All language subtitles for Selling.Superman.E01.The.Unseen.Price.of.a.Holy.Grail.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-Mj_track3_[eng]

[intriguing music]

[female newscaster]
Still ahead
on theCBS Weekend News.

[male reporter 1]
Over a million items in total.

[male reporter 2]
What he thought justified
his reason for hoarding.

[male reporter 1]
Locked and hidden
in rooms for years

-around the family home.
-[male reporter 3] The fact that

-they thought it was a problem.
-[male reporter 1]
His secret obsession?

[male reporter 4] They still
don't even know what they have.
They're still finding stuff.

[female reporter] It took,
you know, until after his death,
unfortunately, the father.

But they finally get
what it was all about.

[text alert chiming]

[typing]

[text alert chiming]

775. How about $800,000?

I'm at 775,000.
I need $800,000.
Let's go to 800.

-I'm at 775,000.
-[woman] 800.

-[auctioneer] 800,000.
-[woman] 825.

[auctioneer]
825. Let's go $850,000.

-[woman] 850.
-850.

-[woman] 875.
-Now I need 875. I have that.

How about $900,000?

-[text alert chiming]
-[auctioneer] I have 875,000.

Do I hear $900,000?
Let's go to 900...

[Darren]
I, I, I just-- I see myself as,

you know, massively declining
through this process

and, uh, um, you know,
pretty sickening.

I just, I just,
I keep going in this spiral

of, uh, beating
myself up about it.

-Just so upset.
-[Adam] Yeah.

[Darren]
I've had zero ability
to process my dad's death,

zero ability
to put it behind me.

[breathes deeply]

It just gets so--
It gets, you know,

everything triggers me now,
you know,

whether somebody's like,
"Oh, wow, your dad did
a great thing."

I just want to just explode.

So not the case.

I just-- Why am I showing
the world how messed up I am?

I mean, I have
a choice to do that.

That's just so stupid.
I mean, it, it just--

I cannot say it enough.

[Adam]
I do understand
what you're talking about.

That all your feeling,
on some level, is normal.

[text alert chimes]

[whooshes]

["The Devil Came Up
To Michigan" by K.M.C. Kru]

♪ The devil came up to Michigan
He was looking
for a soul to steal ♪

♪ He had trouble in mind
as he drove on the line
He was looking to make a deal ♪

♪ He had a brand new
Nissan truck convertible ♪
with a portable phone ♪

♪ He had a Kenwood deck
that was bumpin' loud ♪

♪ As he stopped
in a no-parking zone ♪

How do you beat Superman II
with, uh, I think,

the White House scene
with young Luthor?

Lex Luthor.

Possibly you've heard the name.
The greatest, uh,
criminal mind on Earth.

"Greatest criminal mind
of our time." Come on.

♪ Devil's in the house ♪

You cannot bargain
with what you don't have.

What I am bargaining with
is what you do not have.

-The son of Jor-El.
-Gene Hackman is just,

I mean, top, top of actors.

And for him to be able
to play that role...

-I'm about the best there is.
-He's sitting in the White House

telling these guys what's what.

My needs are small.

As it turns out,
I have this affinity

for, uh... beachfront property.

All he wants is Australia
out of the deal.

[both laughing]

"Fortunately,
my needs are small."

Australia.

♪ Devil's in the house ♪

[Adam speaking]

Yes. [stutters]

Hey, you know what?

-So, who do you blame?
-[Adam] What's--

[gentle music]

[Adam]
Who do you blame?

The father,

or the rippling effects
of that father?

This isn't something
we were really contemplating

when Darren and I met
back in high school.

I was a couple years older,
but we played soccer together.

Then, of course, people
go off, have lives.

Then 25 years later,

we were in touch about
some tech-related business,

and then he drops a bomb on me.

His family had a hidden secret
for over 40 years.

His father had obsessively
been collecting comic books.

We're talking
over 300,000 comics

and his father's
prized possession.

[Darren]
My father got the first solo
issue of Superman from 1939.

It was locked away for decades.

Found out that was
the second nicest copy

of that book on the planet.

That book could easily go
for three to $4 million.

♪ Ding, ding, ding, ding ♪

[Adam]
There was only a handful
of people that knew about this.

I went over to their house
and it was very top secret.

[Adam speaking]

I knew that it wasn't
happening in high school

because every time I saw him--
it didn't exist.

I did not see what I saw.

You'd see an upstairs bedroom,
and you could peek

and you'd see, like,
30 boxes covered with a sheet.

Like, "What's that?"
He's like, "It's nothing."
That was it for 40 years.

