Action Comics No. 1 to sell at Heritage; bidding already near $1 million

Auction of last CGC 3.0 copy fetched $1.64 million in 2021

Cover Image for Action Comics No. 1 to sell at Heritage; bidding already near $1 million
Released in 1938, Action Comics No. 1 features the first appearance of Superman. (Credit: Heritage)

A copy of Action Comics No. 1, the most expensive comic book in the world, will sell this week at Heritage Auctions and has already received bids up to nearly $1 million.

The comic, released in 1938 and featuring the first appearance of Superman, is graded CGC 3.0. It’s one of eight examples at that grade, with 25 copies graded higher.

In April, Heritage set an all-time record for any comic book when it sold another copy, graded CGC 8.5, for $6 million.

The auction house says it has offered universal (meaning unrestored) copies of this comic book for sale on average only once every two years.

The current record for a CGC 3.0 copy is $1.64 million, set in 2021 by ComicConnect. No comparable copies have changed hands at public auction since.

Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.