In the early 1980s, a collector with limited funds was scanning auction catalogs and phoning in small bids, hoping something overlooked would slip through. One day the phone rang: his was the highest bid on Action Comics No. 1 — Superman's 1938 debut and the permanent No. 1 on the Overstreet Comic Price Guide. He'd bid less than half its value. They offered him a payment plan.
Forty years later he still has it — and it's expected to sell for more than $2 million when it goes up at Heritage's Comic Books Signature Auction, May 7–10. He'd "slept in his store, borrowed money, sold possessions" to close the original purchase, according to broker Timmy Heague (owner of Arsenal Comics & Games stores in Newbury Park and Ventura, California), then held on through whatever hard times came. The book is a CGC Conserved 7.0 — only one higher-graded Conserved copy exists on the census — and Heritage VP Barry Sandoval says its cover colors are unusually vivid for an Action No. 1.
Heague is donating a cut of his brokerage fee to the Comics Professional Retail Organization, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, and the Hero Initiative. The collector is matching it.
The auction also features all seven of Overstreet's most valuable titles, including a CGC 6.5 Detective Comics No. 27 (Batman's 1939 debut), plus 30 Al Williamson original pages from his Star Wars newspaper strip — never previously offered at auction.
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