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A copy of the first Superman issue, unearthed by three brothers cleaning out their late mother’s attic, netted $9.12 million this month at a Texas auction house which says it is the most expensive comic book ever sold.The brothers discovered the comic book in a cardboard box beneath layers of brittle newspapers, dust and cobwebs in their deceased mother’s San Francisco home last year, alongside a handful of other rare comics that she and her sibling had collected on the cusp of World War II.She had told her children she had a valuable comic book collection hidden away, but they had never seen it until they put her house up for sale and decided to comb through her belongings for heirlooms, said Lon Allen, vice president of comics at Heritage Auctions. The brothers uncovered the box of comics and sent a message to the auction company, leading Allen to fly out to San Francisco earlier this year to inspect their copy of “Superman No. 1” and show it to other experts for appraisal.“It was just in an attic, sitting in a box, could have easily been thrown away, could’ve easily been destroyed in a thousand different ways,” Allen said. “A lot of people got excited because it’s just every factor in collecting that you could possibly want all rolled into one.”The “Superman No. 1” comic, released in 1939 by Detective Comics Inc., is one of a small number of copies known to be in existence and is in excellent condition. The Man of Steel was the first superhero to enter pop culture, helping boost the copy’s value among collectors, alongside its improbable backstory, Allen said.The previous record for the world’s most expensive comic book had been set last year, when an “Action Comics No. 1” which first introduced Superman to the world as part of an anthology sold for $6 million. In 2022, another Superman No. 1 sold for $5.3 million.A small, in-house advertisement in the comic book helped experts identify it as originating from the first edition of 500,000 Superman No. 1 copies ever printed. Allen estimates there are fewer than 500 in existence today.The copy was not given any special protection, but the cool Northern California climate helped preserve it, leaving it with a firm spine, vibrant colors and crisp corners, according to a statement from Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. The copy was rated a 9.0 out of 10 by comics grading company CGC, meaning it had only the slightest signs of wear and aging.The three brothers, in their 50s and 60s, did not wish to be identified due to the windfall involved nor did the buyer of the comic book, according to the auction house.“This isn’t simply a story about old paper and ink,” one brother said in a statement released by the auction house. “This was never just about a collectible. This is a testament to memory, family and the unexpected ways the past finds its way back to us.” Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Jack Brook, Associated Press/Report for America
Category:
E-Commerce
Apple said on Monday it is cutting jobs across its sales teams to strengthen its customer engagement efforts, noting that only a small number of roles will be impacted by the layoffs. An Apple spokesperson told Reuters that the company is continuing to hire and the affected employees can apply for new roles. The impacted employees include account managers serving major businesses, schools and government agencies, according to Bloomberg News, which had reported the news earlier in the day. Staff who operate Apple’s briefing centers for institutional meetings and product demonstrations for prospective customers were also affected, Bloomberg said. One of the major targets of the layoffs was a government sales team working with agencies, including the U.S. Defense Department and Justice Department, per the report. The team had already been facing tough conditions after the 43-day government shutdown and cutbacks imposed by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Bloomberg added. In the past few weeks, companies including Verizon, Synopsys and IBM have announced job cuts. Juby Babu and Stephen Nellis, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Only a week after experiencing a dreaded death cross, and subsequently seeing its value fall to less than $81,000, Bitcoin is showing some signs of recovering. On Monday, BTC’s price topped $89,000, and as of early Tuesday, are hovering around $87,500. To be clear, the slump is far from overthe coin saw its price top $124,000 just last monthand no one can predict what will happen next, but it’s a clear upswing in momentum. All told, when Bitcoin bottomed out at $81,000, it had fallen around 35% off its high. There were several reasons for the selloff, including outflows from large institutional investors and broader economic uncertainty, among other things. It was a wipeout of around $1 trillion in market value. Sentiment may be on the upswing As for this week, its anyone’s guess how much momentum the cryptocurrency will have, but investors appear to be felling a little better. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index from CoinMarketCap, a sentiment indicator for the crypto market, was at 15 on Tuesday. Thats still in the extreme fear portion of the spectrum, but it’s up from low pint of 10, where the index was on November 21. For context, the index hit a high point for 2025 back in May, tallying a 76 and putting it in the greed spectrum. At the time, BTC was trading for around $111,000. So there has been a wild swing in both momentum and sentiment within the past six months. And though Bitcoin has regained its footing a bit over the past week, the question is whether that momentum can be sustained and if values can start pushing back toward all-time highs. What’s next for crypto? Perhaps the next catalyzing moment for the crypto market will come after the Federal Reserve’s December meeting next month. The Fed will meet on December 9 and decide whether to cut interest rates further or hold steadya decision that has been made more difficult by a lack of economic data (such as jobs reports) in recent months due to the government shutdown. The Fed and its chair, Jerome Powell, have been trying to balance concerns about persistent inflation and a weakening labor marketand doing so without data has it flying blind. Despite that, the odds of a rate cut appear to be the rise, and another cut could spur investors to put more money in stocks and the crypto markets. This story is developing…
Category:
E-Commerce
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