Rant #628: And It Cost Just 10 Cents ...

Just as an afterthought to yesterday's Rant about my father, another thing he passed on to me was the love of comic books.

He collected them as a kid during the 1930s and 1940s, read them, and put them away. In the mid 1960s, my grandmother got rid of them in the trash--on the very day my father and I came to her house to pick them up for me.

God, I wonder what issues were in that collection, and what they would be worth today?

As a kid, this was my hobby. I collected comic books like mad, read them all, and put them away in my closet, where they sit, virtually undisturbed, to this day.

Unfortunately, most of my comics are from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and evidently, they aren't worth too much, especially compared to the first issue of Action Comics, which featured the first appearance of Superman.

A pristine mint copy of this issue set a record Wednesday for the most money paid for a single comic book: $2.16 million.

It's the first time a comic book has broken the $2 million barrier, and no, the 2,000 or some comic books that I have sitting in my closet don't total anything near that amount that was paid for one, single comic book.

The most amazing thing about it is that the issue was published in 1938 and cost just 10 cents when it first came out.

I am sure thousands of kids bought this comic, but because of its age, not too many in any condition still exist. On top of that fact is that many kids' comics were trashed when the kids became older. People just didn't understand the value of these things way back when. I'm sure many others were scuttled during the paper drives of the 1940s revolving around World War II.

About 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are believed to be in existence, and only a handful of those in good condition.

But no, I don't have the issue in my collection, but I do have a reprint from I think the early 1970s. I wonder what that would go for on the open market today?

Heck, at this point, forget about the $2 million, I would take $20 for it--and maybe a couple of thousand dollars for the entire collection.

Anybody want to make me an offer?

Anybody?