Super find! A Minnesota man has discovered, insulated in the walls of a property, hidden treasure - a 1938 Action Comics book in which Superman debuted - worth over USD 100,000.
David Gonzalez, 34, made the startling find amid old newspapers used to insulate a wall of a residence he was renovating in Elbow Lake, Minnesota.
The Action Comics No. 1 issue, which features a new character named Superman hoisting a car above his head on its cover has already attracted 31 bids, including one for USD 107,333, in the first two days of the auction.
The comic could have been worth more had it not been for a heated argument with one of his in-laws.
When Gonzalez wife's aunt grabbed the comic book amid all the excitement of the discovery, he grabbed it back and tore the back cover, Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
Experts downgraded the comic book's condition to a 1.5 on a 10-point scale. To put that in comic-book context, a 9.0-grade Action 1 fetched more than USD 2 million recently.
"That was a USD 75,000 tear," said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of ComicConnect, a New York City online auction house that is selling Gonzalez's treasure. He says the comic book would have graded out at 3.0 without the rip.
Even so, comic book collectors are amazed by Gonzalez's find. Most of the Action 1 comic books out there have been traded and resold many times.
"This is like a virgin comic in this instance," said Vincent Zurzolo, a co-owner of ComicConnect.
"It's so hard for anyone to fathom that, in this day and age, you could still discover a comic book that nobody has known about because this book was in a wall of a house for more than 70 years," he said. "It's pretty miraculous that it even survived and it's only had one owner.
