Superman comic book fetches $175,000 at auction

A rare copy of Action Comics No. 1 – which includes the first appearance of Superman – sold for $175,000 after being hidden for more than 70 years.

|
Metropolis Collectibles, Inc./ComicConnect, Corp./AP
The comic book that sold at auction for $175,000 is the first in which famous hero Superman appears.

A rare copy of the comic book featuring Superman's first appearance that lay undiscovered for over 70 years in the insulation of a house has sold for $175,000.

The high bidder for the copy of Action Comics No. 1 in the online auction was a "hard core, golden age comic book collector," Stephen Fishler, CEO of ComicConnect.com, said Tuesday. The buyer's name was not released. Fifty-one offers were submitted before bidding closed Monday night.

But Fishler said the buyer had been looking for a several months for a lower-grade, unrestored copy of the Man of Steel's debut, rather than a copy in better condition that could have cost well over $1 million.

Fishler estimates there are only around 100 known copies of Action Comics No. 1, which was published in 1938. He said the book is prized not only for its rarity, but because Superman was the archetype of all comic book superheroes to come.

This copy was found by David Gonzalez among old newspapers in the ceiling insulation of a house he was restoring in the small western Minnesota town of Hoffman.

He accidentally tore the cover when grabbed it and tossed it aside during an argument a few days later with his wife's aunt, which was part of the reason its condition was graded only 1.5 on a 10-point scale used by comic collectors. He said in an interview last month that he really didn't care much about the money.

Fishler said the book's backstory was part of why it appealed to the winning bidder.

A pristine Action Comics No. 1 that was graded a 9 fetched $2.16 million in November 2011, which was the highest price ever paid for a comic book.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Superman comic book fetches $175,000 at auction
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2013/0612/Superman-comic-book-fetches-175-000-at-auction
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe