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Original Superman comic becomes the highest-priced comic book ever sold
- cm2012 11mo agoThe mother knew the potential value when she bought it, interestingly enough. Good for her!
- anovikov 11mo agoWhat's missing in the story is when did she buy it and how much she spent... Maybe it was an expensive purchase at that point already, like in 5 digits, and she invested a considerable portion of her savings?
- opello 11mo ago> Their mother had held on to the comic books since she and her brother bought them between the Great Depression and the beginning of World War Two, Heritage said. It seems unlikely that in that time frame it would have been a 5 digit purchase. It still may have been a significant proportion of liquid cash or net worth though. I think it'd be an interesting detail to have too.
- evanelias 11mo agoIt came out in 1939, which is in that time frame, so she probably bought it at a newsstand for the 10 cent cover price. I could be mistaken, but I don't think there was any real second-hand market for comic books at the time.
- onionisafruit 11mo agoThe ha.com press release that this summarizes makes it clear that the mother and uncle bought the comics for their own enjoyment then decided to pass them down to the sons once they knew the comics were valuable. It doesn’t explicitly say they bought them on the news stand, but that’s the impression I get.
- skeuomorphism 11mo agoA shame to hear that heritage auctions were the ones to handle this
- opdahl 11mo agoWhy do you say that? I'm unfamiliar with Heritage Auctions.
- stevekemp 11mo agoAllegations they operated a pump and dump in conjunction with Wata games, a "grading" company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Auctions#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Auctions#Controversie...
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- charcircuit 11mo agoWith this kind of case it's impossible to read the comic book, and it doesn't protect it from UV light. I prefer using covers that block UV light. This both protects it and allows you to read it.
- MomsAVoxell 11mo agoYou can read it (illegally) here: https://www.zipcomic.com/superman-1939-issue-1 https://www.zipcomic.com/superman-1939-issue-1 And I dare say, someone spending 9 million clams on this comic book is more than likely going to have it sitting in a very UV-protected vault somewhere .. EDIT: Sorry - I didn’t realize that zipcomic.com is infringing the copyright - adding this note to point that out, but I will maintain my original link as intended. Better to read it on DC Universe Infinite, if you have access, or maybe it’s available through Libby or Hoopla library apps.
- charcircuit 11mo agoNot everyone wants to break the law to read things from their collection. Also the physical experience of reading is much different than digital. While you could store your collectable in a vault, many people enjoy displaying their collectables.
- MomsAVoxell 11mo agoSorry .. I didn’t realize that zipcomic.com was illegal .. I’d assumed the copyright had expired[0], and checking on DC Universe Infinite isn’t possible, since it’s geolocked and I’m not in a country deemed worthy of it. It’s probably available in Libby or Hoopla, legally. [0] It’s still copyrighted, although it seems that will expire in a decade or so, though. I guess I’ll read it then.
- iammattmurphy 11mo agoThis might be genuinely the first time I can remember hearing someone say they don’t want to commit piracy. No offence, but who cares? Especially for something from 1939.
- dbacar 11mo ago"He added: "This isn't simply a story about old paper and ink. This was never just about a collectible. "This is a testament to memory, family and the unexpected ways the past finds its way back to us." """ Men going extreme in sentimental when they just sold a $9M collectible :).
- sebmellen 11mo agoHe added: “This isn’t simply a blurb of words and phrases. This is not just a stock statement from an LLM. This is a testament to outsourcing, laziness and the unexpected ways technology finds ways to change every press release.”
- mvkel 11mo agoAll it needed was the emdash
- ccppurcell 11mo agoWhy this matters: <bullet point list>.
- imiric 11mo agoYou're absolutely right!
- 1659447091 11mo agoFound a bit more on the story behind this copy https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news/newly-discovered-in-mom-s-attic-is-this-the-world-s-most-valuable-comic-book-.s?releaseId=5322 https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news...
- HelloUsername 11mo agoFunny how the time of day affects the visibility of posting on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46002609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46002609 :)
- swores 11mo agoTime of day definitely plays a part, but there’s also luck/randomness to it. Even the same time and same day of the week there will never be exactly the same set of users online, and that’s even more true with regard to the users who are choosing to look at HN’s /newest page. So pure luck can determine whether a bunch of comic book lovers see it soon after submission and give it enough votes to get on HN’s front page, or just a bunch of people who think it’s a boring story worth ignoring. (Personally I thought it sounded like it might have interesting comments worth reading, hence my being here, but I wouldn’t have found it interesting enough to upvote if I were one of the people who saw it on the new submissions page.)
- ChrisMarshallNY 11mo agoI strongly suspect that a number of HN members have been training LLMs on HN headlines, then using these LLMs to recommend stories and times for submission. Maybe they have even set up the scripts to post submissions automatically. That’s how we roll. The results are likely to be that all HN front page stories will eventually be LLM-sourced. I’m not entirely against that, if the scripts do a good job of selecting stories.
- krapp 11mo agoHacker News is for human beings to share stories they find interesting so that other human beings can discuss those stories to gratify their intellectual curiosity. Automating that process with the goal of maximizing visibility and karma defeats the intended goal of the forum. Not the actual goal, of course the actual goal of Hacker News for many people is gaming SEO and startup juice. That said, I don't doubt for a second you're right. Trust a forum of tech bros and nerds to minmax away what little joy there is left to posting here.
- pton_xd 11mo agoWhat are the odds it's a forgery? Couldn't find any details on their grading method and how it was "positively identified to originate from the first print run of the issue" [0]. [0] https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news/newly-discovered-in-mom-s-attic-is-this-the-world-s-most-valuable-comic-book-.s?releaseId=5322 https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news...
- evanelias 11mo agoDefinitely not. It's CGC graded, and you can bet only their top graders would be involved. https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/14678/superman-heritage-sale/ https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/14678/superman-herita...
- iced_beverage 11mo agoFor how they could tell it was from the first run, it says in the article you referenced: > For decades, Allen says, nobody knew of a way to distinguish which copies came from that initial run. Then a grader noticed a key difference in a small in-house promotional spot advertising the upcoming Action Comics No. 14. In the first run, those ads included text reading “On sale June 2nd.” Subsequent print runs had updated it to “Now on sale.”
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- tonyhart7 11mo agoits insane that quality is still that good, I have a comic book that already "rotten" despite have newer age
- Maxion 11mo agoThe photo (scan?) of it looks like it could've been printed yesterday. Quite amazing that it's survived in such good quality.
- johngossman 11mo agoI have a b&w photo of my (considerably) older brother, from the early 1960s, reading a pile of comic books a foot high. The only cover visible is Spiderman #4. When I was a kid I used to stare at that picture and dream. Needless to say, I kept all my old comics.
- technothrasher 11mo agoI had a British edition of Star Wars #1 at my parent's house that an English friend gave me when we were kids back in the early 80's. I always wondered what it was worth, as I could only find price guides for the US edition. But when I finally got around to go get it a couple years ago, it was nowhere to be found. So the question became only academic.
- snowwrestler 11mo agoI kept all my old comics too, and check the value occasionally on eBay. Most valuable one has yet to top $40. Turns out a lot of 80s kids had the same idea!
- Libidinalecon 11mo agoI use to collect baseball cards as a kid in the 80s and I can remember I would see comics at card shows. I had seen football cards take off in value and really wanted to get into comic collecting. What I remember is the big comic books were just slightly outside the price range of a 10 year old cutting the lawn. Unlike baseball cards that cost thousands for HOF rookie cards. I don't know how accurate it is but chatGPT gives prices that sound about right from what I remember looking at comic price guides in the 80s. X-Men #1 $60–$150 The Incredible Hulk #1 $60–$120 Avengers #1 $80–$180 I never got to start my collection then I remember as a teenager thinking what a stupid idea it was anyway. Who the hell is ever going to be that into comic book characters?
- muzani 11mo agoDoes anyone know why this particular issue is so valuable? I'm assuming it's some mix of investment, timing, sentimental value, and rarity. But which ones particularly?
