Original subtitles

[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]