With the first appearances of Batman and Superman selling for epic proportions this past week, hardcore fans are taking sides with a “who’s more lucrative” fight — the Dark Knight, or the Man of Steel?
Well, it depends on how you look at it. (At least I didn’t say “depends on if Batman has prep time.”)
Many news outlets have reported that Action Comics #1 was sold for a cool $1 million, while Detective Comics #27 netted $1.075 million. So in terms of money spent, Batman still beats out Superman.
But our very own Jeff Marsick made some phone calls to the respective auction houses, and got some interesting, clarifying information: Comics Connect, which sold the issue Action Comics, doesn’t charge a house fee — which means it’s straight-up $1 million. Meanwhile, Heritage, which handled the Detective Comics issue, charges a 19.5% buyer’s premium.
Sooooooo what does that mean? Batman may be more expensive, but don’t think that’s because the bids made it that way. The winning bid for Detective was $900,000 — which then cracked the million-dollar ceiling with the buyer’s premium — while the Last Son of Krypton hit a million all on his own steam. So which one is more lucrative? Let the debate commence!
February 26th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
How the proceeds were divided between seller and auctioneer isn’t relevant. The simple fact is the buyer paid £1m for the Action, and the other buyer paid $1.075m for the Detective.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
It’s not like the Det buyer wasn’t figuring in the buyers premium when he bid. If you’re playing in those leagues, you have to know all the fees before you dive in.
I’d be more curious to see discussion on how many copies of these books exist in what condition and how many are similar to the ones that sold as well as how OFTEN books of this caliber come up for sale. I heard that a comparable Action hadn’t been sold in almost 2 decades.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
It’s hard to compare the two because of the house fee. Bottom line: the buyer knew how much they had to pay, and they paid that much for those comics, meaning it was worth it to them to spend that much money on those comics.
By the way, Batman needs no prep time.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Clearly Action Comics #1 is the better issue to have. Not only is it the first appearance of Superman, the world’s most famous hero, it is also the birth of the Superhero era. Don’t know why they would sell on Auction Sites most people don’t even know exist. That goes to show you the value of those books in Wizard should be higher than what they are.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I am actually taking a class in Art Management where we are talking about this very thing. There is simply no debate at all, Batman was more lucrative. The hammer price and the premium are inseparable. The bidder would not get out of paying that amount and would be fully aware of the premium ahead of time. Its like when you go buy a comic book, you don’t pay $3.99, you pay $3.99 plus tax and are fully aware of that before buying the comic. The fact that Comics Connect doesn’t have a premium is irrelevant. The one guy paid 1 million, the other paid 1.075 million. Simply put, 1.075 million wins because the Batman comic is worth that much, it never went for $900,000 because the premium was implicit in the act of buying it at auction.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
How the proceeds are split is relevant. By paying a buyers premium you’re pretty much paying a 20% entry fee to get into the auction. That being the case the Detective Comic is valued less than the Action Comics.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
To me, it is only the final price that matters but if Mr. Pepose is wanting to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges, he should also be stating what the house commissions were in each sale.
Comics Connect reports on their site that they charge a 10% commission which brings down the price paid to the seller to $900,000.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Stop ruining everything David. Batman. Is. The. Best.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Jill wins.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
I think the auction fee is not actually relevant. If it went to a mil on it’s own, then DC 27 would be the same. Who’s to say the winner of Action wouldn’t have paid the 19% if he hadn’t been in on that auction?
February 26th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Thunderfist: Comics Connect charges commission on the SELLER, not the buyer. So the buyer bid $1m for the book. Incidentally, Heritage Auctions charges not just 19.5% on the buyer, but 16-17% on the SELLER. So Heritage makes 35% on each sale. Not a bad business to be in.
Ben: think of it like buying a house. If a house is for sale for $900k and you buy it at that, that’s not what you PAY. Perhaps you pay a 1% commission to the broker as a finder’s fee, plus there’s closing costs. So all in, you PAY, say $925k. Now, when the neighbor wants to sell their house and they get a fair-market appraisal, the comp will be based on recently sold houses in the area. Will the comp be $900 or $925 because of fees? It’s going to be $900.
