The Most Expensive Comic Book Almost Ever

A $1 million comic book was a new world record . . . then we showed up

Man, yesterday was shaping up to be so awesome: At around 2 pm, the GCD crew showed up at the offices of Metropolis Collectibles and ComicConnect.com—dealers in Gold, Silver and Bronze Age comics and art. Their tiny offices sit on the second floor of a non-descript building on East 18th Street in Manhattan, so you’d never expect that stepping through their doorway is like walking into some kind of Geek Guggenheim. Millions of dollars in comic book art line the walls floor to ceiling. There are original covers by the likes of Frank Frazetta and Jack Kirby. A display case holds the red Batphone used to film the 1960’s Batman TV series. There is an original Watchmen page hanging in the bathroom.

Then ComicConnect.com co-owner Vincent Zurzolo (pictured above, left, with GCD) walked out of his office holding the most famous comic book of all time: Action Comics #1. It’s estimated that there are fewer than 100 copies of Superman’s first appearance left in the world, and only two are graded as being in better condition than this one. On Monday, Zurzolo had sold this comic for a cool $1 million, annihilating the previous record for most expensive comic book by about $700,000. “I’ve been in this business for 20 years, and it’s hard to get excited,” Zurzolo said, holding the million-dollar baby that he'll soon be delivering to his anonymous buyer. “But when I first held this, I got this big grin on my face, just like the one I have right now.” He went on to explain what all went into selling the most expensive comic book in history. It was awesome.

Unfortunately, right after the interview ended we learned that an issue of Detective Comics No. 27, aka the first appearance of Batman, had just been auctioned for $1.075 million. So there goes Zurzolo's world record.

Oh well. Cool office, though.

Forward to a Buddy Invite a Buddy