$100,000 Comic Book Found in the Wall of a $10,000 Home

A Minnesota man working on a fixer-upper tore down a wall and found, among the newspapers stuffed inside to insulate it, a copy of Action Comics No. 1. That's right, Superman's first appearance. The birth of superhero comics. It'll go for at least $ 100,000—but it could have sold for a lot more.

In a gobsmacking story by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis earlier this week, David Gonzalez tells of how he found the comic book, showed it to one of his in-laws, and in a heated argument that followed, tore its back cover—a defect that lopped $ 75,000 off its potential value, in one appraiser's view.

Gonzalez's Action #1 currently has a bid of $ 107,333 (Update: It's over $ 135,000 now), in an auction being run by a New York auction house through June 11. That's still more than 10 times than the price he paid for the home where he found it, which had a torn roof and was scheduled to be demolished until he picked it up for $ 10,100.

Go read the story, it's dumbfounding that someone could still find an edition of the most valuable comic book in the world—even one graded at 1.5 out of 10 in condition—in this way, and tragic that his in-laws damaged it.

Remodeler finds comic book worth over $ 100K in wall at Elbow Lake house [Star Tribune via Nerd Approved]

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