1939 Batman Comic breaks sales record at auction

Washington, Feb 26 (ANI): A 1939 comic book, in which Batman makes his debut, has sold for more than 1 million dollars at auction, breaking the sales record that had been set by a Superman comic just three days ago.

According to Heritage Auction Galleries, the rare copy of Detective Comics No. 27 sold for a total of 1,075,500 dollars, which includes the buyer's premium.

The buyer and consigner wished to remain anonymous.

"It pretty much blew away all of our expectations and now it's the highest price ever raised for a comic book," Fox News quoted Barry Sandoval, director of operations of Heritage's comics division, as saying.

"We can really say that Batman has nosed out Superman, at least for now," Sandoval said.

He said the consigner had bought the Batman comic in the late 1960s for 100 dollars. With a bright yellow background, the comic features Batman swinging on a rope above city rooftops.

"That cover is just one of the most famous of all comic book covers," Sandoval revealed.

J.C. Vaughn, associate publisher of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, said most people had predicted it would be the comics with the first appearance of Superman and Batman that broke the 1 million dollar barrier.

Both comics that sold this week were in great condition - scoring an 8.0 on a scale that goes up to 10.

"I think that you can greenly ascribe this to a real comfort with the liquidity of rare, high grade vintage collectibles," Vaughn said.

George Pantela, owner of Melbourne, Australia-based GP Analysis, which tracks sales of certified comics from more than 20 auction houses and dealers, said the previous record was about 317,000 dollars paid a year ago for a lesser grade Action Comics No. 1 than the one sold this week.

Vincent Zurzolo, chief operating officer of Comicconnect.com, took the breaking of their record in stride.

"It's an exciting week in comic books when you have two comics selling for 1 million dollars," he stated. (ANI)