Action Comics #1 Sells For Record $6 Million

It’s official! Action Comics #1 is now the most expensive comic book ever made. This was a record held by Superman #1 which sold for $5.5 million in 2022. This week, a copy of Action Comics #1, graded at around 8, sold for $6 million.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s classic 1938 issue was brought to Heritage Auctions’ headquarters in Dallas, Texas where an online auction was held for it. It was reported that bids went up in increments of at least $100,000. The buyer, who chose to remain anonymous, made the final bid of $6 million. Heritage Auctions also oversaw the selling of Superman #1.

Around 200,000 copies of Action Comics #1 are reported to be published in 1938 for what would only have cost $2 today. Now, it’s estimated that there could be about 100 in the world. CGC has a total of 78 in its database of varying conditions. The one that sold for $6 million’s rating of 8.5 is among the highest any issue of Action Comics #1 has been graded. They still fetch a pretty penny with one rated at 0.5 selling for around $400,000.

What else is there to say about Action Comics #1? It’s been around for more than 85 years. The first 13 pages introduced the world to the story of Superman –rocketed from a dying world by his scientist father and grew up and developed his incredible strength as a modern-day Hercules or Samson (or Hercules and Samson combined as Mark Waid wrote.) His first adventures saw him saving a woman framed for murder, saving another from her abusive husband, and a third from a gangster squad. That third woman was Lois Lane. From there, the story continues today.