Heritage Auctions four day 17th-20th November Comic and Comic Art Auction has closed with a stunning $18,589,015 in bids - the second biggest comic book auction of all time after their $26,500,000 sale in September 2021.
A total 1,404 lots attracted over 5,500 world wide bidders to the ha.com website with several comic book auctions records being set, and a stunning average lot value of $13,240.
One of the star items was a copy of Detective Comics No. 168 which had been graded 9.4, which sold for $324,000. It was the first time a Detective Comics No, 169 with a grading higher than 9.0 had been sold at auction.
No. 168 is famed among collectors as the comic that introduces The Joker.
Superman, as ever, was hot on the heels of The Joker, with a Superman No. 1 comic book, selling for $288,000, doubling the previous record price of $132,000 for a similar graded comic sold in 2018.
One of the biggest prices of the day was the $480,000 paid for a hand drawn Calvin and Hobbes comic strip from May 1987, equalling the world record price for an original newspaper comic strip.
The highest selling lot was a copy of Amazing Fantasy No. 15, the comic book that introduced Spider-Man, which sold for $552,000. Heritage were among the first auction houses to spot the potential in comic book sales and hold the world record price of $3,180,000 for a copy of Action Comics #1 which sold in January 2022.
The 1937 comic features the introduction of Superman and could have been yours for $0.02 cents back in the day!
About your Author:
Adrian Roose has over 30 years’ experience covering all aspects of the rare stamp & memorabilia industry during which he has sold over £50m of unique items, helping build collections for Royalty, household name celebrities and 1,000s of collectors around the world.
Adrian was previously a Director at Stanley Gibbons, a Board Member of Stampex, and Executive Director of Paul Fraser Collectibles, PFC Auctions and JustCollecting, prior to founding The Memorabilia Club.