CGC-graded Action Comics #1 Sells for a Record $3.55 Million!

The first million-dollar comic book sale of 2023 has arrived! The famous “Rocket Copy” of Superman’s first appearance in Action Comics #1, which is graded by Certified Guaranty Company® (CGC®), set a new record when it was sold for $3.55 million in a private deal brokered through ComicConnect on January 24, 2023.

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Published in 1938 by National Press, Action Comics #1 launched the Golden Age of comics with the introduction of Superman by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. The comic was an immediate hit, and the franchise rapidly expanded with merchandise, radio programming and movies. This example, known as the Rocket Copy for the red rocket stamp its young collector put on its cover, is graded CGC 6.0.

The book has traded hands three times in just over a year, increasing in value each time. It also sold for $3.18 million in a Heritage Auction sale in January 2022, then for $3.4 million in a deal brokered by Goldin Auctions and Metropolis Comics of New York in September 2022.

In a news release issued by ComicConnect, the buyer, choosing to remain anonymous, said, “As a kid, I’ve always dreamed of getting an Action Comics #1 someday and I’m so excited to get one in a great grade.”

The Rocket Copy of Action Comics #1 is the third most valuable comic of all time, just behind an Amazing Fantasy #15 graded CGC 9.6 that sold for $3.6 million in 2021 as well as the “Mile High”-pedigreed Superman #1 graded CGC 8.0 that sold for $5.3 million in April 2022.

Only 25 days into the new year, this is the first million-dollar comic sale of 2023. There were nine CGC-graded comics that sold for more than a million dollars each in 2022 and eight in 2021.