The Gulf News report of the transaction is specific about the parties involved: Metropolis Collectibles and ComicConnect arranged the sale; both buyer and seller requested anonymity. Vincent Zurzolo, the co-founder of Metropolis Collectibles, was quoted on the significance of the transaction: “As the custodians of Superman’s very first appearance, we’re proud to have orchestrated not just one but two record-breaking sales this week.” The “two record-breaking sales” reference is to the $15 million Action Comics No. 1 transaction and what appears to be a separate simultaneous record-setting transaction in a different category.
Fishler’s statement—”It really is among the Holy Grail of comic books”—is a superlative that is well-earned by the available market evidence and widely agreed upon among collectors and dealers. Action Comics No. 1 in high grade is consistently identified as the most valuable comic in the existing market.
The Gulf News report characterizes the sold copy as “in the best condition of the roughly 100 surviving copies.” If accurate as a description of the specific copy sold, this would identify it as the highest-graded known surviving example—which is the CGC 9.0 description that matches the Cage copy and (potentially) the other known 9.0 copy. The characterization “best condition” is consistent with the CGC 9.0 grade being the highest known grade for any surviving copy of the issue.
The $15 million figure, as a record for any comic, represents an extraordinary concentration of value in a single printed document. For comparative context: the record price for a work by Rembrandt at public auction has exceeded $30 million; the record for a Leonardo da Vinci exceeded $450 million (for the Salvator Mundi in 2017, a result that was itself contested). In the broader market for rare manuscripts and documents, the Magna Carta sold in 2007 for $21.3 million. A first edition of Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623) sold in 2020 for approximately $10 million. The $15 million for Action Comics No. 1 places it in a market range that includes documents of recognized historical and cultural significance from multiple centuries.