COMICS: Lucky Man Inherits Comic Book Collection Worth $2 Million Dollars

A great-aunt has left her husband's comic book collection to her nephews, which just so happens to contain a copy of Action Comics #1. Talk about your lucky breaks!

By MarkJulian - Feb 22, 2012 07:02 AM EST

Filed Under: Comics

Source: The AP

Michael Rorrer apparently knew his aunt planned to leave her husband's massive comic book collection to him when she passed but he had no clue they'd be worth such a staggering amount of money. The collection totals 345 comics and contains 44 of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's list of top 100 issues from comics' Golden Age.

Rorrer actually had the comics for two months after his aunts death before a co-worker clued him in to just how much the comics could be worth. Apparently Rorrer was telling a co-worker about reading Captain America #2 (1941) and his co-worker jokingly told him to see if he had Action Comics #1 in his collection and sure enough, Rorrer did.

Rorrer said his great uncle, who died in 1994 at age 66, oddly enough, never mentioned his collection.

The 345 comics were slated to sell at auction in New York on Wednesday, and were expected to fetch more than $2 million. Some of the more notable comics include the previously mentioned Action Comics No. 1 which is expected to sell for $325,000. Also, Detective Comics No. 27, the 1939 issue that features the first appearance of Batman, is expected to get about $475,000. While Captain America No. 2, with features Hitler on the cover, is expected to bring in about $100,000.

Comic book collecting is done for several possible reasons, including appreciation, nostalgia, financial profit, and completion of the collection. The comic book came to light in the pop culture arena in the 1930s due to the popularity of superhero characters Superman, Batman, and Captain Marvel. Since the 1960s, two publishers have dominated the American comic book industry: Marvel Comics, publisher of such comics as Spider-Man, X-Men, and Fantastic Four, and DC Comics, which publishes titles such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Other large non-manga publishers include Image Comics, IDW, and Dark Horse Comics.

From roughly 1985 through 1993, comic book speculation reached its highest peaks. This boom period began with the publication of titles like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen and "summer crossover epics" like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars. After Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns made their mark, mainstream attention returned to the comic book industry in 1989 with the success of the movie Batman and again in 1992 with "The Death of Superman" storyline.
Once aware of this niche market, the mainstream press focused on its potential for making money. Features appeared in newspapers, magazines and television shows detailing how rare, high-demand comics such as Action Comics #1 and Incredible Hulk #181 (the first appearances of Superman and Wolverine, respectively) had sold for thousands of dollars, with Action # 1 breaking the $1 million mark.

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24 Comments

DarkWebs - 2/22/2012, 7:05 AM

Some bastards are so lucky! No one ever left me a comic collection! lol

MarkJulian - 2/22/2012, 7:35 AM

Didn't say but I'd assume the DC is in better condition. Action Comics #1 holds the record for the highest auction price tag at $1 Million Dollars.

Fastestmanalive - 2/22/2012, 7:40 AM

Damn!! Im not a jealous guy but I feel like Larfleeze now, MINE!!!!!
I am soooooo jealous now. Lucky sob.

Wolverine19742 - 2/22/2012, 7:41 AM

And the funny part to the story is this... Comics are not what they were worth today as they were all those years ago.

Mikfly - 2/22/2012, 7:47 AM

Wow, thats one lucky man. I wonder how he'll spend that money...

SuperSomething616 - 2/22/2012, 7:59 AM

What a son of a beech!!!

HavocPrime - 2/22/2012, 8:07 AM

blueorangeny - 2/22/2012, 8:41 AM

mother[frick]er! lol

CrowPirate1 - 2/22/2012, 8:55 AM

I got an knee in the groin from my uncle.

Only thing that was EVER left me kind of cool was a Spitting Image puppet from England (Ronald Reagan) from the 1980's TV show... will keep that for awhile. And that was my dad.

tracydavis001 - 2/22/2012, 9:05 AM

Wow! Lucky , lucky!!!!!

DarthDan - 2/22/2012, 10:04 AM

*picks up jaw from the floor

Unreal...

thetrojan - 2/22/2012, 10:14 AM

i have a couple of comics that are worth a couple of quid
I sold any valuable comics a long time ago.

Heres a weird thing though,my son brought in the havok/wolverine meltdown book from the library,and i mentioned I already had it in a hardback version I bought when the single issues were compiled.....
So I checked the date of issue and it was 1989 about twenty three years ago!!!!!!!!!!!
That is crazy........worth nothing of course.

sbdc1939 - 2/22/2012, 10:29 AM

what kind of crap is this, he just inherits 2 million in comicbooks that is freaking crazy. dude im totally jealous

sbdc1939 - 2/22/2012, 10:32 AM

i bet there are alot of grandmas that kicking themselve right now throwing those books away 60 years ago.

Bark4Soul - 2/22/2012, 10:53 AM

To state that I am jealous is an under statement...

But, I think my story is also pretty dumb too, a couple weeks ago I had on my collectors collection, the last few photos showcased my run of X-Men 1-54 (1963)

I came upon them in HS, my gf's best friend's Dad had a small collection of comics from the 50's and 60's and his X-Men books were in there, he didn't know there worth and I paid him for them and obtained them that way.

A ripped up X-Men 1 and at best a couple 3.5-4.5 2-50 issues aren't as valuable as what this guy stumbled upon but I had to sell them here within the last year to pay some school stuff, makes me sad selling stuff that u come upon once a year. At least this guy is about to cash in.

soaponapope - 2/22/2012, 11:07 AM

remember when we all bought like 5 copies of X-23 #1 cause we thought it might be worth something some day

and as the series went on it was pretty good and things looked hopeful

and now its being cancelled

Wildaniel - 2/22/2012, 2:20 PM

64 pages and only 10 cents, LOL your average 41 page comic cause $3.99 now.

schneider625 - 2/22/2012, 5:21 PM

It sucks that some d-bag who had no idea what he had inherited these. A co-worker had to prompt him to check the rest???

PeterDarker121 - 2/22/2012, 6:17 PM

I hope this dude breaks his co-worker off a piece of this score.

PeterDarker121 - 2/22/2012, 6:23 PM

QUESTION: If you KNEW you wouldn't die and could be COMPLETELY 'repaired' medically, would you cut off your arm '27 Hours' style for this collection?

niknik - 2/23/2012, 7:01 AM

Too bad that Action Comics #1 is in such crappy condition. If that is in the same shape as even the lousy 4.0 Detective Comics book it fetches a LOT more coin.

The funniest part is that this knucklehead was actually READING Captain America Comics #2. What a maroon!

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