We hear rumors of individuals coming across comic books they didn’t know about or randomly found in a basement or attic, but here’s a case in which it actually happened.  An auction of comic books near St. Louis brought in over $1 million in sales in early November.  The top seller was a first issue of X-Men, which sold for $101,000.

The comics were found in the basement of a recently deceased elderly woman.  Her son had predeceased her, and instead of doing what so many parents before her have done (throw out the comics) she left the roughly 3,000 comics to sit in her basement.

The house (and it’s contents) was inherited by a cousin.  It seems the fact the comics were just sitting there, the elderly woman and her son didn’t know their value.  The heir had no clue of the value either until an appraisal revealed that some of the comics were extremely valued by collectors in the field.  Mound City Auctions, who specialize in local real estate, estate, and business sales, was called in to help sell the items.