Pretty soon you
look around and there just
wasn't any space anywhere.

They just filled up
more and more.

[Linda]
You know, Dale was getting
more and more obsessed.

You know,
"I can't leave the house.

We have to have security.
Don't tell your friends."

The boys couldn't even
go to school and say,

"Oh, I got this comic."

I mean, it was a secret,
dead secret.

[tense tone]

[busy chatter]

[Adam]
Now, admittedly,
I'm not a huge comic book fan.

But I do really wonder:

why we've come to value
superheroes so much?

How could a comic book
be worth millions of dollars?

[Stephen]
The art is amazing.
The stories behind

how the books
were made were amazing.

There's so much history
in comic books

that just buying
the physical copy,

that's just the end of the road.

I do feel a responsibility,

you know, this stuff survived
multiple world wars.

This stuff survived,
you know, depressions,

this stuff survived
racial realizations.

This is a significant
piece of history.

[Tony]
This is his dad's life work.

Like he literally
amassed this collection

over the entirety of his life.

What do you do?
Would you sell it?

-I would probably sell it.
-You just can't.

[Kelly]
You have one of the best
Superman comics in the world.

-Shit. What do you do with that?
-I'd sit on it until I was old,
see how I felt.

If I was to sell it,
it'd have to be the right price.

[man] Money doesn't really
buy you that much happiness.
I think I'd have to keep it.

I have no idea
what his intentions were.

Meaning what did he
really want this to do?

-What was his legacy?
-[Jeremy] If Dale was my father

and Supermanwas the most
important piece that he owned,

I would definitely not sell it.

I'd sell it. Like, I'm sorry.

"Do you want to give me three--
$3.5 million for that comic?
Bye-bye."

-I would not sell it.
-100% he'll sell it.

'Cause it's meant to be.

[gentle music]

[soft clanking]

[grunts] Here it is.

32420 Ramsey Road
in Franklin, Michigan.

We're greeted by a nice
little stained glass there
my mother made.

-[Adam] All right.
-Something she did
in her spare time just for fun.

'Cause she's that talented.
Who does that? But, uh...

All right, well,
let's go see some memories.

[whimsical music]

[Adam]
Soon after
reconnecting with Darren,

I heard his old childhood home
was about to sell,

so I quickly flew out
to Michigan, my old hometown,

to see where
this collection began

and to unravel
this much-deeper family secret.

This is what I really love.

Discovering the meaning
we give to life's events.

-[Darren] Hey!
-Hello!

[Adam]
Including the stories
we hold on to from our past.

And specifically
the lens with which

we continue to see life through.

You want to see the, uh,
the rooms, how they are? Yeah?

[Adam speaking]

So, this whole room

was floor to ceiling with boxes.

-[Celeste] You could see the--
-[Darren] The outline.

I mean, when I say
floor to ceiling,

I mean, you know, this high,

-everywhere you see.
-[Adam] It wasn't--

-On the table, under the table.
-Yes, it was.

And so close together,
you couldn't walk between.

-[Darren] Yeah. You couldn't--
-I mean, you just--

[Darren]
Yeah. You maybe walk like that.

So you can imagine
how many boxes that is.

[Celeste]
Of course, he had
all the windows covered.

He didn't care
about anything like that.

-Just-- Everything was...
-[Adam] All his stuff.

-You know.
-[Darren] He even covered up
your nice stained glass

-that you made there, Mom,
you know. Could we see it?
-Yeah. He did.

He just didn't want
anybody seeing in.

Yeah, it was, it was--
it was tarps.

-Plastic-- big plastic tarps.
-[Darren] Secret and dark.

Every-- Dark. Everything dark.

He just--
He didn't want any light in.

Light was, light was the villain

because it would damage
any of his stuff.

-Yeah.
-Okay. So...

Whereas I wanted to be outside,

he wanted to be
cloistered inside.

He just liked the darkness.

-[Darren] Yeah.
-[Adam speaking]

-Yeah. In contrast, um...
-Uh... Right.

The, the irony is, though,
or what I should say,
the sad truth is

the fact that
he did act that way,

it maintained the value,
so there was a positive to it.

Uh, if he would have
not taken that kind of care,

then the stuff may not
have been in the kind
of condition it was.

-Was it worth it?
-I'd always said,
because of all this stuff...

Being a lawyer,
he made life livable,

but not worth living
around all this stuff.

[Adam speaking]

I lived comfortably,
I never had
to worry about money.

-We lived in a nice area.
-That way, yeah, it's good.

