Posted on 08/25/2014 1:55:54 PM PDT by SMGFan
One of the most important comics of all time became the highest-selling of all time this week: Action Comics #1 sold for $3.2 million dollars on eBay, nailing the record for the most expensive comic sold of all time. The sale beats the previous record holder, a 2011 auction for Action Comics #1 which went for $2,161,000, according to Business Wire. The comic – which looks good at 76 years old – is graded at a 9.0 with white pages.
The issue is the first appearance of Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster creation Superman back in 1938. It also helped usher in the reign of the capes and tights set in comics, helping popularize superheroes and leading to the first comics boom. I feel like the owner of this issue now has their hands on a literal piece of history, a once-in-a-lifetime cultural moment that defined everything that came after.
(Excerpt) Read more at nerdist.com ...
“Thank you WWII newspaper drives?”
More likely housecleaning by mothers after they figure the kids have outgrown them. I had tons of comics, but none survived Mom.
I have a reprint of that comic book.
How much can I get for it at auction?
>>How much can I get for it at auction?
$3.2M in Monopoly money.
The 1976 reprint has sold for a few hundred.
sorry about that. I don’t have any of my comics when I was a kid but still have my son’s comics and role playing games. As well as my own.
Can’t get rid of my Fangora or my Famous Monsters.
Great. A new member of the More Money Than Brains Club...
depends on the version - some go for $20 others for 1-5
That’s also true - but it’s a large treasury edition in mint at that price.
If it was a first run, pages would naturally have yellowed over time.
No reason whatsoever that someone would have a single copy sealed in some kind of noble gas filled storage container.
Even the finest comic specimens ALWAYS have yellow pages.
The covers may be crisp and pristine, but the inner pages?
I think this has to be a very well done fake.
As a collector of vintage paper items (including quite a number of old comics, going back to the early-1940s), there can be quite a difference in paper quality, depending on what kind of environment they were stored. I’ve seen and owned a few examples which have amazing fresh, off-white paper, with no yellowing or browning. Rare, but if some old comic was nicely tucked away in a stack of mags, in between two larger magazines (like old Saturday Evening Posts), in the attic of a dry, western or mid-western home’s attic for decades... the paper will retain a surprising whiteness and like-new flexibility. The acids within the paper haven’t had a chance to degrade it.
On the other hand, I’ve seen examples of comic books that seem outwardly untouched and otherwise in ‘new’ condition... but they were stored in attics in hot, humid locales, and the pages will be brown and brittle. Even breaking apart upon touch.
Personally, I've never seen it.
I own Mad magazine from #1 to the present.
You can actually see the changes.
1952, a very yellow-brown. By the 1970s still a tinge of yellow, even though I bought these off the stand.
And how brittle.
Some of my '60s paperbacks cannot be read, because they just crumble. Plus the backing falls apart and you're left with mere pages in your hand.
Not saying you aren't an expert, just never seen such a specimen.
Best of luck to the buyer, though.
Well, “Mad” magazines do have a pretty strong tendency to yellow. I don’t think their paper was terribly white to begin with, even judging from my memories. I have a batch of them from the late-50s/early-60s in decent shape. But they are in the light-to-middle-yellow spectrum. I bought them at an antique mall from a guy who purchased them new, up in Minnesota. The paper was better preserved than the similar examples I’d gotten down here in Texas, which almost always very yellow or worse.
But I do have some 1940s/1950s comic books with solid white to bright off-white paper. I also have a “G-Men” pulp magazine from 1939 with amazingly bright paper. Not yellow at all. Looks like a copy that has never been read, in terms of its handling, as well. And pulp magazine paper was the cheapest, most acidic paper around, most prone to yellowing and browning. But somehow, it was stored in an ideal situation, temperature, and lack of humidity.
Yeah, paper quality has always been a really, really big thing for me. I’ve had three and four copies of certain individual items, with all of them ranging the whole spectrum, from white paper to yellow to beige to brown to dark brown!
I had a boatload as well. My Grandmother worked at a drug store in the late 60's and she gave me all the unsold comic books after the new ones came in and I had a stack over two feet high at one point. If I had all the comic books that ran through my bedroom I could probably retire. Don't get me started on all the baseball cards I had back then. I'd be a millionaire.
We had a small grocery store. Every year, I think it was topps, the salesman gave me a complete set of b-ball cards. I had circa1954-59
Had many comics including the first superman giant.
Moved to cal in 59, unpacked, no cards, no comic books. My sisters Elvis posters and 45s all missing.
My mom said she didn’t think we would need them.
I got a sports illustrated as a guilt gift from my parents. Still gave it today.
My son had Spider-Man and amazing Spider-Man. Had first edition of one. One day after he grew up took them to a comic show in Sacramento and sold the whole bunch.
Good friend of mine's uncle is Stan Lee.
Iirc my other son met him at one of the comiccons
I’m aware. My two sons keep me up and they’re both into marvel. However I’m an old dc fan
My son in sacto is a very good graphic artist. He used to draw Spider-man over and over.
Once marvel had an opening, iirc in Denver. They sent him a tryout kit and he did some work and sent it in. Came in third for the one job.
We used to live down the street from Jonathan, I think Clark was the last ban re. He did the coloring and final mark ups for Laura croft. I’ve been around this stuff but not much of a fan.
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