Batman Beats Superman: $1,075,500 Price Is Comic Book Record, at Heritage Auctions

February 25, 2010
Posted by Noah

Following is the press release that we just sent out about the 8.0 Detective Comics #27, a new world record for any comic! Can you say $1,07,500? I thought your could!

(Dallas, Texas) -- Batman beat Superman. The Caped Crusader pounded the Man of Steel – and the recession – in a comic book auction today in Dallas, Texas with an anonymous superheroes fan paying a record $1,075,500 for a 1939 comic book with Batman’s first appearance.

“This is a world’s record price for any comic book. There was applause in the room when the gavel pounded for the final price of $1,075,500,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas (www.HA.com), the auction house that sold the Batman comic book today.

The name of the winning bidder was not disclosed.

“This is one of the finest known surviving copies of Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman. Two weeks before the live auction session, online bidding already surpassed the previous comic book auction record of $317,000 set last year for a copy of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman,” said Lon Allen, a Director of the Comics Department at Heritage.
The Batman comic was sold on behalf of an anonymous consignor.

“It was owned for decades and kept in excellent condition by a savvy comic book collector who purchased it for $100 more than 40 years ago. In the 1960s and 1970s many people considered that an outrageous amount of money to spend for a 1930s era comic book,” said Allen.

“The Bat-Man,” as he was originally called, appeared for the first time in a six-page story in Detective Comics #27 with a cover date of May 1939. Superman appeared a year earlier in Action Comics #1 with a cover date of June 1938.

The comic was certified at VF 8.0, on a scale of 1 to 10, by CGC. It is one of two known Detective #27 comics certified at that grade, with none higher.

Earlier this week, a copy of the first appearance of Superman was reported as being sold for $1 million by a company in New York City; however, it was a private treaty transaction and not an open, public auction.

For additional information, contact Heritage Auctions at (800) 872-6467 or visit online at http://www.ha.com/

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On the Net:
Heritage Auctions: http://www.HA.com