-Yes. I can say-- But...
-Right. right.

We lived in a, a wonderful area.

The kids had good schooling.

Um, and I never had to worry
for money or anything, but...

Day-to-day life was...

Hmm.

[whimsical music]

[Darren]
He kept collecting
and needed more space

and more space and more space.

It just kind of oozed.
It was very insidious.

I was too busy raising my kids
and enjoying my sons

to realize what was happening.

You know, you turn around,
and all of a sudden,

a niche would be filled
and another niche
would be filled.

I divorced and left.

So part of the settlement,

I didn't want anything to do
with the comics.

And of course, my, my attorney,

she was kind of livid with me

because she knew
the value of them,

but I just-- it just, like--

that was none--
I didn't want to touch them.

-We started up in his--
-[Adam] Office upstairs,

-in his office.
-[Celeste] In his office.

This was the original place
where the "off-limits" area was.

And I-- when I was young,
I always thought it was,
"Oh, it's my dad's office.

He just doesn't
want us fooling around."

But then, of course,
later realized...

[sighs] that it was, uh,
because of the collectibles.

These entire bookshelves
were completely loaded.

-Two layers thick.
-Two layers thick.

And there was just a desk here,
but you couldn't even sit at it.

-You couldn't get to it.
-[Darren] This closet was one,
actually the best finds,

because this was some
of his very early collection.

And this closet
was something that, like,
no one had ever seen.

And when I finally
broke into it,

when we were
cleaning things out,

it was, uh, pretty surprising
what was in there.

[Brian]
It was a closet. It had dust,

and it was literally
untouched for 40 years.

And that's where
we found, I believe,

the majority of
the very-expensive key issues.

Like, he would have $1000-books

just stacked
like it was nothing.

[dramatic music]

This closet alone
contained a collection

on a worldwide scale
just by itself.

[Celeste]
And they were put in there
before Darren was born,

because I built that
when we first moved
into the house in '74.

Those were way before
Darren was born.

[Ed]
You know, and the guys
who have the best collections,

that's really the story.

They bought it back in the '70s,
the '80s, the '90s,

and they weren't
particularly wealthy people.

As a matter of fact,
they were very modest.

They put their financial health
at complete risk,

and today, their returns

on their investment
are incalculable.

I don't know, 15,000%.

It's mind-boggling.
It's astounding.

It's kind of like
walking on the beach

and finding a gold nugget
the size of your fist.

You know, it's just... [sighs]

How lucky can you be? You know.

[gentle piano music]

[Adam]
The secret of this collection
came with another secret.

A dark side.

That of his father's Asperger's,

going largely undiagnosed
throughout life.

Yeah. You have no idea
how oppressive he can be.

He was never wrong.

So there was
no arguing with him.

Not knowing it
caused a lot of friction

because it seemed
like a stubbornness.

It seemed like, uh,
ultimate fixation and hoarding,

and, and, and, and not
fully understanding
what the condition was about.

What Asperger's was,
was this high-intelligence,

lack of empathy, kind of more
analytical type, right?

That's what that diagnosis was,
that, that could
function and "mask,"

as we say, in public,
most of the time.

If the parent is unaware
that they have Asperger's,

which is now
not called that anymore,

but this autism
spectrum disorder,

then they may show
emotional neglect,

not connect with the child.

[Kelly]
Nothing Darren did
was ever good enough.

I mean, I'm sure
his father loved him,
but I don't know if Darren...

...truly felt it.

[Celeste]
He stopped taking vacations

'cause he was worried
about the comics in the house,

that somebody might come.

[Adam speaking]

No. No. And that was the thing.

-We don't tell anybody.
-[Adam] Yeah.

We don't tell
anybody about this.

And I remember... [inhales]

...you know,
being very depressed

and seeing a therapist once.

And I remember one time
when I finally let it out,

"My husband has comics."

I remember that day.

You know, and it was just
kind of the source of--

It was just all part
of the picture, you know?

It was just part of it, so...

[Adam speaking]

I didn't tell him.
Are you kidding?

I would've-- I would've
never let him know that.

Are you kidding?

Hmm. So...

Anyway.

[dramatic music]

[Dale]
I didn't want him
to call the police.

I, I wanted him
to go through and give
those people a chance

to show what they're doing,
and so on.

[Darren]
My father started
hallucinating at the end

and, and seeing, um, people
and things that weren't here.

[Dale] Uh, they, they,
they, they, they, no--
They look like people.

-[Darren] They look like people?
-[Dale] And then they,

and they disintegrate
in front of you.

