Photo courtesy of ComicConnect.com
After a short reign as the highest-priced comic book at $1,075,500, Detective Comics No. 27 (May 39, the first appearance of Batman) has been bested again by the sale of a higher-grade copy of Action Comics  No. 1 (Jun 38, the first appearance of Superman), for $1.5 million.

ComicConnect.com, which brokered the first $1 million sale for a copy of Action Comics #1 Feb. 22, sold a second copy of the historically significant issue on March 29. This time, the copy was graded 8.5 (Very Fine+) by Certified Guaranty Company (CGC). The firm acquired the book only a few days earlier.

ComicConnect.com co-owner and COO Vincent Zurzolo said, "This new record will be hard to break, because this particular Action Comics #1 is literally the single most valuable comic book on the planet."

In contrast to the two record-breaking sales in late February, where both the Action No. 1 and the Detective No. 27 were each CGC-graded 8.0 (Very Fine), there are no copies of Detective Comics No. 27 that are graded higher than 8.0.

This 8.5 copy of Action No. 1 was tucked inside a movie magazine for more than 50 years and surfaced in the late 1980s, when the magazines were sold at a antique auction in Pittsburgh.

ComicConnect.com Founder Stephen Fishler said, "Because it was tucked inside a magazine, it was well protected all those years. That's why it's in such remarkable condition."

Shortly after acquiring the book, the buyer brought it to a New York comics convention, where he waved it around, offering it to the highest bidder. Fishler, who was at the show, said, "One minute, no one knew it existed ... the next minute, everyone was dying to own i
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After moving from collection to collection for a while, the copy has been in the latest seller's collection for the last 17 years. After receiving numerous offers over the years, he sold it to Fishler and Zurzolo, who, in turn, resold it on ComicConnect.com.

Did those February sales have an effect on this sale? Fishler said he thinks so, "For two decades, the highest-graded copy of the world's most valuable comic book — the subject of countless speculation and the target of countless offers — remained out of reach. It would take a miracle to shake it loose. And that's exactly what happened. The recent, record-breaking string of million dollar comic sales was the catalyst. And once it entered the arena, there was no question it would become the most expensive comic book ever sold."
 
 
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