Put another way, if another Detective #27, CGC 8.0 went on the market today, would the bid now be $1.1m because of the total price paid yesterday? Well, that’s a 22% markup over the high BID of yesterday’s winner. But let’s say that someone does buy the book for $1.1m. Now THEY have to pay a 19.5% buyer’s premium, so does that mean the value of the book is now hyper-inflated to a little over $1.3m? Basically every time this book gets listed on Heritage Auction’s site, it will have at least a 19.5% increase in “value”. Yet, sold on Comic Connect’s site, without that buyer’s premium, the “value” wouldn’t inflate as fast.
Action Comics #1′s value is one million dollars, because that was the winning bid, absent of fees. Detective #27′s value is $900k, because that was the winning bid, absent of fees. That’s the apples to apples comparison.
February 26th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Ben, while your point remains valid… there is not tax for comics because they are considered periodicals. bla bla bla. I’m wasting people’s time and taking away fromt he actual debate.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
What were the condition of the books, we cannot compare them if we do not know the condition?
February 26th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Well, Batman still remains more popular than Superman — look at the box office revenue of “The Dark Knight” compared to “Superman Returns.” However, if this Nolan/Goyer/Nolan rumor about “The Man of Steel” is correct, then there may be a change…or not.
February 26th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Why would it matter how the proceeds are split up? The money leaving the buyer’s pocket in order for him to have Detective Comics #27 in his hands is $1.075 million. Trip-EL and Colossus, I understand what you’re saying, but I’m not sure if you get what I’m saying. You’re right, the fair market value of a house would be the price before commission, but that doesn’t change what you paid for it. It would then make sense for you to think the comic would work the same way, but it doesn’t. Auction houses don’t work off fair market value, nor do they set a single price. They give a range and they base it off of previous selling prices (which includes the premium because it is inherent in the act of buying/selling at auction). We can’t actually know this, but I would assume if it were put in an auction tomorrow, the range would be 1,000,000 – 1,100,000 or thereabouts because that is what it sold for. On an auction website, the historical selling price will be 1.075 million because the premium is included with the historical selling price. I’m sorry, but Batman wins. The fact that Comics Connect doesn’t have a premium does not make the two incomparable. It is irrelevant.
February 26th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Ah the movie debate. You can NOT compare Dark Knight to superman returns in terms of box office returns. You CAN compare Superman returns to Batman begins. Superman returns took home more money in initial box office run. Sorry fanboys. Besides, had Heath Ledger lived, you could pretty much cut Dark Knight’s box office in half
February 26th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Brad: “Well, Batman still remains more popular than Superman — look at the box office revenue of “The Dark Knight” compared to “Superman Returns.” However, if this Nolan/Goyer/Nolan rumor about “The Man of Steel” is correct, then there may be a change…or not.”
This is the REAL comparison “Apples to Oranges”
Superman Returns was released around the same time as Batman Begins and outperformed it in the Box Office. You can’t compare Superman Returns to Dark Knight when you’re talking Box office returns.
As Far as Nolan/Goyer Superman re-boot. Don’t get your hopes too high, no one wants to admit it…but had Heath Ledger lived, you could pretty much cut Dark Knight’s box office returns in half.
February 27th, 2010 at 7:03 am
Truth be told. The Detective #27 was sold at a public auction hence can be legitimatized while the Action #1 was sold privately. Can anyone really say it was? Hands down -A Batman Fan!
Someone stepped on Supermans cape that day. It’s now history. Worlds most expensive comic! Today.
February 27th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Jon Browne for the win
February 27th, 2010 at 10:13 am
jlaking: “What were the condition of the books, we cannot compare them if we do not know the condition?”
Both were CGC rated at an 8.0 condition, according to the various reports.
February 27th, 2010 at 10:56 am
@Mike…
Where do you live you don’t pay tax on comics for being periodicals? Everything I buy on the magazine rack has tax… This sounds like it might be isolated to where you live. Lots of cities have different taxes on different things… but I have always paid sales tax on comics in every place I have lived.
February 27th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Action Comics #1 CGC 8.0 sold for $1 million
Detective Comics #27 CGC 8.0 sold for $1.075 million
The Detective sold for more, case closed.