- ChrisArchitect 11mo agoAn earlier submission of the auction house source had some details like it's one of only seven copies that have a grading score over 6.0 (it scored a record 9.0), and one of only 100 ever of any quality ever auctioned there.
- Zenbit_UX 11mo agoYour question is why is issue #1 of a very old and popular thing valuable?
- muzani 11mo agoI get that it's more valuable than Superman #200, but why 9 million dollars valuable. There's a poorer quality one at 5 million, but that also means that there's other copies in existence. It's also not the first Superman comic, what about Action Comics #1? Why is the Call of Cthulhu (Weird Tales, Feb 1928) about $50k? Or in terms of characters, what makes Superman worth 3x more than MARVEL #1 or Batman?
- evanelias 11mo agoIt's a combination of importance and condition. Superman was arguably the first super-hero, and certainly the first successful/popular one. And Superman #1 is the first time a super-hero got their own dedicated comic book. It has long been generally considered the third-most desirable comic book issue in existence, after Action Comics #1 (first appearance of Superman) and Detective Comics #27 (first appearance of Batman). This copy of Superman #1 was graded as a 9.0, which basically means it's like-new, despite being 86 years old. And it's naturally in that condition without ever undergoing restoration, which affects the value. Of all known unrestored copies of Superman #1, this copy is in the best condition. That said, there are at least three known comic book copies that would be valued more highly: two known unrestored 9.0 copies of Action Comics #1, and one known unrestored 9.2 copy of Detective Comics #27. If any of those were to be sold at auction today, their value would almost certainly be a lot higher than $9 million, in part due to this Superman #1 auction setting a recent precedent.
- larusso 11mo agoIt is interesting to me that something like this can have such a high value. It speaks meanly for the our shared cultural global connection when it comes to items like these. For what purpose other than saying: “I have a …” would you buy this? Or is it the believe the price only goes up and it gets bought as an investment? I mean specifically this item with this high price. I ask because I think the price is only as high if the item in question is still cultural relevant. So I assume you buy it and start shadow produce new Superman projects :)
- onion2k 11mo agoI ask because I think the price is only as high if the item in question is still cultural relevant. Les Poseuses Ensemble by Georges Seurat was sold for $149m. Very few people have heard of it, care about it, or even like it considering it's pointillism which no one buys modern versions of. The world of art and collectables is entirely rich people speculating that the price (not value) will go up in the future.
- saretup 11mo agoDon’t forget the tax savings.
- stavros 11mo agoWhat tax savings? How does that work?
- saretup 11mo agoDifferent tax loopholes depending on region etc, but basically like this: I’m a billionaire earning $100M this year. I owe $40M as taxes for that. (Too much!) I find a dumb banana painting by a starving artist. I buy it from him for $1000. I wait 6 months. I go to a museum to get it appraised by “professionals”. I pay the professional appraiser’s wife $50K as a gift. The appraiser says the painting is now worth $30M! Wow that’s awesome, I have such a keen eye for art. You know what, I’m gonna donate this painting to a museum instead because I’m such a patron of art and culture. Oh, look at that, I get a tax rebate for the value of my donated painting ($30M) Now I only have to pay $40M - $30M = $10M in taxes on my $100M income. There’s more nuance to it in practice, but that’s the gist of it. ----- Edit: For some reason I can't reply to the comments below so I'm gonna do it here. > That wouldn't explain the price here, since in your scam the whole idea is to buy cheap and donate dear. not buy for 139M Now we're getting in the details but it's very suspicious for an appraiser to appraise a work of art from an unknown artist at millions. But it's not that suspicious if they take Van Gogh's Starry Night which was previously appraised at $500M to now be valued at $1B. this way the deca-billionaire still gets to save his taxes while appraiser avoids suspicion. > As far as I know, that's not how taxes work. You can't get a rebate for the amount of taxes you would have paid, you can get a deduction for the amount of money you made. There are a lot of loopholes in the complicated tax system for the ultra-wealthy, not for us. This video (still a simple explanation in an animated way) covers a few more of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHy07B-UHkE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHy07B-UHkE
- klipklop 11mo agoI can hear Nic Cage get out his credit card from 1000 miles away to buy it.