In other words,
for example, uh, the lace,

uh, they'll-- if they're close,
all of a sudden,

it's like a, a, a liquid thing

and they just disappear.

[Darren]
Yeah, he'd get mad at Adam
because he didn't see them.

So therefore,
he started telling me

in the most sane way he could,

that Adam was in cahoots
with these people.

[Darren]
Dad, I thought you told me
Adam can't see the people.

That only you
can see the people.

[Dale]
Well, he can see them when they,

they, they, uh, hypnotize him.
Then he's on their side

and then, and then, and then,
then he works for 'em.

He called me, you know,
frantic and said,

"You have to come over
here right now." I said, "Why?"

He goes, "Because Adam
showed these people
where the comics are,

and you have to get
these 11 boxes out
of here tonight, right now."

[Darren] Well, okay,
I'll tell you what. I'm gonna,
I'm gonna come over right now.

I'm gonna grab these items
'cause you're right.
I mean, who knows?

It's very smart of you
to get this stuff out of there.

-[Dale] We got it--
we got to get the tent.
-Okay. I'm out.

-I'm on my way right now.
-[Dale] Yeah. Good.

You know, he's afraid.
He's delusional.

He's seeing things,
and he knows he's seeing things.

Yet his...

...focus...

...was so high on the comics.

[melancholic music]

[Celeste]
You know, the odd thing
about him calling Darren

to take the comics is that

until he became
hallucinating like this,

he didn't trust Darren
at all with the comics.

-He wouldn't listen to Darren
about the comics.
-[Adam] Yeah.

He would not--
Darren tried to persuade him

to, to put them in safer places

-and to do-- get them graded,
things like that.
-[Adam] Mm-hmm.

He had no trust
for Darren whatsoever,

just disregarded
anything Darren had to say

as much as Darren
tried to help him.

Bringing him computer
and fixing his computers

for his comic "database"
that he was doing.

Um, and it took him

to really kind of lose his mind
before he trusted his son,

which is kind of the summation
of this whole thing.

I mean, it just...

That's what he was.

Maybe if there
was a history of reasons

he couldn't trust me,
it'd make sense.

But I can't come up with many.

[sighing]
So, this is my old bedroom.

[chuckles]

[Darren sniffles]

[Celeste]
We're all going to be glad
to leave this house.

We're all going to be glad.

[Adam] Hmm.

-[static]
-[children laughing]

[announcer]
Some educators have found
that school kids

show a sudden
interest in homework
if it's tied up with pleasure.

History especially lends itself
to comic strip approach.

[upbeat music]

[rattling]

[Mark]
Comic books
were bought to read.

They were ten cents
from when they were invented,

basically in the early '30s

until the mid-1960s,

when they went up to 12 cents
and then 15 cents,

then 20 cents and so on.

[Jeffrey]
A lot of people
would buy them as kids,

and then they would share them.

So you don't have
to buy all of them.

One friend buys some,
the other buys others,

gets switched around.
Everyone gets
to read the stories.

[Mark] They were bought,
they were read,
they were discarded.

But it really wasn't
until the 1960s

where comic book dealers
started to come about,

where the notion of there's
a value to these books.

And so you really
didn't see kids
collecting comic books

until the '60s and '70s.

You know, the first comic book

that sold for $1,000,

which was a big deal,

was ActionNo. 1,

like, in the early 1970s.

And so, it's been
a slow growth through
the '70s and '80s and '90s.

But when the movie
started in 2000,
it just took off like a rocket.

[dramatic music]

2000 was X-Men.
2002 was Spider-Man.

And then 2008 was
when the MCU Universe
started with Iron Man.

And so, things were
really heating up th--
those first eight years.

But when that started,
then you started having
like Thor, Ant-Man

and Captain America,
and Avengers,
and all those started dropping.

That was the,
the big tipping point.

I think the first
million-dollar book

was during that period of time.

Now we've got multiple books

selling for millions of dollars.

It just coalesced and became

even bigger than what it was.
It was huge.

This was not cool
when we were growing up,
you know.

It's cool now.
It's everywhere now.

It's-- the movie business
is nothing but superheroes

or Star Warsor whatnot.

But the blueprint
has been there for decades

because they're looking
at comics that were written
decades ago.

And if you're
a comic book lover, you're like,

"Oh, my God,
they're doing that storyline."

"Oh, yes, you know, X-Men."

"Oh, they're doing this.
This is what I really enjoy."

So you're gonna go to it.
And yet if you know
nothing about comics,

you can still enjoy it
because it's being done
really well.

