Their mother often boasted to her three sons that she had very valuable comic books upstairs, but they never sought to verify or explore her claim.

Now, her Superman No.1 comic book has become the most valuable one ever auctioned, after hauling in $9.1 million on November 20th.

Found where treasures often are—in the attic of a deceased family member—it was kept in excellent condition by the cool San Francisco climate, maintaining its crisp corners, vivid colors, and sturdy spine.

Superman No.1 was released by Detective Comics Inc. in 1939. It followed the introduction of the Man of Steel in a previous comic series that existed as an anthology, with the first print running 500,000 copies.

A small topical in-page advertisement helped identify it as coming from the first print run.

When the brothers put her house up for sale following her death, they finally began to clean it out, and they found the comic book in a box along with other rare, and potentially valuable editions.

“It was just in an attic, sitting in a box—could have easily been thrown away, could’ve easily been destroyed in a thousand different ways,” said Lon Allen, vice-president of comics at Heritage Auctions, who handled the sale.

“A lot of people got excited, because it’s just every factor in collecting that you could possibly want, all rolled into one.”

As part of its journey to the auction block, the comic was brought to Certified Guaranty Company (CGC), where it was authenticated and graded CGC 9.0 out of 10 for quality of preservation, the highest rating ever for an issue at auction.

AWESOME AUCTIONS:

Indeed, another edition of Superman No.1 sold in May 2024 for around $160,000 having been certified CGC 1.8 out of 10.

The previous record comic book sale was also a Superman No.1 with graded CGC 8.0, which sold privately in 2022 for $5.3 million. Action Comics No.1, the anthology that introduced Superman to the world, has also cracked the 7-figure threshold.

Superman’s first appearance in Action Comics was such a watershed moment in the popularity of the mythology-inspired character that Detective Comics decided to launch his own issue.

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