One copy with an unusual history
The Associated Press traces this particular Action Comics No. 1 from Nicolas Cage’s 1996 purchase through its 2000 theft and 2011 recovery. It then sold at auction for about $2.16 million, a result tied to that copy’s grade, condition, and provenance rather than to every surviving copy of the issue.
A later private benchmark
The same copy was reported sold privately for $15 million in 2026. Because the later transaction was private and the evidence concerns one identifiable object, the comparison is a documented sequence of reported sales—not a liquid market price, a guaranteed return, or proof that the 2011 seller made an irrational decision.