Action Comics 1 sells for $1.5 million

The highest-graded known copy of “Action Comics” No. 1 has sold, for a record-smashing $1.5 million dollars.

The book was sold via ComicConnect.com.

“This new record will be hard to break,” said ComicConnect.com co-owner and COO, Vincent Zurzolo  in a news release. “Because this particular Action Comics #1 is literally the single most valuable comic book on the planet.”

This “Action Comics” No. 1, the first appearance of Superman, from 1938, is graded 8.5 on a 10-point scale.  The high grade is possible in part because this issue was tucked away inside a movie magazine for decades, keeping it away from the elements.  The 8.5 rating is the highest for any known copy of the book, and .5 higher than the $1 million Action Comics 1 that sold earlier this year.  That was briefly the record for the price of any comic book, before being bested later that week by a high-grade “Detective Comics” No. 27, the first appearance of Batman.

The issue that sold Monday was bought from a private collector and then sold by Stephen Fishler and Vincent Zurzolo, the co-owners of ComicConnect.com.

Fishler declined to name the buyer but told the Associated Press that he was “a hardcore comic book fan.”

- Matt Price
Contributing: AP