Pristine First Edition Copy of Superman No. 1 Found in Attic Goes for $9.12 Million at Auction, Becomes Most Expensive Comic Ever Sold

An 86-year-old Superman comic recovered successful a household attic has sold for a whopping $9.12 cardinal astatine auction.

The 1939 first-edition transcript of Superman No. 1 earned the highest CGC people for the Man of Steel’s rubric comic debut, and became the astir costly comic ever sold erstwhile it went for implicit $9 cardinal astatine a Heritage auction held this week.

This pristine transcript of Superman No. 1 has go the astir costly comic ever sold. Image credit: Heritage Auctions.

Superman No. 1 is, alongside Action Comics No. 1 and Detective Comics No. 27, considered 1 of the “big three” comics. It marked the archetypal clip a quality that debuted successful a comic publication had their ain rubric devoted wholly to them. 500,000 copies of Superman No. 1 were initially printed, followed by people runs of 250,000 and past 150,000, but intact copies are uncommon contiguous successful portion due to the fact that it encouraged readers to chopped the screen disconnected to usage arsenic a poster.

This highest-ever-graded transcript of Superman No. 1 was being protected by lone a stack of aged newspapers successful a cardboard box, but inactive managed to gain a 9.0 connected a 10-point standard by third-party comics grading work CGC. The $9.12 cardinal terms smashed the erstwhile comic worth record, acceptable by an 8.5-graded transcript of Action Comics No. 1 that sold for $6 cardinal done Heritage Auctions successful 2024.

This transcript is 1 of lone 7 known with a CGC people of 6.0 oregon higher. It tops esteemed pedigreed copies including the Mile High and Davis Crippen copies and is 1 of less than 100 copies of this contented successful immoderate grade, including restored examples, that Heritage has ever offered.

The transcript that sold connected Thursday was recovered past twelvemonth nether a stack of aged newspapers successful a cardboard container by 3 unnamed brothers successful bluish California portion they were going done their precocious mother’s attic. Their parent had bought the comic erstwhile she was 9 years aged and surviving successful San Francisco, the brothers, who person asked not to beryllium named, said. Over the years, she told her sons that she had “rare comics somewhere,” but they ne'er recovered them.

“This caller grounds whitethorn someday beryllium remembered arsenic an aboriginal signifier of fashionable civilization collecting’s trajectory into the precocious reaches of the auction field,” commented Jim Halperin, Co-Founder of Heritage Auctions. “The worth and humanities value of these objects are becoming adjacent much well-known to collectors each implicit the world.”

Image credit: Heritage Auctions.

Wesley is Director, News astatine IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].