A Golden Age grail that is graded by Certified Guaranty Company® (CGC®) climbed to new heights in Goldin Auctions’ Summer Goldin 100 Auction on September 13, 2025. The auction included three highly prized CGC-certified comics along with a CGC-certified trading card and a video game.
Leading the CGC-certified collectibles was a Batman #1 graded CGC 7.0 (lot 2), which realized $794,449. Published by DC Comics in the spring of 1940, this comic is one of the crown jewels of the Golden Age, launching the Caped Crusader into his own title after a breakout debut in Detective Comics #27 the year before. The issue is loaded with milestone moments, including the first appearances of the Joker and Catwoman. This sale is the highest realized for this classic comic in this grade, and the fifth-highest result for this book in any grade, which tops out at CGC 9.4, the sole example of which sold for $2.2 million in 2021.
Other CGC-certified comics sold in this auction included an Incredible Hulk #1 graded CGC 8.0 (lot 37) that realized $106,140 and a Richie Rich #1 File Copy graded CGC 9.6 (lot 38) that realized $97,612.
Meanwhile, a Traveling Chocobo, Magic: The Gathering (2025) Final Fantasy - 0551f Mythic Rare - Gold - Serialized graded CGC 8 (lot 98) realized $67,100. The serialized gold Traveling Chocobo card is just one variety of the Traveling Chocobo cards available in MTG’s Final Fantasy set, but it is by far the rarest and most valuable. Unlike the neon-colored or black ink Traveling Chocobo cards, the gold card is numbered out of 75 and is exclusive to collector booster packs, resulting in a scramble to pull one of these hard-to-get cards.
And rounding out the auction was a sealed Not for Resale copy of Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox (2001) graded CGC 9.8 A+ (lot 32) that realized $20,130. Halo: Combat Evolved was a launch title for Microsoft’s Xbox, their introduction to the console gaming market. The game is largely considered to be the leading reason for the Xbox’s success and is now a collector’s staple. This copy of Halo: Combat Evolved is a Not for Resale copy, which was only available to Microsoft employees, Bungie developers and a handful of game stores.
Since revolutionizing comic book grading in 2000, CGC has grown to include certification services for a vast variety of pop culture collectibles. These divisions include CGC Cards, CGC Video Games and CGC Home Video. CGC Cards provides expert card grading for sports cards, TCGs and non-sports cards. CGC Video Games is dedicated to video game grading for the most popular consoles, including Nintendo, Sega, Atari, PlayStation and more. CGC Home Video provides expert VHS grading in addition to other types of videocassettes, DVD, Blu-ray and more. CGC also offers seamless solutions for autograph collectors with CGC Signature Series and JSA Authentic Autograph services.
