One of the reasons I’m visiting family this week is to determine the value of a trove of 1960s era comic books that my mom kept in a sealed wooden crate for more than 40 years. My brother and I have been amazed at the almost new condition of a lot of the books.

And here’s an interesting bit of 60s trivia; in a few issues of some of the Marvel comics, we’ve discovered the following advertisement for Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and their new album, “We’re Only In It For the Money.” I’d totally forgotten about this one.

This ad was in Daredevil #38, from March 1968. Check out the condition of this book; it looks like it just came off the rack in a store.

Probably the most valuable book we’ve found so far is this one: X-Men #1. Even in its somewhat beat-up state, it’s still worth quite a bit of money. (Certainly more than 12 cents.) The interior is completely intact, the inks are still bright, and the paper is only slightly yellowed.