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UpdatedTue, September 15, 2026 at 11:38 PM UTC
Two comic books that once retailed for a dime apiece changed hands for a combined $13 million earlier this year, in a private transaction that Heritage Auctions and SemperFi Comics describe as one of the largest deals in the history of comic-book collecting.
Key Points
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Batman No. 1 (1940), graded CGC 9.4 and considered the highest-graded copy known to exist, sold for $6 million.
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Superman No. 1 (1939), a CGC 8.5 copy from the famed Mile High pedigree, sold for $7 million.
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The deal closed on February 5, 2026, brokered by Heritage Auctions in partnership with SemperFi Comics.
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Both the buyer and the longtime Heritage client who sold the pair chose to remain anonymous.
Batman No. 1, published in the spring of 1940, carries outsized historical weight beyond its price tag: it’s the issue that introduced both the Joker and Catwoman to the world, according to CGC’s own account of the sale. The CGC 9.4 copy that sold is the finest known example, and the grading company notes the $6 million price nearly tripled the previous world-record sale for any Batman comic.
Superman No. 1 has its own pedigree story. The issue was the first comic book built entirely around a single superhero, and this particular copy traces back to the Mile High collection — comics preserved for decades in Denver by original owner Edgar Church, whose stash is considered the gold standard for Golden Age condition among collectors. At CGC 8.5, it ranks as the second-finest Superman No. 1 known to exist.
The pairing wasn’t a coincidence. Heritage Consignment Director Nathan Howerton, who helped arrange the sale, called it personal: “It was more than a transaction to me,” he said in comments included in Heritage’s release on the deal. “It was a chance to help two friends by placing two incredible pieces of history in a new home.” SemperFi Comics’ Jordan Seymour framed it in market terms, saying the sale reflects “a transformational era in comic collecting,” driven by rarity, global demand and increasingly sophisticated buyers.
CGC President Matt Nelson put it more simply in the company’s own writeup of the transaction: “Superman and Batman are the world’s most iconic superheroes, meaning these two comic books make quite the pair.”
The February sale didn’t happen in a vacuum. It followed Heritage’s public auction of a different Superman No. 1, graded CGC 9.0, which sold for $9.12 million in November 2025 — itself a record at the time for a publicly auctioned comic. Together, the two sales suggest Golden Age keys aren’t just holding value; eight-figure territory is becoming the new normal for the rarest survivors of a medium once treated as disposable kids’ entertainment — a shift industry trade outlet ICv2 has tracked closely as private six- and seven-figure comic deals have become less of an anomaly and more of a pattern among top-tier Golden Age material.
