The economy may be showing signs of rebounding.
At least, that is, if you look at the price tag for a couple of rare comics that have recently changed hands.
First it was “Action Comics #1” becoming the first book to sell for over a million dollars. A week later the original appearance of Batman in “Detective Comics” shattered that record.
Now the Man of Steel is back on top. A copy of “Action Comics #1” has surfaced and is in better condition than the one that was sold for a cool million back in February. This time, it went for $1.5 million.
The rare comic sold on the auction Web site ComicConnect.com
There are about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 believed to be in existence, and only a handful in good condition. The issue that sold Monday was rated slightly higher than the one that sold in February; it had been tucked inside an old movie magazine for years before being discovered.
The issue was bought from a private collector and then sold by Stephen Fishler and Vincent Zurzolo, the co-owners of ComicConnect.com. It was bought minutes after being posted Monday at the asking price of $1.5 million by “a hardcore comic book fan,” Fishler said.
“There’s been a lot of attempts to acquire this book over the last 15 years,” he said. “The recent activity, I guess, did the trick.”
Fishler speculated that the sudden burst of record-priced sales are due to “pent-up demand.” Issues of such prized comic books rarely become available for purchase. Rarer still are issues in such good condition.
“I can’t imagine another book coming on the market that exists that would top this,” Fishler said. “This may be the final say — at least for the next 10 or 20 years — for a record price of a comic book.”
I don’t think this constitutes an economic indicator . . . I think the people involved were affected by the downturn the same way the oceans are affected by inland droughts.