Superman’s debut in print is among the most valuable moments in comic history, and this week another Action #1 proved the point with a $324,000 sale.
The comic was sold at Heritage Auctions as part of the collection of Christine Farrell.
Ms Farrell was a legend in the comic collecting scene, in large part because of her complete collection of DC Comics.
This was the jewel in that collection and it went into the auction expected to realise over $100,000 and with online bids pushing the live-auction starting price up beyond $200,000.
Five live bidders took the price to $270,000 or $324,000 with buyer’s premium.
While an enormous fee, this is a bargain for an Action Comics #1. The most valuable are sold for millions. In 2014, one sold for $3 million on eBay. In April 2021 one made $3.25 million in a private sale (a rise for the same copy from $2 million in 2018). In April 2024, an 8.5 condition graded copy, set a new record when it made $6 million.
Condition is vital to the price for this comic. Ms Farrell’s was in very good condition, but it had been restored.
Christine’s copy, with its condition rating of 6, is still worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Image courtesy Heritage Auctions.
The comic is rated on Overstreet’s list of Top 100 Golden Age Comics at number one. It has a huge hold on the imagination of comic buyers in large part because of the debut of Superman.
The book was released in 1938 by DC with a 200,000 print run. It was extremely popular, but DC didn’t at first realise that Superman was the killer punch in an anthology of 11 stories.
The cover image is perhaps the most iconic comic book image in history.
Christine Farrell was a dedicated comic book collector and owner of a comic book store in Burlington, Vermont.
Her collection is one of the greatest ever assembled. Five more comic copies sold for more than $100,000 in the sale that closed on October 26.
The highest valued original art in the collection was a page of Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s The Dark Knight Returns #4 that realised $84,000.
Sales of the Christine Farrell Collection will continue into 2025.
