What's the Most Valuable Comic Book?

It's a myth that any comic book eventually becomes valuable, as if the pages not only yellow with age, but slowly become encrusted with diamonds.

Many comic books once thought to become sure-fire collector's items, such as 1992's Superman No. 75—depicting the title character's short-lived "death"—are in such great supply that they can be had for a buck or two.

Yet a select few become so valuable that it's not surprising that so many folks cling to the far-fetched hope that the sale of their collections might one day put their kids through college.

Historically, the most valuable comic book is1938's Action Comics No. 1, by Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, with a cover price of 10 cents. Not only was it the first appearance of that iconic character, it's also the first superhero comic ever. It effectively set the course for the bulk of the medium's output for the next 70 years.

Though it's been reprinted dozens of times, only about 100 copies of the original Action Comics No. 1 are known to still exist intact. In a record breaking sale in February 2010, a copy was sold through auction Web site ComicConnect for $1 million (from an unknown seller to an unknown buyer). This amount was more than three times as much as the previous record-high price paid for a comic.

Another copy of the same book sold for $317,000 through the same site the year before. This less-valued  copy, though, had earned a "fine" rating in terms of its condition, while the $1 million copy notched a "very fine" score, meaning it had very few noticeable flaws. The distinction may sound pretty subtle, but a couple of minor tears and bends can clearly mean a lot of money.

The record-breaking million-dollar sale was trumped just a few days later, though, when  a 1939 copy of Detective Comics No. 27, the first appearance of Batman, sold for $1,075,000 in a Heritage Auction Galleries sale—also in "very fine" condition.

Then, the record was broken for a third time in late March 2010, when a copy of Action Comics No. 1 sold through ComicConnect for $1.5 million. It was in better condition than the $1 million copy, which it knocked into second place.

Superman also stars in the third most valuable comic book of all time, Superman No. 1, according to collectible Web site Nostomania.com. The first appearance of Green Lantern, in All-American Comics No. 16, comes in fourth place. Marvel Comics No. 1, the inaugural publication of Timely Comics—the entity that would become Marvel Comics, the publisher of Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man—is in fifth place.

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