It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's 'Action Comics' #1! The New World's Most Expensive Comic!

Recently a previously unknown and preserved copy of ‘Action Comics’ #1 went up for sale on eBay and it just took the throne of the highest priced comic of all time. The previous record holder was Nick Cage’s copy of the same book which sold for $2.1 million in 2011. This is one of the rarest comics to find in a high graded condition due to being originally released in 1938 and also marks the first appearance of Superman. There are only roughly 100 original copies known to be in existence and only one of those are rumored to be in better condition.

So the big question is how much did it sell for? The winning bid ended up being $3,207,852.00 and appears to have been purchased by Metropolitan/ComicConnect. Though, we don’t know if they were purchasing for themselves or for a client that wished to remain anonymous. As a tribute to the year of release there had also been a bid on the auction of $2,193,819.38 with the duel 1938’s as a tribute to the year that the comic was published, however that clearly didn’t last.

Paul Litch, CGC Primary Grader, ended up grading the book and had the following to say about the condition it was in:

“The quality and preservation of this Action #1 is astounding. The book looks and feels like it just came off the newsstand. It is supple, the colors are deep and rich and the quality of the white pages is amazing for a comic that is 76 years old. There was a gentleman in 1938, buys a copy … off the newsstand. And he lived in a fairly high altitude area of West Virginia and kept the book in a cedar chest. [This is] not just a copy of ‘Action Comics’ No. 1 [but] THE copy of ‘Action Comics’ No. 1.”

While the preservation of the comic is pretty amazing, it still doesn’t top the story of Cage’s issue. Cage’s has been stolen in 2000 while a party was going on at his house and was recovered in a storage locker in 2011 prior to being sold. To this day no one knows who took the comic or what happened to his other issues that were also stolen.

As a side note, this copy of ‘Action Comics’ #1 not only takes the place as the most valuable comic but also as the most valuable piece of comic art as well! That record holder for comic art had previously been for the original art from ‘Tintin Comes to America’ which had sold for $3.1 million.

If you want to know more about the origin of how ‘Action Comics’ #1 came to be you can check out the video below for a little bit of added fun.