8/25/2014
By Ivan Pereira
The Man of Steel shows no signs of rust, at least when it comes to his financial value.
A near mint original copy of Action Comics No. 1, the 1938 comic debut of Superman, sold for $3.2 million Sunday night on eBay. The final sale makes it the highest selling comic book ever bought at an auction.
Darren Adams, the comics collector from Washington state who sold the book, told The Washington Post he initially paid seven figures for the comic, which depicts the caped hero smashing a sedan on its cover, and was surprised it fetched so much in the resale.
“This book is like a museum piece,” he told the paper. “It’s a freak-of-nature work.”
The previous comic auction record was also for a near-mint copy of the same issue, which also features the debut of Superman’s love interest Lois Lane, that was sold for $2.1 million in 2011.
Adams, who said he will donate 1% of the money to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation for spinal injury victims, said the comic was bought at a West Virgina newsstand in 1938 and remained in a chest for 40 years before it was purchased by various collectors.
The first print of the iconic comic, which originally sold for a dime, was only 200,000 copies and only a few of those issues are still in mint condition.