[Matthew]
I mean, it's always been
a pop culture product,

but there's just more people
who are aware now of comics,

and when they get more aware,
they get more interested.

And then when they find out
things are worth things

and have value,
they get more interested.

And then the supply
of classic comics
doesn't really go up.

So now you have more people,
higher interest,

more money flowing around

for the same amount of books.

[upbeat music]

[Kevin]
I mean, the great thing
about Comic Con

when I was growing up
was it was a quest.

"I need BatmanNo. 12,"

you know, "or 137
to complete my collection."

So you'd go to Comic Cons
and comic shops
and you'd look through.

Some of the most fun part
of this journey and collecting
is the hunt, okay?

Because 99 times out of 100,

when you hear
about a collection,
it's not worth it.

It's garbage. Whatever.

But that one time
is what you're hoping for,

and then you go through it
and you find gems.

True gems, not just something
from the '70s or '60s,

something from
that golden age era.

[pleasant music]

[Stephen]
The nostalgia breeds
the emotional connection.

Comic books have that in spades.

[Matt]
I'm experiencing this
not just at face value,

but what I'm feeling
at the time.

[Stephen] There's something
that's amazing about
the march of time,

where as time goes on,

it, it worms its way
into your brain.

Memories, thoughts, pictures.

[Kevin] When we came of age,
you were buying them
to read them,

to get out of them the story.

Now I have books that,
you know, my wife jokes,

she's like, "Why don't we
get rid of those? You read it."

I say, "I know,
but even just passing the cover,

it gives me a good feeling."

I, I'm instantly transported

back to the experience I had
in reading that book.

[Stephen]
There's a reason that people

will want to buy
a certain collectible.

It is that emotional connection.

But this new generation,

you know, hopefully
we do our jobs right

and these characters
sustain even longer.

But they might not be.
Some of them may not want
my Rocky IITopps trading cards.

[laughs]

[Adam]
After the visit
to his old family home,

Darren's now taking me
to the new hidden location
for the comics.

I mean, this was really
his first big step.

Every superhero needs a lair,

a Batcave,

or maybe more appropriately,

like in the movie
Superman number one,

a crystal fortress.

But not everyone
would have Darren's mindset

for creating that fortress.

[Adam speaking]

Yeah. Yeah. I am, uh,
officially a college dropout.

I acquired, uh, seven industry
certifications in the IT field,

and at the time,
those were only available

outside of the traditional,
uh, college curriculum.

So I went out
and got a bunch of those,
and it proved to be much better

than, uh,
the four-year degree for me.

I had my first
real job at, uh, 19

for 65 an hour
for a, uh, health system,
and this was pre-Y2K.

So this is probably 1997.
And I never looked back.

I'd show up early,
I'd stay late.

I, I was always
nervous about my age

and if they were
gonna figure me out.

But I performed and I, uh...

Yeah, it was probably
the best thing
I ever decided to do,

but it was certainly,
uh, untraditional.

[Adam speaking]

I don't know the word "empire,"
but certainly,

uh, you know, um,
a very successful company,

and, uh,
hired a lot of my friends,

and, uh, you know,
we're, we're, we're
doing extremely well

and branched off
into many other fields from it,

but, uh, yeah,
I, I would have to say

that it, um, it was a wild ride,

but I'm very fortunate
for the timing of everything

and how it came together.

[Adam] And, and,
uh... [continues]

[lighthearted bass music]

-[locks clicking]
-[soft whirring]

[Darren]
There's multiple layers
of security here.

Multiple alarm systems.

[beeps]

At the end of the day,

this is still a collection
with a high value.

And there's no need
to really advertise
yourself to the world.

There was a good amount
of prep work

that had to go into just
containing these things.

One thing
that is nerve-wracking
about this, though,

is that the conditions
of these collectibles

are so important to their value

that any time
you even move them,

anytime you handle them,

you have to just be so conscious

of any kind of additional damage
you may be inflicting on them.

[Adam speaking]

[Darren speaking]

[Darren]
I have to make sure that
the people that are involved

are loyal to the collection,
loyal to my dad, loyal to me,

and aren't gonna do
any kind of damage

and/or take things
that are, are, are not theirs.

But that's when
your true friends step up.

Oh, shit. Whoa!

-Look how nice condition.
-[Brian] Yeah!

See, and, like--
You gotta understand,

like, books like this
don't exist.

Well, the closest one
would definitely be Brian.

[thrilling bass music]

My whole experience
with this started
when he had to move them.

So we load this truck

and I'm literally
riding in the back of it

like Scrooge McDuck
swimming in, in his money.

