Three brothers were several days into the difficult job of clearing their late mother’s San Francisco home when they reached a cardboard box in the attic. Inside were brittle newspapers, dust and a small collection of old comic books.

The box nearly looked disposable. Only after the brothers paused to examine the yellowed newspapers did one of them notice Superman’s familiar red-and-blue costume beneath the layers of paper.

Their mother had mentioned valuable comics when they were children, but none of the brothers had ever seen them. What had sounded like an old family story was suddenly sitting in front of them.

The hidden book was an unrestored, first-printing copy of Superman No. 1 from 1939. After authentication and professional grading, it sold through Heritage Auctions on November 20, 2025, for $9.12 million including the buyer’s premium, setting a new comic-book auction record at the time.

The Box Beneath the Newspapers

The discovery happened during the 2024 holiday season as the brothers prepared their mother’s house for sale. They had already spent two or three days sorting through decades of belongings when they found the attic box tucked beneath old newspapers.

They almost discarded it.

Instead, they began reading some of the newspaper headlines, hoping to understand why their mother had saved them. That was when part of a comic-book cover appeared underneath. Along with several early issues of Action Comics, the box contained a remarkably clean copy of Superman No. 1.

The brothers’ mother had told the two older sons about potentially valuable comics when they were young. By the time of the discovery, those sons were in their 60s. Their younger brother, eight and 11 years behind them, had only heard the story through his siblings and had never known whether the collection truly existed.

The comics had originally belonged to their mother and her brother. Growing up in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the years after the Great Depression, the young siblings pooled their limited spending money to buy comics featuring the newly created Superman. They read the books but somehow kept them in unusually strong condition.

As an adult, the mother eventually stored the collection in her attic. The box remained there for decades, protected by little more than layers of newspapers and Northern California’s relatively cool climate.

Why Superman No. 1 Was Already Important

Superman first appeared in Action Comics No. 1 in 1938. The character became so popular that publisher Detective Comics Inc., later known as DC Comics, gave him a separate title devoted entirely to his adventures.

Released in 1939, Superman No. 1 was the first comic series centered on a character who had previously debuted in another comic. The issue retold Superman’s origin, collected several early adventures and helped establish the model of giving a successful superhero a dedicated title.

Jerry Siegel wrote the stories, while Joe Shuster created the cover, interior artwork and a Superman pinup on the back cover.

The attic copy also came from the first printing. Experts identified that printing partly through an advertisement inside the book for Action Comics No. 14. In first-printing copies, the advertisement says the issue would be “On sale June 2nd.” Later printings changed the wording to “Now on sale.”

Heritage reported that the first printing consisted of approximately 500,000 copies. After those sold, additional printings of roughly 250,000 and 150,000 copies followed. Despite that large original production, surviving unrestored copies in excellent condition are extraordinarily scarce.

One reason may be the book’s back-cover Superman pinup. Young readers were encouraged to cut along a dotted line and remove it. Many surviving copies consequently have missing or damaged back covers, while others were worn out, discarded or lost over the following eight decades.

How Experts Verified the Attic Copy

The brothers initially had no professional experience with vintage comic grading. They placed the book in a protective Mylar sleeve and researched how valuable comics were evaluated.

Based on its appearance, they hoped it might receive a grade of 5.0 or possibly 6.0. Approximately three months after finding it, they contacted Heritage Auctions through the company’s website. Heritage Vice President Lon Allen traveled to San Francisco within days to inspect the collection.

The comics were then submitted to Certified Guaranty Company, commonly known as CGC. Professional grading involved examining the book’s completeness, printing characteristics, page quality, spine, corners, surface wear and any evidence of restoration.

The specialists confirmed that the copy was authentic, unrestored and from the first printing. Its pages were classified as off-white to white, an exceptional level of preservation for paper produced in 1939.

The final grade was CGC 9.0, Very Fine/Near Mint.

It was the highest grade CGC had ever assigned to a copy of Superman No. 1. Heritage’s October 2025 census information showed one copy at 9.0 and none higher. The auction house also reported that only seven known copies had received a CGC grade of 6.0 or above.

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Why the Condition Changed Everything

Age alone does not make a comic worth millions. Condition, authenticity, scarcity and cultural importance must work together.

The brothers’ copy had vibrant cover colors, sharp corners, a firm spine and pages with only limited aging. It had been read by their mother and uncle, yet it avoided the tears, folds, stains, missing pieces and amateur repairs commonly found in comics from the late 1930s.

Its lack of restoration was especially important. Collectors generally place greater value on a naturally preserved book than on one that has received color touch-ups, replaced pieces, reinforced paper or other restorative work.

The 9.0 grade also placed the attic copy above several famous examples with established collecting histories. Before this discovery, one of the best-known copies was the Mile High copy, graded 8.0 when it sold privately for $5.3 million in 2022. Heritage had also sold a 7.0 copy for $2.34 million in January 2024.

The attic book combined the highest recorded grade with a complete and memorable provenance. It had been purchased by children near the beginning of the superhero era, preserved within one family and rediscovered by the original owner’s sons more than 80 years later.

Those details did not replace the technical grading, but they made an already rare object more compelling to collectors.

The Auction That Reached $9.12 Million

Heritage offered the comic as the leading lot in its November 20–22, 2025, Comic Books Signature Auction. The book was listed as part of the Lee Family Collection and attracted 131 registered bidders and phone bidders.

On November 20, a telephone bidder won the comic. Heritage recorded the final price as $9,120,000, including its 20 percent buyer’s premium. The buyer remained anonymous, as did the three brothers, who chose not to release their identities because of the size of the financial result.

The sale surpassed the previous public comic-book auction record of $6 million, established in 2024 by an 8.5-graded copy of Action Comics No. 1. It also exceeded the $5.3 million private-sale price previously achieved by another copy of Superman No. 1.

At the time of the November 2025 auction, the attic copy became the most expensive comic book publicly sold. That overall record was later surpassed in January 2026, when a copy of Action Comics No. 1 changed hands for $15 million in a private transaction rather than at auction.

The update does not diminish what the brothers discovered. Their mother’s comic remains the highest-graded known Superman No. 1 cited in the auction record and produced one of the most important public sales in collecting history.

For decades, it had rested beneath newspapers in a box that could easily have been discarded. Its value was not visible until the brothers stopped, looked beneath the aging paper and allowed specialists to examine what their family had preserved.

The comic that originally cost only a few cents ultimately sold for $9.12 million—all because three brothers decided to take one more careful look inside their mother’s attic.