When Unfair Park across-the-street neighbor Heritage Auction Gallery guesstimated that a copy of Detective Comics No. 27 -- featuring the first-ever appearance of Batman -- would sell for upwards of $425,000, folks thought that was awful high. Because last time a copy of the comic in this near-near-mint condition sold at auction, best Heritage and I can tell, it went for $275,000. But Noah Fleisher, PR man for the Oak Lawn auction house, sends word that at 2:26 p.m. today Heritage offloaded its copy (from an anonymous seller) to a buyer who likewise wishes to remain anonymous for $1,075,000.
"It's a happy place right now," Fleisher tells Unfair Park. In the release he sent over, it notes that the seller originally picked up this copy of the comic for $100 about 40 years ago. Says Greg Rohan, president of Heritage, "This is a world's record price for any comic book. There was applause in the room when the gavel pounded for the final price of $1,075,500."
Heritage's Batman buy comes only three days after someone plunked down $1 mil for a copy of Action Comics No. 1, the first appearance of Superman. I always said Bruce Wayne could kick Clark Kent's ass.