This is kinda interesting. On January 3, an eBay seller called "xtci" posted a listing for 92 comics — most of them, #1 issues — with a minimum bid of eight million dollars. That's right. I said eight million dollars. Let me type that one more time, real slow, so we all understand what we're talking about: Eight. Million. Dollars.
Of the 92 comics, three are genuine treasures — Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27. Or, at least, they would be treasures if the issues being offered were genuine. The evidence suggests they are not. The listing includes photos of the Action #1 and Detective #27 — both in cheap plastic bags, both looking an awful lot like facsimile editions that have been issued in recent years. (There is no photo of the Detective Comics #1. There has also been no facsimile edition that, in a picture, would look even vaguely like the genuine article.) The other #1 issues being offered are all fairly recent and not at all of the same scarcity.
Over on www.comicon.com, the offering is the subject of much derisive chatter. A couple of the folks there have done some math. One figures that, if the three vintage issues were genuine and in excellent condition, the value of the whole magilla would be a little under $600,000. That's going by the Overstreet Price Guide. Take away the three classics and the rest of the stash is worth less than twelve grand by any measure, possibly a lot less.
So, you figure, this thing is never going to get any bids, right? Wrong. At the moment, as I write this, bidding is up to $8,000,300.. A couple of other bids have been made and retracted. Folks are bidding just to go along with the joke and perhaps to tweak the nose of "xtci" or something.
What I find intriguing about this is to wonder what was on the seller's mind. Obviously, he couldn't have thought there was a chance in hell that anyone would bid eight million bucks for this bundle — especially sight-unseen, buying from a person who has no history on eBay. So it's a joke, right? (It only cost him $3.30 to list it, plus the time and trouble.) But why eight million? How did he come up with that figure? Why not fifty million? The joke would have been greater and the chances of selling, the same. Or if he thought there was a zillion-in-one chance that some addled billionaire would bid, why eight? Why not seven? Or five? There'd be a helluva profit in one million, even if he had to go out and buy real copies of the three Golden Age issues to fill the order.
The auction is set to close January 13 if eBay allows it to go the distance, which they may not. If you want to check on its status — or maybe even put in a bid — the link is right here. Frankly, I might pay six million but eight is ridiculous.