I'm swimming in comic books

like, like this,
trying to hold everything still

while we're hitting bumps.

[tires screech]

I'm like, "This isn't happening.

I am in back of a huge truck

filled with the sweetest
comic book collection
I've ever seen."

[Darren]
Him and I have been best
of friends since first grade.

He was the first employee
in my business.

He's been one of the most
loyal people in my life to me.

I met Darren in 1984.
He's always been my family.

When it's time to get serious,

he's, he's second to none
as far as stepping up.

And I couldn't do it
without him.

Now, Brian, uh, you know Brian?

Holy shit!

[Tony]
You get a lot of that
out of him.

Brian's a comic savant.
He really is.

Yeah, well, I mean,
in that condition,
that's amazing.

I mean, like,
most of these books,

you're just so used
to seeing them
beat up on a wall.

Going for $100, $200.
Be wasted, you know what I mean?

It's like,
like the pedigree of these
books really is special.

I love when Brian is here
because some of the times

I don't even have
to barely open my computer.

"Brian, I just found
yada, yada, yada."

[as Brian] "Oh, that's
a good one. Throw it aside."

I, I care way more about
the books than I do the money.

So Brian thinks
about it differently than I do

because I don't collect comics
and I never did.

I like certain comics
'cause of the artwork
on the front of them

and stuff like that,
but I'm more of,
"What is this worth?

Let's get this graded
and let's go from there."

[thrilling bass music]

[Darren]
Tony became involved in this

kind of like right at the time
when my father passed.

He was really a great
support system for me

and, and instrumental
in helping with the logistics

and, like, literally
moving things,

getting the rooms ready
for where we had to, you know,

put this stuff
and making it secure,

wiring things up
for the humidity control
and the HVAC systems.

I mean, this is
a significant effort.

[Tony]
It took us a couple of months
to come up with a plan

of what we were gonna do
to store comics
and grade comics.

I can't foresee people
having collections like this.

There might be a handful
of people in the world,

but this is insane.

Just, just to have the room

to store this collection isn't--

I mean, there's three
eight-by-40-foot
shipping containers here,

pretty much filled with comics.

Try to put that
in your house somewhere.

Where, where,
where are you gonna put it?

[Darren]
They're all independently
secured with large steel doors,

can be independently locked,
and they're also

self-contained
within the structure.

So they, they would be
protected more so

from fire or things like that.

We have each of them
humidity controlled,

uh, climate controlled,
and we're able to do that

where they're in a little more
of a sealed environment.

So, yeah, the logistics
of this process

were pretty well thought out
in how to, A,

contain them, keep them safe,

and then also give us
an ability to sort

and go through them comfortably.

Oh, wow! I need that.

-Yeah. That's sweet.
-[laughs]

Yeah. That's how I usually go.

[gasps] Yeah!

-Ah, okay.
-Yeah, I need that too.

-This is, this is... massive--
-Well, how did I pull
this garbage?

-These are nice.
-[Darren] These are... [sighs]

Just a massively iconic cover.
And then this one, Brian?

-That is the first Mephisto.
-Mephisto.

-But again--
-[Brian] That's like the devil
of the Marvel Universe.

[Darren]
Multiple f-- have
been found, but just--

-and there's an example
of just going through a box.
-Like,

this is why I collect comics,
because you can't predict it.

This is only expensive
because it's a sweet cover.

No-- Nothing even happens in it.

It's just like it's sweet
and people love it.

And it's thousands of dollars.
That's why I love comics.

And we didn't know we had this
until you just witnessed it.

[Tony]
It's a, it's a weird thing
to be involved with.

I never thought in my life
I'd be sitting here

looking at comics
and just, "Wow,

this is worth $5,000.
This is worth this.
It's worth that."

[Darren]
You know, the unique part
about this collection is that,

uh, our two top books,
which are the Batman8.0

and the Superman7.0,

are not the bulk
of the value of this collection.

What makes up the bulk
of the value in this collection

is numbers and quantity
and repetition

of very, very,
very valuable books.

The Superman1 and the Batman1,
those are sweet.

But there's like four people
that can afford--

Honestly, there's
probably four guys
that can afford that, you know.

Where it's like there's
a thousand people that would--

that'll bid this stuff
up pretty high.

I don't know
if your camera will pick it up,

but this book is gonna go
for so much more than that book.

Look at the red.
See how this is red?
And that's orange.

-[Adam] Yeah.
-[Brian] More desirable.

Yeah. And it's like if somebody

has been looking
for a red one for years,

and all they can find
is an orange one,

and they find that,
they're gonna pay for it.

