single 9.8. We acquired the book in the April 2021 ComicConnect Auction.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 14 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 14 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1971908004
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Owner Comments
Issue #14 features Kazar and Plunderer appearances. Our 9.8 is tied with four others for highest graded. We acquired the book in the 11/19/2020 Heritage auction.
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| Slot: |
Daredevil 15 |
| Item: |
Daredevil 15 |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0016834018
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Owner Comments
Daredevil faces the Ox in Issue #15. Our 9.8 is one of two highest graded copies. We acquired it in the March 2017 ComicConnect auction.
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