First comic book to feature Superman fetches $6M in Heritage Auctions sale

DALLAS — The Man of Steel made a strong showing in a record-setting auction on Thursday.

A copy of “Action Comics No. 1,” the 1938 comic book that introduced Superman, sold for $6 million on Thursday in Heritage Auctions’ 2024 Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction.

The gaveled price includes a 20% buyer’s premium. The comic book was graded 8.5 out of a possible 10 by Certified Guaranty Company (CGC), a grading company based in Sarasota, Florida.

In a record-shattering result worthy of the most monumental superhero, a new benchmark has just been set for the most valuable comic book in history.

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— Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) April 5, 2024

Only two other unrestored issues of the comic book have graded higher, Dallas-based Heritage Auctions officials wrote in its auction listing.

“This is where it started for all superheroes in any medium,” Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval said, according to KXAS-TV.

The copy of the 10-cent comic book featuring Superman, the crime-fighting hero from the planet Krypton, broke the world record held by another Superman comic, The Dallas Morning News reported. A copy of “Superman No. 1″ sold privately for $5.3 million in 2022, according to the newspaper.

That topped the previous mark set in 2021 when an “Amazing Fantasy No. 15″ comic book, which featured the debut of Spider-Man, sold for $3.6 million in a Heritage Auctions sale, KXAS reported.

Officials at CGC said that it has only certified 78 copies of “Action Comics No. 1,” according to the Morning News.

“The interest in this has been unprecedented because it’s the best copy we’ve ever had of the best comic there is,” Sandoval said before Thursday’s auction. “Back in the ‘70s this was the first comic where anybody ever paid $1,000 for, then at some point, it became the only one that was worth $100,000, and then it was the only one worth $1 million and then it’s gone up from there.”