Posted in: Comics, Vintage Paper | Tagged: action comics, superman

Six Million Dollar Superman – Action Comics #1 Sets New Record Sale

The high grade Action Comics #1 CGC 8.5 Kansas City pedigree copy featuring the first Superman has set an all time comic book record at $6,000,000

An Action Comics #1 CGC 8.5 has just shattered the vintage comics record books with a $6 million sale at Heritage Auctions.  This is an all-time record for a copy of Action Comics #1 as well as the highest price ever paid for any comic book, surpassing the $5.3M private sale of the Superman #1 CGC 8.0 Edgar Church copy in 2022. Published in 1938, Action Comics #1 features the first appearance of Superman from DC Comics, by creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.  This particular copy was part of an original owner collection known as the Kansas City pedigree.

This copy of Action Comics #1 is one of the four highest-graded copies graded by CGC, with two CGC 9.0 copies and two CGC 8.5 copies currently at the top of the CGC census. It is the highest-graded copy to hit the open market since 2014, when a CGC 9.0 copy sold for $3,207,852.  The other CGC 9.0 copy, the infamous Nicolas Cage copy, sold for $2,161,000 in 2011.  Both CGC 9.0 copies are known to be in the Impossible Collection, an assemblage of high-grade vintage DC comics put together by billionaire Ayman Hariri and not expected to hit the market again any time soon.  Another CGC 8.5 copy sold privately for $3.25M in 2021.

The Kansas City pedigree is considered to be the earliest such pedigree collection (original owner and of significant quality and depth) to be found.  It emerged in Kansas City in the late 1960s and consists of almost 250 high-grade #1 issues published from 1937 to the 1940s.  This Kansas City copy of Action Comics #1 was also the first comic book to surpass the one-million dollar mark in 2010 (then graded an 8.0).

In the interest of completeness, it should be noted that the Action Comics #1 Edgar Church copy, part of a treasure trove of high-grade comics purchased in 1977 by Mile High Comics owner Chuck Rozanski (also known as Bettie Pages), has been sitting ungraded and virtually unseen in the hands of a private collector for decades.  No decent scan or photo of the Church copy — widely considered the most valuable comic in existence —  has ever been made public on the internet, though the few knowledgeable individuals who have seen it claim it is undoubtedly the best copy known to exist.

But for now, this Action Comics #1 CGC 8.5 Kansas City copy is at the top of the record books.  The top of the charts, including sales that surpass the $3M barrier, currently looks as follows:

• Action Comics #1 CGC 8.5, April 2024 sale for $6,000,000.
• Superman #1 CGC 8.0 January 2022 $5.3 million.
• Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC 9.6 September 2021 sale for $3,600,000.
• Action Comics #1 CGC 8.5, April 2021 sale for $3,250,000.
• Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 April 2014 $3,207,852
• Action Comics #1 CGC 6.0 Rocket Copy Jan 2022 $3,180,000.
• Captain America Comics #1 CGC 9.4 April 2022 $3,120,000.

This record sale joins an already impressive year for high-end vintage paper periodical records in early 2024, including Detective Comics #27 (first appearance of Batman) CGC 6.5 at $1.82M, Showcase #4 (first appearance of Barry Allen as Flash) CGC 9.6 for $900,000, Brave and the Bold #28 (first appearance of the Justice League) CGC NM+ 9.6 for $810,000, Amazing Spider-Man #1 CGC 9.8 for $1,380,000, and in an all-time pulp record, the first appearance of Tarzan in All-Story October 1912 VG hammered at $264,000.

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