First Superman comic sells for record $2.2 million

[Screen Legend]

Source:

..LONDON (Reuters) - A copy of the first issue of Action Comics, in which Superman was unveiled to the world, has sold in an online auction for a record $2.16 million. It cost 10 cents when it was published in 1938.

The comic, featuring a picture of the "Man of Steel" lifting a car above his head as people around him flee, had been valued at just over $1 million by auction site ComicConnect.com.

U.S.-based ComicConnect described it as "the most important comic book in the history of comics," and said its unusually good condition added to its value.

The copy of Action Comics No. 1 was stolen from a collector in 2000 but resurfaced after an entrepreneur bought the contents of a storage unit near Los Angeles.

"What makes this copy so special ... is it's the highest graded copy known to exist -- it's a 9.0 on a scale of one to 10," said Vincent Zurzolo of ComicConnect.

Several reports in the United States said the owner of the comic at the time of the theft was Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage, although there was no confirmation of the identity of the buyer or seller.

ComicConnect held the previous record for a comic sold at auction, for a similar copy of slightly lower quality, which fetched $1.5 million in 2010. About 100 copies of Action Comics No.1 are believed to exist.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison)

Wow! I didn't know that comics could be worth that much.

Is it true that if you keep your comics in plastic sleeves, they could be worth some big money some day? If so, why is that?

 

[Karma]

ideally you'd keep your comics in a plastic sleeve w/ cardboard backing.

I have several totes of comics, most are in just the plastic sleeve & sometimes I dig em out to read. But I also have a handful of mine in the plastic sleeve w/ the cardboard & they're real special issues. somedays...especially in these times, I consider inquiring about their worth but i hold on to them still.

i've heard of certain comics fetching a huge amount of $$ but is definitely the largest amount ive seen by far.

as far as 'why', things like rarity & the condition of it (mint, near mint etc) will determine the value of it.

it's bizarre when you think how a comic that might have cost just 10-12 cents when it was originally made could one day fetch MILLIONS if kept in mint condition!

 

[Clara Oswald]

I wish that comic was mine lol

All mine from childhood have been read and reread so many times lol, they wouldn't fetch anything

 

[Black King]

Image if today something printed lasted long enough and become renowned enough to be worth that type of cash . . . i could pay back my student loans!

 

[Kali]

My dad used to have all the original comics when he was younger, but at the time he just used to swap them for others that his friends had and then later they were all thrown away. I'm forever pointing out to him how much money he could have had if he'd just kept them, but he just replies that he was a kid at the time and you dont think that a comic is something worth keeping.

 

[Batgirl]

That is amazing! So much money!!

I was talking about this the other day with the guys at my comic store cause we were talking about pokemon cards and how I had like thousands as a kid like pikachu and charizard and they were like you should have kept them theyre worth so much now. I was like oh well I was 8 lmao

But now I keep my comics in a plastic sleeve with a cardboard back and I only read them once and put them away lol I like them to stay pretty.