The question that brings people to this page is usually some version of: I have an early Action Comics, but it is not number one, does that mean it is worthless?
No. In March 2025, a CGC 5.0 copy of Action Comics #7 sold at ComicConnect for $179,400. A 5.0 is a comic with real wear on it.
Superman appeared on the cover of Action Comics exactly twice during 1938. Everyone knows the first. The second cover is the one people forget exists, and it is not a cheap comic.
Why it is called the poor man’s Action #1
The nickname is affectionate and it tells you exactly how the hobby thinks about this book. It is the closest thing to owning Action Comics #1 that a person can realistically aspire to: same title, same year, same character on the front, in the same lifting pose the first cover made famous.
It is also genuinely scarce. The 1938 Action run had no collector market behind it and survived at the same dismal rate as everything else from that year. The reported floor sits around $15,000 for a copy in any condition, which is a floor most comics never approach.
So the framing is worth getting right. This is not a consolation prize. It is one of the small handful of 1938 Superman cover appearances in existence, and a mid-grade copy of this book is a six-figure comic, which is not something I get to say often.
Four documented sales, and a stale guide number
| Grade | Result | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 5.0 | $179,400 | ComicConnect, March 2025 |
| CGC 5.0 | $156,000 | Heritage Auctions, March 2023 |
| CGC 6.0 (Conserved) | $75,000 | Heritage Auctions, January 2025 |
| CGC 2.0 | $60,000 | Heritage Auctions, June 2021 |
Start with the two 5.0s. The same grade brought $156,000 in March 2023 and $179,400 in March 2025 — up about 15 percent in two years, at two different houses. Two sales do not make a trend line, but a same-grade pair is the closest thing to a controlled comparison an auction market offers, and this one points up.
The 6.0 line needs its label read out loud: that copy is graded Conserved, meaning it has had professional work done to stabilize it. It brought $75,000 in January 2025 — two months before a plain 5.0, a full grade lower, brought $179,400. The label cost that copy more than the extra grade earned it. If your copy has ever had repair work done, this is the comparison to keep in mind.
The 2.0 at $60,000 in June 2021 sets the bottom of the documented range: even a heavily worn copy was serious five-figure money years ago.
Against all that, you will still see a figure around $188,000 quoted as the record. It carries no date, no grade and no venue, and every dated sale above describes a copy well below the top of the scale. If a worn copy brought $179,400 in 2025, the ceiling sits a good deal higher than the guide implies, and anyone quoting you the guide figure as a maximum is quoting you badly.
The 1938 run, and why so little of it exists
Action Comics began in June 1938 and the first year of it is among the hardest material in the hobby to find in any state.
The reason is that nobody knew what they had. Superman was new, the notion that a comic book might be worth keeping did not exist, and the audience was children with no storage and no incentive. The books were read, traded, cut up for the pictures, and thrown out. Then the wartime paper salvage drives came through and consumed a great deal of what was left.
What survives from 1938 mostly survives by accident: a stack in an attic, a box behind a wall, a child who was unusually careful. That is why finding any 1938 Action issue is an event, and why even the issues without Superman on the cover are worth having looked at properly.
It also explains the grades. There is no meaningful high-grade population for this year. A 5.0 selling for $179,400 is not a bargain-basement result; on a 1938 Action, a 5.0 is a good copy.
If you have one
- Confirm the issue number against the publication details inside. Early Action covers get separated from their interiors, and at these prices that is worth checking properly.
- Leave it entirely alone. No cleaning, no pressing, no tape. 1938 paper shows everything.
- Do not accept a guide-based quote. Ask which dated sale the number comes from.
- Have it graded before selling. At this level buyers will not compete on an ungraded 1938 comic, and the slab is what lets them.
Send photographs and I will price it against the dated sales above. I would rather you heard the number from a dated sale than from a guide.
Have a copy?
Send three photos: front, back, and the small print. That is all I need to tell you where your copy really sits.
Related
- Action Comics #1, and how to tell an original from the many reprints.
- Action Comics #10, the third cover, which sold for $431,250 in March 2026.
- The 100 most valuable Golden Age comics, and what each one really sold for.
Cover images on this page are shown small, for identification, with the publisher credited in the caption. If you are a rights holder and want an image removed, contact me and it comes down.
