Heritage Auctions has announced that the finest known copy of Marvel Comics #1 has sold for a record breaking $1.26 million dollars.
The second-largest comic auction of all time, trailing only the $15,121,405 realized in Heritage Auctions’ Chicago Comics & Comic Art Auction in May 2019, this sale included 15 lots that sold for at least $100,000.
The top lot set a world record for the most expensive Marvel comic ever sold at public auction, and also set a new standard for the most ever paid for a comic book at Heritage Auctions, the world’s largest comic book and comic art auctioneer. The auction boasted sell-through rates of 97.7% by value and 99.8% by lots sold.
“This is a historic copy of a historic comic book,” Heritage Auctions Senior Vice President Ed Jaster said in a press release from Heritage Auctions. “Without question, this is the granddaddy of all Marvel Comics, without which we would not have the characters and stories we enjoy in today’s comics and feature films.”
The issue, with famous cover art by Frank R. Paul and interior art by a group of illustrators that included Bill Everett, Carl Burgos and Paul Gustavson, was purchased by a Pennsylvania postal carrier who bought every No. 1 issue he could of both comic books and magazines, beginning in the 1940s. It’s grade of 9.4 on a scale of 1-10 makes it the best copy of the issue ever found, according to Certified Guaranty Company (CGC).
Other big sellers included:
- Jack Kirby and Chic Stone Fantastic Four Annual #2 Story Page 11 Doctor Doom’s Origin Original Art (Marvel, 1964): $180,000
- Whiz Comics #2 (#1) (Fawcett Publications, 1940) CGC FN 6.0 Off-white to white pages: $150,666
- Superman #1 (DC, 1939) CGC GD 2.0 Cream to off-white pages: $150,000
- Batman #1 (DC, 1940) CGC VG 4.0 Off-white to white pages: $150,000
- Captain America Comics #1 (Timely, 1941) CGC FN 6.0 Off-white pages: $132,000
- Sensation Comics #1 (DC, 1942) CGC VF+ 8.5 Off-white to white pages: $132,000
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