While it may be little more than pocket change for the likes of Bruce Wayne, a copy of Batman #1 just sold at auction for a staggering $2.2 million, blowing past the previous sale record for the character's books.
While the Dark Knight made his comic book debut in Detective Comics #27 in 1939, it wouldn't be until the following year that the character got his own dedicated title, with the first issue's cover seeing the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder swinging over the streets of Gotham. The 1940 book, at the time, had a price tag of just ten cents, so it's safe to say that it's somewhat appreciated in value in the ensuing decades.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the issue had been in the hands of collector Billy T. Gates for 40 years. Gates reportedly bought the issue in 1979 for $3,000, equivalent to about $11,000 today when adjusted for inflation. Gates passed in 2019, bequeathing the issue to his son. The $2,220,000 price tag now gives this book the distinction of being the most valuable Batman comic ever publicly sold, blowing past the previous record of $1.5 million for a copy of Detective Comics #27. The sale was facilitated by Heritage Auctions as part of its Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction event taking place through January 17. The book is in near-mint condition, having been rated rated at 9.4 out of 10 in quality by Certified Guaranty Company, which is generally considered the comics industry's premier appraisal organization.
During the Golden Age of comics, the books were cheap, abundant, printed on low quality paper and generally considered disposable, so to find a copy of such an iconic book in such good condition is a (very rich) collector's dream. Besides being the first dedicated Batman book, the issue is also notable for introducing characters that have now become DC mainstays like Catwoman, Hugo Strange, and Joker. The Joker actually seemingly died in his first appearance, but as has been proven time and time again, death is never permanent in comics.
This book now has the distinction of being one of very few comics to have sold publicly for more than $2 million. In 2011, Nicolas Cage was the first person to ever spend more than $2 million on a copy of Action Comics #1, which saw the first appearance of Superman. Another copy of Action Comics #1 sold for $2,052,000 in 2018. And yet another copy actually holds the current record of the most expensive comic book ever sold, with a copy going for $3.2 million, per THR.
This isn't the only vintage comic book auction to have made news in recent months. Just a few weeks ago, literal scraps of paper that had chipped off a copy of Action Comics #1 went on the block and fetched a few hundred dollars from a collector who is obviously less concerned over their books' quality than the new owner of Batman #1.
Source: THR
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