Renovator finds Superman comic worth at least $100,000

David Gonzalez, 34, paid £6,677 for the dilapidated house with a torn-up roof in Minnesota with the aim of developing the house.

While he was gutting the house for renovation, he found a comic book amid old newspapers that had been used to insulate the walls. From June 1938, the comic’s cover features Superman lifting a car over his head.

“Action Comics” No.1, it contains Superman’s first comic book appearance from 75 years ago.

“I knew it was worth money,” the father of four told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “But I had no idea how much.”

Currently on auction, the latest bid for the comic is $137,000 (£90,500), on ComicConnect.com, a New York online auction house. The auction runs until 11 June.

‘Virgin comic’

“This is like a virgin comic in this instance,” Vincent Zurzolo, a co-owner of ComicConnect, told the Star Tribune.

“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. It’s pretty miraculous that it even survived and it’s only had one owner.”

Mr Gonzalez’s comic would have been worth more if it weren’t for a family tiff, he told the Star Tribune. Mr Gonzalez brought his in-laws to see the house, and his wife’s aunt excitedly grabbed the book. When he grabbed it back, the back cover tore.

“That was a $75,000 tear,” ComicConnect co-owner Stephen Fishler said. The comic book would have measured at 3.0 on the 10-point scale without the rip, Fishler said. With the rip, it is graded at 1.5.

By comparison, an Action Comics No. 1 that was graded a 9 recently fetched $2.16m (£1.4m).

But Mr Gonzalez said he is not angry about the tear. “I am a humble working guy – money won’t buy you happiness,” he said.

He will receive around half the money from the sale, which will help pay off his house, Mr Gonzalez told the New York Daily News, as well as his truck and his wife’s education.