- Galanwe 11mo agoI know nothing of this world of comics, I guess because it is essentially part of the US culture and did not penetrate much of Europe. There has been a number of investigative shows arguing the valuation of collectibles in general (comics included) is largely driven by money laundering. Is it some kind of conspiracy theory of is this legit ?
- WalterBright 11mo agoI remember as a kid that Superman #1 was going for thousands of dollars and we just oohed and aahed.
- Podrod 11mo agoAs usual, generalising all of Europe based on your individual country is a mistake as there are some Euro counties where comics are quite popular. France, Belgium, Italy and the UK all have thriving native comic book industries, and I have Swedish friends who tell me Donald Duck comics are very popular there. I imagine a pristine 1st edition Tintin or Asterix would be quite valuable.
- Galanwe 11mo agoI wouldn't say comics are really popular in France. But we may have different interpretations of what comics are, as I don't consider "bandes dessinées" (e.g. Tintin) as comics.
- dragandj 11mo agoAs an avid reader of BDs, I would agree with you, but for the purpose of this discussion, and for the general public, these two are indistinguishable. Even to the actual translation, which is (pardon my rusty French) somewhere in the ballpark of "cartoon strips".
- jccalhoun 11mo agoFor this, it is pretty legit since it is old. What is thought to be driven by money laundering is people paying crazy amounts of money for graded VHS movies or NES games.
- WalterBright 11mo agoI remember a painting was discovered, and there was speculation that it was a da Vinci. It was appraised at $30,000. If it could be proven to be a da Vinci, it would be worth a million. For the same item. Crazy.
- falcor84 11mo agoLet's say that I gift you a suitcase with ten thousand $100 bills that seem legit, but you're not sure. How much would you be willing to pay for a proof that they are indeed legit?
- WalterBright 11mo agoIt's a crime to pass counterfeit money. I'm not interested in that kind of trouble. Besides, I don't need to pay to test for it being legit. Just go to a bank.
- falcor84 11mo agoThe legality does break the analogy, but my point was just that a suitcase with ten thousand $100 bills has a non-zero value on its own, but that proving its provenance would significantly increase its value, despite the suitcase staying the same. The argument then is that this is not unique to art - it's (financially) valuable for us to know who made an artifact and what its journey was until it got to us.
- Nevermark 11mo agoDo you think a sculpture by a pre-civilization human is worth more than something banged out yesterday? Heritage has great value. It is one of the few things that cannot be manufactured at will. Also, since its uniqueness holds its value, its value becomes a "strange attractor". You can put a lot of money into one of these artifacts, fairly sure to get most or more back. Since future buyers will have a similar assurance. So it isn't money thrown away, but money stored in a medium the provides satisfaction and pride. Not so different from buying real estate in some exclusive area for some crazy price. It really isn't that crazy if you are likely to get your money back later if you want. Likely at a higher amount due to a growing economy pushing prices up. Crazy would be spending millions on something unique then grinding it up.
- dmezzetti 11mo agoThis is the epitome of why people go to yard sales
- zkmon 11mo ago>> This is a testament to memory, family and the unexpected ways the past finds its way back to us If that was a true feeling, then they wouldn't sell it away as soon as they find it, as if it is something they must dispose off immediately. Sales culture is turning all men into drama queens.
- tcgv 11mo agoIt's more of an emotional reaction to the life-changing impact of $9 million, expressed that way, rather than a literal feeling to be taken word for word.
- latexr 11mo agoI agreed with the first sentence, but then the second one had me scratching my head. Could you clarify/expand on what you’re saying there?
- zkmon 11mo ago>> expand on "men turning into drama queens" Men sounding too sentimental, emotional, girly, too much talking, making lots of facial expressions, trying to please or convince someone,... even though it is not hard it see it's fake. The talk was all about millions, not family silver.
- latexr 11mo agoWhat’s wrong about that? Why shouldn’t a man be emotional, make facial expressions, or try to please someone? Why is that “fake”? I’m asking in general, since your original comment looked to be a general complaint and not only specific about this case.
- zkmon 11mo agoIn this case, it is fake because they didn't value the very sentiment they were talking about. In general, those attributes in men make them drama queens.
