Superman First Appearance: Action Comics #1 Value by Grade

Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 (cover date June 1938), published by DC, by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster. The source puts it this way: "The debut of the world's most recognizable superhero".

PriceCharting values for Action Comics #1 (1938) by CGC grade, based on recorded sales and updated September 25, 2026:

• CGC 2.0: $37,928
• CGC 3.0: $546,279
• CGC 4.0: $1,525,000
• CGC 6.0: $3,180,000
• CGC 8.0: $6,000,000
• CGC 9.2: $7,800,000

The spread from CGC 2.0 ($37,928) to CGC 9.2 ($7,800,000) shows how much condition matters on a key issue. Restored, trimmed or incomplete copies sell far below these figures, and reprints and facsimiles (see below) are worth a small fraction. Grade and restoration are confirmed by a grading service such as CGC or CBCS; prices move with the market and the character's popularity.

• Original cover price: the original 1938 issues were priced at 10 cents.
• Interior story content: the issue tells the original origin story of the Man of Steel in his very first appearance.

Several later editions reproduce this issue. They are easy to mistake for the original at a glance:

• 1974 Famous First Edition #26C (oversized treasury reprint): Oversized treasury format, much larger than the 1938 original
• 1976 Safeguard Soap giveaway reprint: Back-cover advertisement gives it away as a promotional reprint
• 2022 DC facsimile edition: Missing the original 10-cent price box; carries a modern UPC and price instead

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the issue number, date and publisher; reprints usually say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode format that did not exist in the year printed means a later edition.
• Paper and staples: decades-old newsprint is tan at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and married covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service can detect them.

Shoot the front cover flat, straight on, in even light, then the indicia page and the back cover. Include the top edge and staples in one frame. The app reads the title, issue number and cover and matches it against the checks above; the indicia photo settles most reprint questions.

Recorded sales show what real copies made, grade by grade. From CGC's list of the most expensive comics (updated July 13, 2026) and CGC's sale reports:

• $15 million: CGC 9.0, private sale through Metropolis Collectibles/ComicConnect, January 9, 2026, the record for any comic
• $6 million: CGC 8.5, Kansas City pedigree, Heritage Auctions, April 4, 2024
• $3.56 million: CGC 6.0, ComicConnect, 2023
• $3.25 million: CGC 8.5, ComicConnect, 2021
• $2.76 million: CGC 6.0, ComicConnect, 2026
• $1.5 million: CGC 4.5, Heritage Auctions, 2026, and CGC 3.0, 2023

Guide prices differ from these sales and from each other. In September 2026 QualityComix listed FN 6.0 at $3,180,000 and VF 8.0 at $4,000,000, while PriceCharting listed CGC 8.0 at $6,000,000. On a book this rare, use the actual sale closest in grade and date.

Action Comics #1 had a print run of 200,000 copies (Wikipedia; CGC). Wikipedia estimates that 50 to 100 originals survive. CGC reported 78 copies in its census in April 2024, 44 of them with the blue Universal label for unrestored books. By January 2026 CGC put the figure at fewer than 100, with only two graded 9.0, the highest grade the issue has received.

• It started the genre. Wikipedia calls it widely considered the beginning of the superhero genre. It also introduced Lois Lane (QualityComix).
• Almost none survive. Fewer than 100 copies out of 200,000 are known to CGC.
• High grades are rarer still. Only two copies are graded 9.0, and one of those set the $15 million record.

The record copy has a known history, which CGC recounts: it sold at Sotheby's in 1992 for $82,000, Nicolas Cage bought it in 1996 for $150,000, it disappeared from his home around 2000, was found in a California storage unit in 2011 and returned to him, and he sold it through ComicConnect in 2011 for $2.16 million.

Superman got his own title a year after Action Comics #1; Wikipedia dates Superman #1 to June 1939. It is a separate book from his first appearance and is often confused with it in searches for "Superman issue 1". CGC reports a first printing of 500,000 copies, followed by printings of 250,000 and 150,000, and 209 copies in its Population Report, fewer than half on the blue Universal label. A CGC 9.0 copy found in a California attic sold for $9.12 million at Heritage Auctions on November 20, 2025; other recorded sales include $5.3 million in CGC 8.0 (private sale, 2022) and $504,000 in CGC 5.0 (Heritage, 2024), per CGC's list.

Superman, by almost a year. Action Comics #1 went on sale April 18, 1938; Batman's debut, Detective Comics #27 (cover date May 1939), went on sale March 30, 1939 (Wikipedia). Values for Batman's first appearance are on our Batman first appearance page.

Jon Kent, the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, was written as bisexual in Superman: Son of Kal-El. Writer Tom Taylor and DC announced it on October 11, 2021, and issue #5 showed Jon's kiss with reporter Jay Nakamura (Wikipedia). He was not the first LGBT superhero. DC's Extraño debuted in Millennium #2 (January 1988) and was described by DC as gay, and Marvel's Northstar came out in Alpha Flight #106 (1992), the first openly gay character to come out in a Marvel comic (Book Riot; Wikipedia).

If "the first Superman comic" means his first solo title, Superman #1 (summer 1939), PriceCharting values retrieved September 25, 2026 are:

• Ungraded: $19,820.31 (about one sale a year)
• Graded 3.0: $61,775.22
• Graded 4.0: $344,329.59
• Graded 5.0: $504,000.00
• Graded 6.0: $1,220,000.00
• Graded 7.0: $2,340,000.00
• Graded 9.0: $9,120,000.00

The 9.0 figure is the single copy that sold for $9.12 million at Heritage Auctions on November 20, 2025, which CGC reports as the sole highest certified example; the 5.0 figure matches the $504,000 Heritage sale CGC lists for 2024. With about one sale a year per grade, each number is close to one recorded sale rather than an average. The ungraded value is far below the graded ones, most likely because a buyer cannot see an unslabbed copy's grade or whether it has been restored.

Two different books answer this search:

• Action Comics #1 (June 1938): Superman's first appearance, covered at the top of this page.
• Superman #1 (summer 1939): his first title of his own. Wikipedia says it made him the first hero to be featured in more than one comic magazine, and that by the early 1940s Superman was selling over a million copies a month.

Side by side, with PriceCharting values retrieved September 25, 2026:

• 3.0: Action Comics #1 $546,279.18; Superman #1 $61,775.22
• 4.0: Action Comics #1 $1,525,000.00; Superman #1 $344,329.59
• 6.0: Action Comics #1 $3,180,000.00; Superman #1 $1,220,000.00

In these grades Action Comics #1 is worth about three to nine times as much. At the very top the gap narrows: the best Superman #1 made $9.12 million, against $15 million for the best Action Comics #1 (CGC).

CGC reports that Superman #1 had a first printing of 500,000 copies, sold out, and was followed by printings of 250,000 and 150,000, and that 209 copies are in its Population Report. Action Comics #1 had a print run of 200,000, and Antique Trader, reporting the April 2024 Heritage sale, put CGC's count at 78 copies. So more than twice as many Superman #1 copies have been graded, which is the main reason it costs less grade for grade.

The record-sale sequence, from Antique Trader and CGC:

• 2022: Superman #1, CGC 8.0, Mile High pedigree, $5.3 million in a private sale
• April 4, 2024: Action Comics #1, CGC 8.5, Kansas City pedigree, $6 million at Heritage
• November 20, 2025: Superman #1, CGC 9.0, $9.12 million at Heritage, a copy CGC says had been stored for decades in a California attic