See through walls, bounce bullets off his chest, save homes from foreclosure, is there anything the man of steel can’t do?
A family was packing their house, getting ready to move out because of an impending foreclosure on the house their family had owned since the 50′s, I’m guessing they took out a HELOC or a second mortgage, when they made a startling discovery in the basement. It was a rare copy of Action Comics #1. The 1938 comic marked the first appearance of Superman and is highly prized by collectors.
WBAL:
The company’s owner got on the phone with the bank and persuaded managers to hold off on the foreclosure.“My partner basically had to explain to the bank, ‘You’ll have your money soon. We sent them information about our previous sales and what this could realize,” said Vincent Zurzolo, co-owner of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Comics and Collectibles.
“You couldn’t have asked for a happier ending,” he added. “Superman saved the day.”
The comic will be auctioned soon and could potentially fetch over $250,000, enough to save the family’s home and then some.
Superman Saves Home From Foreclosure [WBAL] (Thanks to Wayne!)
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WOW! How cool is that!?
“on the house their family had owned since the 50′s,”
How? 60 years mortgage?
it’s called an equity loan or “second mortgage”.
Might have taken out a second mortgage on the property after the first was paid off.
excellent point. If the house was in the family for 60 years, why was there a bank lien on it? Perhaps a HELOC gone wayyyy south?
Probably a refi or HOLC like so many people did over the past 10 years.
Maybe their parents owned it originally and then sold it to them?
Saved by the original Superman, how awesome.
This makes no sense to me, if they had owned the house for 50 years why do they have a mortgage on it?
Because they don’t handle money too well… watch how fast that 250k goes.
There are many reasons for taking out a 2nd mortgage, and plenty of them have nothing to do with poor money management. The roof needed replacing, they found black mold in the walls, adding access for someone disabled…plenty of times, homeowners need to make changes in the home and have no other source of money than a mortgage. If they already owned the home, why not?
Or just remodeling. A house built in the ’50s I’m sure had plenty of room for upgrades and modernization that would have cost a pretty penny.
I bet the original owners sold it to their children so they could use the proceeds from the sale to fund nursing home care. I’ve seen it happen before. Then one person loses their job or get’s sick and the next thing you know they’ve lost the home.
A family member could have bought the house and taken a mortgage to do so.
My grandpa took out a reverse mortgage to have some extra money. When he died, the loan needed to be repaid. One of my relatives wanted to keep the home so bought it and took out a loan, used it to pay back the reverse mortgage, and is now making mortgage payments on the home.
Oops, that was in reply to georgi55
I had no idea comics were worth that kind of cabbage. Will have to start foraging in thrift shop comic collections pronto…
It’d be REALLY rare to find a comic worth that much, and you pretty much wouldn’t find one that old/worth that much in decent condition in a thrift store bin. :/ It’s awesome to think about though.
Indeed. The only reason it’s worth that kind of money is because A) It’s the first appearance of Superman, and B) when it was printed decades ago, nobody thought it would be worth that kind of money.
You’d be insanely lucky if anything you find in a thrift shop bin is even considered “Legal Tender, Recognized by the Government of Liberia.”
Yeah good luck. I’ve been collecting old comics sine I was a kid and you almost never slip anything truly valuable past the shop owner’s nose. They either know exactly what they’ve got or they’ve got junk that’s way overpriced.
They aren’t worth anything unless they’re very, very old, same with baseball cards. Once they became collectible, the value plummeted because everyone became a “collector”.
It would have to be a really old comic of a popular character to fetch that kind of cash. We’re talking “first appearance of Spider-Man” or something
I believe there was a story about a kid who found a superman #1 still in the package underneath a dumpster about 10 years ago… Believe it was a true story… anyone wanna snope around for some info?
Finally, a foreclosure story that has a happy ending!!
The did this in Funky Winkerbean a couple months ago.
And then they burned their car for the internet.
There are many reasons for taking out a 2nd mortgage, and plenty of them have nothing to do with poor money management. The roof needed replacing, they found black mold in the walls, adding access for someone disabled…plenty of times, homeowners need to make changes in the home and have no other source of money than a mortgage. If they already owned the home, why not?
Great post to end the week on a high note. Such a cool story.
great they can sell it to save the house…
but damn. they have to sell it? (I know they have to but… it’s action comics 1….)
Well, they never knew they had it, so they’ll never miss it.
Seriously, this story made my day. I’ll echo what Genesee said above: there are lots of reasons someone might take out a second mortgage, and not all instantly make them deadbeats. There could have been a catastrophic illness in the family, major home repairs needed. Maybe they were in a fine position to pay when they took it out and someone has since lost a job in an unexpectedly bad job market era.
I just think this is too cool for words.
“You couldn’t have asked for a happier ending,”
How about finally hitting the right notes on the giant organ made out of human bones and discovering one eyed willie’s treasure in order to save the house?
Trading an appreciating asset for a depreciating one that has accrued interest is a bad idea.
Yes, and they can go live in that comic. Or they can live off the interest from that comic.
superman sure does have superpowers… hooray for them.
So as consumers we have to look for comics in our basement, great tip!!!
Nope, get a metal detector and start looking for buried coins. Much better return on investment.
I hope they save some money for the TAXES owe on the sale of that comic book. With no basis, the tax bite could approach $100,000. (They don’t mention what state they live in)