A private seller acquired a high-grade copy of Action Comics #1 for $3.25 million, beating the previous record of $3.2 million.

Collectibles auction firm ComicConnect.com handled the transaction, reported USA Today. The rare copy sold for about $1 million above the seller's purchase price.

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Vincent Zurzolo, co-founder and chief operating officer of ComicConnect.com, said Action Comics #1 "really is the beginning of the superhero genre." There aren't more than 100 copies remaining from the original print run, and few are in good condition. This particular copy was well-preserved, Zurzolo said, noting, "There's no comic book that you could value higher in terms of a comic book than Action Comics #1."

Action Comics #1, cover dated June 1938, featured the debut story of Superman. The new superhero, created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, soon became the lead feature in the anthology title, although he wasn't consistently on the cover save for a blurb until Issue #19. Superman went on to inspire the creation of a new genre of comics and appear in multiple comics titles, film serials, animated shorts, TV shows and big-budget movies over the next 80-plus years.

A pristine copy of Action Comics #1 sold in 2014 on eBay in a private sale, and the seller donated part of the proceeds to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which researches cures and treatments for spinal cord injuries. A copy of the book once owned by actor Nicolas Cage sold for $2.16 million in 2011.

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Source: USA Today