SAN FRANCISCO—A rare, high-grade, copy of the original 1939 first edition of ‘Superman#1′ , which has been well-preserved, sold at an auction for a record-breaking $9.12 million.
Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) gave the copy of ‘Superman #1’ 9 out of 10. A Dallas, Texas-operated auction house sold the comic book for $9.12 million, which broke the record for the most expensive comic book sold Thursday, November 20, 2025. It broke the previous record when Superman appeared in an anthology originally appearing in 1938, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in ‘Action Comic #1’ in 2024 at $6 million. It was the year 1939, when Superman first got his own solo comic.
Three brothers who found the ‘Superman #1’ comic book in their late mother’s attic in San Francisco, connected with the auction house, Heritage Auctions, and a vice president came to their home to appraise the well-preserved comic book earlier in 2025.
While the brotherly trio was cleaning out their late mother’s attic in San Francisco around the holidays of 2024, they discovered a loot of comic books in a cardboard box underneath a pile of old newspapers.
Prior to the brothers’ mother’s death, their mother told her sons that their family owned valuable comics, but the sons chalked it up as a family legend.
During the period of the Great Depression and Second World War, the mother and her brother purchased the comic books and five others.
