Batman No. 1 to go on sale at auction

Comic book collector Mike Wheat poses with a book showing the cover of Batman No. 1 in front of boxes containing tens of thousands of comic books at his Fairbanks, Alaska home. Wheat has put his copy of the 1940 Batman No. 1 on the auction block through Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, where it's expected to fetch more than $40,000. (AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, John Wagner)

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A longtime Alaska comic book buff is selling one of the gems in his vast collection, a rare copy of Batman No. 1 published 70 years ago.

Mike Wheat of Fairbanks has put the 1940 comic book on the auction block through Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, where it’s expected to fetch more than $40,000. Online bids already have climbed to $35,000 for the book, believed to be one of fewer than 300 still in existence.

Online bids will compete with a live auction set for Thursday.

The second and fourth Batman issues also will be part of Thursday’s auction. They are expected to bring more than $5,000 combined.

Wheat, a retired city wastewater treatment plant operator, said he considers the Batman comics an investment. He said it feels like the right time to sell.

“I just decided it’s time for someone else to have it,” he said.

The Batman No. 1 comic book was discovered after local businessman Ron Jaeger bought an old dresser at a garage sale in the early 1970s, then kept it in storage for a few years. When Jaeger finally brought it out, he noticed one of the drawers didn’t slide easily.

Three comic books and a few old issues of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner were tucked beneath the drawer and a quarter-inch piece of plywood. The haul included a copy of Batman No. 1, Superman No. 17 and an old issue of a Red Ryder Western comic.