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Pedigree Rated Copy of "Action Comics No. 1" Available at Auction
Posted on February 14, 2024 by Neil Cole
An original vintage copy of "Action Comics No. 1" (CGC 8.5) from the Kansas City Pedigree Collection is heading to auction as part of Heritage Auctions upcoming Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction which takes place April 4th - 7th, 2024.
Pedigree graded comics come from collections that the CGC considers exceptional and feature a Gold Pedigree label. The Kansas City Pedigree Collection turned up in the late '60s and featured a large accumulation of nearly 250 high grade No. 1 issues that ran from 1937 through the '40s including this extremely rare copy of "Action Comics No. 1".
A rare comic book whose historical impact cannot be overstated, Heritage Auctions have had the singular honor of auctioning dozens of copies of Action Comics No. 1 over the past 20-plus years – and in some instances, loose individual pages that nevertheless sold for anywhere from a few hundred dollars to nearly $60,000 apiece – and yet they've never had the privilege of offering one as breathtakingly beautiful as this.
The colors are stunningly rich, and the cover is almost pristine and largely unmarred. Some mild toning to the white areas, slight dulling of the staples, and a little wear along the top seem to have kept the grade at "only" 8.5. There is a single, tiny color break at mid-spine, and the corners are relatively sharp for an 85-year-old comic book.
You'll be hard-pressed to get your hands on a nicer copy. There are only four pedigreed copies of Action No. 1 - the others being the Mile High, Lamont Larson, and Billy Wright copies, and this is the highest-graded among the three that have been certified to date. (The Mile High copy has yet to be certified and, of course, may be the nicest copy of all.) In 1989, Ernst Gerber's The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books rated it a "7" ( "scarce"), estimating that no more than 50 copies were still in existence.
The decades since Gerber's guide was published have proven that estimate to be low, but just barely: CGC has currently certified 78 copies of Action No. 1, of which 44 are unrestored Universal grade copies. Of those, only two have earned a higher grade than this one (both VF/NM 9.0); they have also registered two restored copies with higher grades: an Apparent VF/NM 9.0 and an Apparent NM 9.4. It is also the finest copy Heritage Auctions has ever had the opportunity to offer at auction and the highest-graded unrestored copy they've seen, surpassing the FN 6.0 Rocket copy that sold for $3.18 million in January, 2022. Rest assured it might be some time before a nicer copy shows up on the auction block. Naturally, this classic is ranked #1 on Overstreet's list of Top 100 Golden Age Comics.
For more information, please visit Heritage Auctions.
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