Superman #1 comic sells for record $9.12 million

A near-mint 1939 copy of Superman #1 sold for $9.12 million at Heritage Auctions on Thursday, November 20, becoming the most expensive comic book ever sold and beating the previous record by more than $3 million.cbr

Three brothers in Northern California discovered the CGC 9.0-graded comic—the highest-graded copy ever—while sorting through their late mother’s attic, where it had been forgotten in a storage box for decades.cbr

The sale surpasses the $6 million paid for Action Comics #1 in 2024, with only seven copies of Superman #1 worldwide graded 6.0 or higher by CGC.cbr

Superman #1 Comic Sells for Record $9.12 Million at Auction

A near-mint 1939 copy of Superman #1 sold for $9.12 million at Heritage Auctions on Thursday, November 20, shattering the previous record for the most expensive comic book ever sold and establishing Superman as the undisputed king of the collectibles market.cbr

The comic, graded CGC 9.0, represents the highest-ever-graded copy of the issue and surpasses the previous record of $6 million for an Action Comics #1 set in April 2024. The sale marks a 50% jump over that benchmark and pushes comic book valuations into territory once reserved for fine art and rare manuscripts.si

An Attic Discovery Worth Millions

Three brothers in Northern California discovered the pristine copy while cleaning out their late mother’s attic last Christmas. The comic had been stored in a cardboard box, protected only by a stack of old newspapers, for decades. Their mother had purchased the issue when she was nine years old and living in San Francisco between the Great Depression and World War II, often mentioning her “rare comics somewhere” though the family had never located them.cbr

“Superman No. 1 is a milestone in pop culture history, and this copy is not only in unprecedented condition, but it has a movie-worthy story behind it,” said Lon Allen, vice president of Heritage Auctions.si

The comic’s exceptional preservation, attributed to Northern California’s cool climate, helped it earn the highest grade ever certified by CGC for this issue. Only seven copies of Superman #1 worldwide have received a CGC grade of 6.0 or higher.bbc

Historical Significance

Superman #1, released in summer 1939, marked the first time a superhero was given an entire comic dedicated solely to them after National Allied Publications (later DC Comics) rebranded following the character’s explosive debut in Action Comics #1 in 1938. The issue originally sold for 10 cents and saw an initial print run of 500,000 copies, followed by subsequent runs of 250,000 and 150,000.cbr

High-grade copies are exceptionally rare today, in part because the comic encouraged children to cut out the back cover along a dotted line to use as a poster. According to CGC, only 209 copies of any grade are recorded in their population report today.si

The sale represents what Jim Halperin, co-founder of Heritage Auctions, called “an early stage of popular culture collecting’s trajectory into the upper reaches of the auction field”.ign