I started collecting comics in the fall of 1985. It was actually a great time to get into the hobby. Books were still fairly cheap compared to today’s standards, and Golden Age valuations were only starting to go up significantly. The first comic I ever bought was a book called “Robotix”. It was a toy promotion comic…but it as the first issue…so I bought it. Needless to say, it didn’t last…so I soon gravitated to other titles, one of which was the X-Men.
Hearing stories about how great the title had been in the past…I started gather up back issues…soon building a complete collection from issue 94 (intro of the new X-Men) to present. Today I have them all, back to issue 1, and there are few interesting stories to tell regarding rarity and these books.
Today let’s take a quick look at issues 134 thru 141. You may recall that issue 137 is the death of Phoenix. A fairly popular issue…and giant size to boot. Issues 141 and 142 (which is technically an “uncanny X-Men” issue) contain the alternative timeline 
issue where Kitty Pride is depicted in both 1980…and the “far off” time of, you guessed it, 2013, where mutants are practically extinct. She is transported back into the consciousness of her 1980 self to prevent the murder of a pivotal political figure and save the future for mutant kind! Great stuff indeed…
Rarity wise…the chart here doesn’t have as clear a story to tell as some of the other charts I have presented, but there are still facts to take away. Because of the popularity of these issues…there are plenty (hundreds) of issues 137, 141 and 142 in 9.8 or higher. In fact…while I did not plot it here, there have been 6 copies of issue 137 graded at 9.9! So…if you are so inclined, you may be able to find one of those. Second…it is worth noting that compared to the other books, issues 134 and 139 have fewer 9.8 graded books. There have still been over a hundred issues of each graded 9.8, but this compares to 274 for issue 137, 305 for issue 141 and 299 for issue 142.
Bottom line here…getting an issue of X-Men 137 in CGC 9.8 should not be hard (there are several copies on eBay right now). Finding other issues around #137 should also not be difficult, but realize that some of them will be significantly less common.
Until next time…
P.S. Looking for X-Men 137 in CGC 9.8?