- OJFord 11mo agoMy first thought reading the headline was that I would have no idea - could so easily throw away something apparently very valuable in such a scenario just because it's not something I know about. > their mum had always told them she had an expensive comic collection And perhaps they would have too, had they not known! (Or the mother not known either.)
- AtNightWeCode 11mo agoSounds like some sort of scam to me. The item is probably correct but the price seems way too high.
- bazoom42 11mo agoWhy? Similar comics have been sold for upwards of 6 mill, and this one is better graded.
- AtNightWeCode 11mo agoMaybe I am too cynical but the story sounds fake. And I would not be surprised if this is some way of manipulating the market.
- libertine 11mo agoThere's this new sentiment in the society of finding something rare with high value to flip it and make a bank. But the way it's being pursued... It just doesn't feel right. It almost feels like it's gambling, because it's a sentiment that leaks into modern collectibles, like card games. I'm not saying people don't value collectibles, or value nostalgia, or that some of these things should be limited to niches - the reality is that I can't quite put it into words, but a lot of it seems propped up... Or it's a false game everyone is knowingly playing, like a big Ponzi scheme. These superman copies, or the first editions of mtg, or even some modern vintage games, were never intended to be collectibles - people used them and played with them, created memories, and the production runs were really limited in comparison to modern day production runs, that make those items actually rare... Like few hundreds or thousands have survived in good condition - which is an achievement for toys, games and comics that get used a lot. Nowadays people buy stuff with high production runs, they never even create memories with the stuff... They slab stuff into a "hermetic" container right away, and get it graded... It just feels fake. Again I don't doubt people see value in this stuff, I just feel like they're valuing for the wrong reasons, and I can't wrap my head around how is that even sustainable. Who is going to value the memory of "remember when I bought 5 booster boxes and pulled card X from the pack, with gloves on, put it in a sleeve and sent it to be graded straight away? Now those were the days!" It's like people want to compress the randomness of time and social behavior into a predictable cicle of months, with minimal effort and to extract the maximum value out of it. Am I overthinking this?
- pezezin 11mo agoI understand what you mean, and I agree. I have a similar experience: a couple of years ago I started to dip my toes into the retrogaming collecting world, and at first it was fun to get all those games that I really wanted to have as a kid, but it soon devolved into trying to track down all those overpriced "rare" games. It got exhausting, and made wonder why am I even doing this? Why would I spend several hundreds on a game or a console that I didn't even knew about until one year ago, just because some random YouTube guy told me so? Being a kid, really wanting a game or toy, finally getting it and then enjoying it to death was awesome; this is not. As you say, it doesn't feel right, so I have decided to quit.
- jebarker 11mo agoNot sure why I find this surprising, but this comic is worth twice as much as Napoleon's diamond encrusted brooch recently sold for [1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/world/europe/napoleon-diamond-brooch-auction.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/world/europe/napoleon-dia...
- javier123454321 11mo agoIt's not worth twice as much. There was a buyer willing to pay twice as much. For something like this, the fact that value is completely subjective really sticks out. Trying to sell it again tomorrow might go for half or double.
- jebarker 11mo agoYeah, the point of sharing was to point out the subjectivity. The brooch sold at auction too.
- qoez 11mo agoTo be fair that's true for everything including the jewels
- rvba 11mo agoIf the buyer paid 9M, doesnt this means that someone else wanted to pay 8M? What I am trying yo say: at least two collectors (?) or speculators (?) with deep pockets.
- frifraff 11mo ago[flagged]
- A_Venom_Roll 11mo agoWhy would you say something like that?
- frifraff 11mo agoSuperman depicts a common racist and misogynist view that white men are more important, virtuous, and stronger than everyone else. The early comic books in particular make this obvious. That this obscenity is apparently worth millions of dollars is a sad reflection of the bigotries in society we continue to endure today.
- sema4hacker 11mo agoGrowing up, I had a closet full of terrific toys in great condition, many of them unusual and fairly rare. When I got back from my first year of college, I found that my Mom, unlike the mother in the article, had given them all away. I was so disappointed.