Superman comic sells for $317,200

[Raph's Girl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090314/..._first_issue_4

A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it for less than a buck.

It's one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, a likely testament to the volume's rarity and its excellent condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles.

The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, which features Superman lifting a car on its cover, was submitted Friday evening by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, according to managers at ComicConnect.com.

Dolmayan, who is also a dealer of rare comic books, said he acquired the Superman comic on behalf of a client he declined to identify.

"This is one of the premier books you could collect," he said in a telephone interview. "It's considered the Holy Grail of comic books. I talked to my client, and we made the move."

Dolmayan said the client has "a small collection, but everything he has is incredible."

Only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist and they seldom come up for sale.

"Maybe in a booming economy, it would have done a hundred grand more, but in this economy, I think the price is great," Fishler said.

The man who had previously owned the book purchased it in a secondhand store in the early 1950s when he was nine years old.

He paid 35 cents.

[Ninjinister]

I thought this comic was worth a lot more than that....

[Eiko]

Gee i wish i had that much money to just throw around.

[Mr._Mutant_Man]

Only 100 copies. Wow. I guess that was before the days of bagging and boarding.

[OA]

Originally Posted by The Ninjinister

I thought this comic was worth a lot more than that....

Most of the big time comic collectors actually thought it would go a bit higher as well, in the $450,000 - $500,000 range at the very least. But for whatever reason, even with all the publicity, it never got that high.

[!damage!]

it's still a 90,628,471.40% price increase from what the original owner paid back in the 1950's for it

[CudleyCowlick]

Yeah Yeah Yeah... Action Comics #1 is the most valuable and sought after comic of all time, not only by comic fans but by investors who don't even like comics and want to diversify their portfolio.

And with like only 100 or so copies around, almost every time one in great condition sells it's another record price.

Besides, first superhero or not, Superman has always been and always will be... LAME. When A first printing of TMNT #1 sells for this much, I want to hear about THAT.

[OA]

Originally Posted by CudleyCowlick

Yeah Yeah Yeah... Action Comics #1 is the most valuable and sought after comic of all time, not only by comic fans but by investors who don't even like comics and want to diversify their portfolio.

And with like only 100 or so copies around, almost every time one in great condition sells it's another record price.

Besides, first superhero or not, Superman has always been and always will be... LAME. When A first printing of TMNT #1 sells for this much, I want to hear about THAT.

Well, a 1st printing of #1 (along with all of the original artwork - covers, interior pages, some ad work) did sell for $250,000. Thats probably as close as it'll ever get to those numbers.

[Mr._Mutant_Man]

Originally Posted by CudleyCowlick

Besides, first superhero or not, Superman has always been and always will be... LAME.

He's too powerful to be interesting?

There's other things that make Superman interesting. Take what his mother says in the first movie for instance: "he'll be isolated and alone". There's the aspect that he's one of the last of his people.

Anyway, Alan Moore wrote some really good Superman stories: "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" and "For the Man Who Has Everything".