'Action Comics' No. 1 Wrap Smashes Record for Stand-Alone Cover at $408,000 in Heritage’s Comic & Comic Art Auction

Loaded event continues through Sunday DALLAS, Texas (June 26, 2025) — The cover wrap of Action Comics No. 1 shattered the auction record for a stand-alone cover Thursday when it sold for $408,000 in the first session of Heritage’s June 26-29 Comic & Comic Art Signature® Auction. Per the independent tracking site GPAnalysis.com, the previous record for a loose cover was $20,000 for a Flash Comics No. 1 cover that sold in January. “If a few months ago someone had asked me to find them an attractive loose cover for Action Comics No. 1, I probably would have laughed,” says Barry Sandoval, Vice President of Heritage Auctions. “So I wasn’t surprised by the fervent bidding as this may well be the only such specimen that will ever come up for sale.” The image, drawn by Joe Shuster, has been called the most famous image in comic book history, and adorns the issue that launched Superman, the superhero genre and, in many ways, the entire comics collecting hobby. Thursday’s auction marks what is believed to be the first public sale of just the cover wrap of what Overstreet once called “the most important comic book ever published.” Action Comics No. 1 is ranked first on Overstreet’s Top 100 Golden Age Comics list. The auction continues with Friday’s floor session at 11 a.m. (Central time) and continues through Sunday’s Internet session, which starts at 11 a.m. “Friday is going to be a big day,” says Sandoval. “Frank Frazetta’s classic Famous Funnies No. 214 cover should lead the way, and I think you’ll need two hands to count the art lots that sell for $100,000 or more … and Saturday and Sunday we have 1,100 more lots to go.” Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 2 million registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of 7,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter . Link to this release or view prior press releases . Hi-Res images available: Steve Lansdale, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1699 or SteveL@HA.com