It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane: No, It’s A $5M Comic Book

Play ball, Collectors. Happy Opening Day.

According to a StubHub poll, a quarter of you will be calling in “sick” today – here’s hoping your boss isn’t Ed Rooney. But if you’re headed to the ballpark, keep an eye on rookies making their debuts donning Topps-inspired patches. Only a few cards from last year’s debuts have publicly surfaced, with sales averaging about $4,000. However, a $150,000 bounty has been placed on Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe’s debut card… which has still yet to be pulled. 

If vintage is more your speed, we’re giving away a 1966 Topps NL Batting Leaders card featuring Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays. All you have to do is follow Mantel on X.com and retweet our giveaway post.

Now let’s get into it.

Collector’s Item

We’ll keep things in New York – er, Metropolis. A copy of Action Comics #1, featuring Superman’s debut, is set to become the most-expensive comic ever in a Heritage Auctions sale. The previous record, held by an 8.0-graded Superman #1, was set in 2022 at $5.3M. This issue has been graded an 8.5, and already has bids topping $5M.

This value has been long in the making. Back in 1990, an $82,500 sale of Action Comics #1 sent shockwaves throughout the comics community. These things are actually worth something? Soon enough, outsiders noticed too.

By 1992, the country’s 800 comic book stores were mobbed. Marvel and DC responded with a quantity-over-quality approach, tripling their output (apologies, card collectors, if this triggers flashbacks to the similar “junk wax” era). With this dilution, comic books grew virtually worthless within two years.

Marvel declared bankruptcy in 1996. Their savior? Selling the movie rights to Spider-Man and the X-Men, ushering in the superhero movie generation. Ironically, Marvel couldn’t find third-party buyers for The Avengers. Once they started Marvel Studios, they seemed to find use for those characters.

The success of Marvel films completely reshaped their publishing house. Marvel actually sells less comic books now than they did in the mid-90s, but comics are an essential base to their avid fandom. So while few modern comic books will ever see high values, the consistent interest in superheroes keeps the price of treasures like Action Comics #1 constantly rising.

But not every comic item since 1992 has been worthless. When the bubble burst, DC took a different approach: they killed Superman (well, in a short-lived comic storyline). The original artwork from this controversial issue is also being sold by Heritage, in a sale that should net over $200,000. 

Sure, original Death of Superman copies only sell for $5 today. But, like the Man of Steel himself, this original artwork symbolizes so much more. The decision to kill Superman cultivated a media frenzy that fortified public fascination with comics.

Recent box office disappointments have brought back the idea of a superhero “bubble”. But if history’s proven anything, it’s that these characters aren’t going anywhere. So when an opportunity arises to own the genesis of an icon – the price tag will always follow.

Penny Thoughts

• If you keep an eye on Mantel, you may not be surprised by this news: an ungraded, sealed NES copy of Castlevania (1987) sold on eBay for over $90,000. This 1-of-32 copy marks one of the highest sales ever for an ungraded item. Time will tell if it’s worth the gamble.

• A College of Charleston paleontologist took show-and-tell a bit too seriously. Robert Boessenecker was arrested on Monday for taking home fossils totaling $9,000. We’re no experts, but we’ve covered enough about paleontology to know it takes brilliant minds  – yet the smoking gun in this case was a box that said “definitely not stolen mineral samples” (seriously).

• Last week, we mentioned that original artwork from another iconic piece – Clapton’s Layla album – was expected to sell for about $75,000. When Christie’s wrapped bidding, the final number stood at $2.5M. 55 years later, there’s still something in the way she moves.

And lastly, research shows that we’re seeing corners of the collectibles market come together. Per Altan Insights, ~40% of art collectors are also collecting wine, handbags, and sneakers. These numbers are no surprise to us – our objective since day one has been to build a space for collectors to share items of all kinds. If you fit that bill, join our growing community of collectors on Mantel.

And if you are enjoying this newsletter, please share it with your circle to help Mantel grow. Readers can sign up to get Above the Mantel each week here: https://mantel.beehiiv.com/subscribe.