Like, comic book people
are nuts.

They're absolute--
And I am one of them.

I would pay the extra
hundreds of dollars for it.

And the whole thing
is it doesn't always
even, like, make sense.

But it's like
one of those things

if you need to have it, buy it.

He's sitting
on so many issues like that.

It's fun because we're gonna put

so many of these books
in the right hands

that people are gonna
lose their shit.

[soft music]

[Darren]
So there's all
those little moments.

I mean, I go up with my friends

and we sort through
these things at night,

and we have a blast.

As 45-year-old guys,

where it's hard to make friends,

and hard to have
those connections.

I think that having
that excuse to get together

and go on a treasure hunt

and have this
super fun adventure,

what an amazing gift that is,

whether or not Dale
intended it to be that.

[Darren]
My dad was a kooky, funny guy,

and, and when he was
in the mood to let go,

he would have been
a really, really good time

to be involved in this.

[Tony]
That's one thing that

Darren missed
about his dad in the comics

is that it was never
a family affair.

It kind of drove a wedge
between him and the family,

where Darren always
wished that he could
do this with his dad,

that he-- they would have
sat down and they would have
went through the books.

I would have preferred to really
enjoy this with my father

and, and to really
go through the process.

I didn't have a lot
of connection with my father

in the sense of experiences
that we had together.

Certainly had
a lot of conversations,

Certainly had
a lot of arguments.

[Tony]
I think that's hard for him
sometimes. I really do.

I think he thinks
about that a lot. Like,

"Would my dad
want me to sell this?
Would he not want me to sell it?

What would he want me
to do with it?"

You know.
And like you said, I mean...

...not his dad's anymore,
it's Darren's.

So it's up to Darren to decide

what he wants
to do with everything.

[Darren]
There's a tremendous amount
of power to this collection,

and I'm just trying
to make sure it's respected
and involves friends

and, you know, help people out
that want certain things.

And, and, you know,
take my time and go slow

and respect it and make sure

that these things end up
with people that, you know,

maybe just aren't doing it
for the pure money sense of it,

but for, for the, for the,
you know, emotional value.

You know, I mean,
it would be amazing
to have some of these key books

end up with, like,
the biggest fan of Superman

or the biggest fan
of s-- Batman.

And, you know,
be something that, like,

"I've waited
all my life for, you know,

for something
like this to surface,"

because these things
don't surface.

And, um, that, that,
that would be incredible to me.

[lighthearted bass music]

[Adam]
So what Darren
wants to do with these books

is very different than anything

his father would
have ever been into.

To share them with his friends

and get these books
into the hands of people

that can love
and appreciate them.

But similar to his dad,

at this moment,
it's still a secret.

Only the close
circle of friends,

which now includes myself,

know about this
fortress of solitude,

this thousands of comic books

and the belovedSuperman No. 1.

[Adam speaking]

Not the real one.

Um, no, I, I, I, I didn't
have the guts to do that.

It's a sh-- a little bit
of a shame that, you know,

these things have
to be treated so delicately,

because even
the slightest knick,
the slightest corner bump,

can mean a difference in grade,

which can mean the difference

in an incredible
amount of value.

[auctioneer]
I have 17,000. Do I hear 18?
Jumping at 18,000?

So I wrote a book called

The Official CGC Guide
to Grading Comics.

CGC is a certification company,

and they basically
certify collectibles,

comic books obviously,
but also coins,

stamps, paper money,
sports cards,

other kind of collectible cards.

The point of it
is that people send
their collectibles to us,

and we grade them
and authenticate them,

and then encase them

in a plastic,
tamper-proof holder

with a label that has
all the information on it.

And that obviously adds a lot
of value to the collectible.

[Stephen]
In the early days,
it was a lot of letter grades.

Very Good, Fine,
VF, and Near-Mint.

And I realized
that it, it devolved

into dueling adjectives

where somebody would go,
"Oh, my copy is cherry."

The other person would go,
"My copy is smoking."

And I said,
"There really needs to b--
kind of be a structure here."

So what I did is
I created a grading scale,

very simple, with different
points in between,

one through ten,

so that people now
can have conversations

about, "Is it a 7? 7.5?

Maybe it's an 8."
And people talk like that.

[Matt]
And so the grade of a comic book
is what drives its value.

-130.
-[auctioneer] 130. Yes.

-Now I need 140.
-140.

[auctioneer]
140 right away. How about 150?