February 27th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
DC won. Good publicity for their characters and their comics.
February 27th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
A recent Harvard grad’s thoughts on the cultural implications of the online sales of high-priced comic books — namely, Action Comics No. 1 and Detective Comics No. 27:
http://stevenduque.com/2010/02/zeitgeist-supermans-first-comic-sells-online-for-1m/
February 27th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
To Jason1040 :First I sincerely hope for you that you do not rhink that Wizard is the best guide to base your decision about what to pay for your comics because my poor friend you will probably end up paying too much for some books(Like flavor of the month books and Variants LOL)and probably sell way to low for some other ones (Principaly most of older books from 1980 and down).Everybody knows that the BEST guide is the Overstreet(But DO remember that it is a GUIDE and it is NOT called The BIBLE for very obvious reasons….just look at the two million dollard sales from this week!!!!)
As for the premium it is clearly stated when you go to Heritage if OR when they ask a premium and how much it is so there is no question that the guy/gall who bought it knew there was a premium to pay.So it did not sell for 900 000$ BUT 900 000$+premium=1.075 million! Or like Stan would say:Nuff Said!!!!
February 27th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Little Heart -
I have lived in Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Virginia I have never paid sales tax on Comics.
I have also toured the US (46 states) I believe I have paid tax on comics, but not often
February 28th, 2010 at 2:53 am
batman wins. the private sale of action comics #1 could have been just a PR attempt to drum up interest/awareness of the new auction house.
February 28th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
The real winners are the people who sold the 1st appearance of Batman issue. Second winner is the guy who paid less for Action Comics #1 than the Detective Comics #27.
Batman is more lucrative as a character, but in terms of investments if someone told me to pick between Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27 I’d have to go with Action Comics #1 for reasons already mentioned.
And the comics are only as valuable as someone will pay for them. How much money could the buyer expect to make on DC #27 when he sells it vs the person who bought AC#1?
February 28th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
It doesn’t matter which is better. I’d like to see the industry if anyone of the two wouldn’t have been published. They are both the grails of the industry. And they both are worth the seven figures. Thats all there is to it
March 1st, 2010 at 3:23 am
There’s a cool infographic comparing the two here:- http://www.bme.eu.com/news/superman-v-batman/
March 1st, 2010 at 4:34 am
I have always paid tax on comics living in Nevada, California, and Virginia.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:39 am
The buyer paid more for Detective Comics 27. Transaction costs always figure into the price of a transaction. It’s not like the guy who bought Detective Comics 27 could walk away with it without paying the auction house’s commission; the commission was part of the total cost of ownership.
It’s not even a debate. It’s a fact.
As Darren said:
“Action Comics #1 CGC 8.0 sold for $1 million
Detective Comics #27 CGC 8.0 sold for $1.075 million
The Detective sold for more, case closed.”
Indeed. I think those arguing in favor of Action Comics are letting their personal bias affect their better sense; this isn’t about which character is better.
Rather, it’s about how much a collector is willing to pay for a piece of contemporary art — and that price includes any commissions, finder’s fees, taxes or any other cash outlay on the part of the buyer that was necessary to complete the purchase.
March 1st, 2010 at 10:48 am
Did the person shop around? You can not use Sales Tax as an example. In California, if I buy my newspaper from a machine it is $1.00. If I buy it at a convenience store over the counter I must pay the sales tax so the paper costs me $1.08. What is the value here? If I am more prudent with my evaluations and shopping I can get the best deal.
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:20 am
Regardless for what was paid for each,both were good investments.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:40 pm
And they’re both sealed away in plastic forever, never to have the interior looked at again. They might as well be covers wrapped around last week’s Spidey. Not that you would want to read a comic you paid a million for but the whole concept of CGC remains alien to me. At least with a sealed trading card you can see both sides of what you have.
March 6th, 2010 at 12:30 am
I am ready to pay 2 million dollars for the original Superman Action comics if it makes this crazy debate settled. Where can we get the original Superman Action comics now?
March 30th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
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check it out!
April 6th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
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August 5th, 2010 at 8:40 am
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