[Matt]
Within, I, I think,
a year or two

auctions and sales online
started occurring

where people were paying
double guide or triple guide

for a book
because it was a high grade.

[Stephen] So it becomes
more of a commodity
to be bought and sold.

Uh, that has brought in
a lot of new collectors,

investors, speculators,

people who are looking
for alternative assets

where they go, "You know what,
I want to put some of my money

into a collectible, which is
something I can keep in a safe,

something I can
hold in my hand."

[Darren]
The Superman1,

that was my father's--
his Holy Grail book.

This is the first
solo issue of Superman.

It's a book from 1939.

My father was extremely
proud of this book,

but he never had it graded.

-[melancholic music]
-I took that book

as well as Batman1,

down to the grading company,

and I was met in the lobby

by the head grader,
uh, at the time

and now president
of the company, Matt.

The soft-spoken,
nicest guy ever,
you know, takes this book out

and, you know,
he does this every day.
I mean, he's, he's the man.

And he flips through this thing
with me just sitting there white
because, you know--

-[Adam speaking]
-Uh, no, he was doing it
with his bare fingers.

I mean,
that's apparently how he--

how, how he
does it at that level.

And he went through,
flipped through every page,

made sure every page was intact
because you don't know.

Is the book complete?
Is it missing a page?

Is it missing a coupon?
These things all matter.

And, and they,
they, they can take it

from being one
of the most valuable

pieces of pop culture
history there is

to just something
that's kind of neat.

And I told Matt this,
I said, "You know,

I, I really looked at this,
Matt. It's really nice.

And I-- I'm really hoping
it's better than a 6.5."

So we were standing there
in that lobby

and he was going
through those-- that book.

And I said, "Uh,
it's pretty nice, isn't it?"

And he looked over at me
after he, you know, he was done

with his measurements
and his flipping through,

and he got a real
warm smile on his face,

and he said, "Congratulations."

He didn't tell me the grade.
You know, because, you know,

he had to do some other things
to it and so on.

But it was kind of like a nod,

like, "Yeah, I think
it's gonna get that grade."

And he put my hand
on his shoulder

and he just said,
"Congratulations." And...

Yeah, I, uh...

I just didn't know
what to say other than,

"I wish my dad
was here to see that."

So, that was a big moment.

[upbeat music]

[Adam]
Soon after I left Michigan,

things in the comic book world,

specifically
withSuperman No. 1

really started to heat up.

First, anotherSuperman 1,

7.0surfaced

and went to auction.

Now, just to clarify,

the four bestSuperman No. 1s

include two graded at 8.0,

and two graded at 7.0.

One of those being Darren's.

So here, a month
after we started filming,

the other 7.0 goes to auction

and sells for $2.6 million.

No way! Oh, no.

Oh! Can't believe it.

I think that's a, that's
a shit ton of money, but--

Is that way under
what you think it should go for?

Obviously I can't be
let down by that at all.

Just, just a little
bit surprising.

I do think
that the publicity matters.

I mean, both you guys,
Tony and Brian,

you guys watch a lot
of content now on comics.

Um, did you see any build-up
for this at all?

-On any--
-No. Nothing.
There is nothing on YouTube.

Nobody said
a Superman1 is about to--

-No-- Nothing.
-Not one person.

Right. I find that
really strange.

[whimsical music]

[Adam]
So that was December of '21.

Then things got crazier
in January of '22.

AnotherSuperman No. 1

this time sold privately,

and it was one of the 8.0s.

It sold for $5.3 million

and was the highest
comic book sale of all time.

Now that specificSuperman 8.0,

it hadn't changed hands
in almost 30 years.

With Superman1, you know,
when you're only dealing
with two or three or four copies

that are considered high grade,

it may be years
and years and years
before you see one for sale.

And so that alone
could drive the price.
It could double the price.

So that Mile High copy
could sell for,
you know, $10 million,

uh, the next time
it comes up for sale,

because no one knows
when they're gonna get

another shot
at a copy like that.

[Adam]
But do we know
who owned it for 30 years,

and do we know who bought it?

No. These people
stay incredibly private.

So we do know
at this moment in time,

there are two 8.0s,

and there are two 7.0s.

But who owns them
is totally unknown,

including Darren's.

-But all that...
-[soft whooshing]

...is about to change.

[soft suspenseful music]

[clicking]

[upbeat music]

[laughter]

♪ Yeah ♪

Woo-hoo!

[Darren]
I have to tell you, man,
going to the Con

with our specific intention

would have to constitute
the most opposite thing

that my father
would have ever done.

Oh, he would be
rolling over in his grave.

[music fades away]