Copy of The Beano sells for £17,500

A copy of the first ever Beano has sold for a record £17,300. The Beano Number 1 issue (pictured along with another lot from the auction) was published in July 1938. It is incredibly rare, and only 25 of them are known to remain in existence. However, the price fetched by this copy of the comic surprised even the auctioneers, who had put an estimate of between $4,500 and £5,500 on the copy. It's the most that any copy of the Beano has ever sold for.

Malcolm Philips, director of Comic Book Auctions told AOL: "We did expect this to fetch a good price, because it's a very rare comic, and it is in excellent condition. It also came with a flyer that the publishers had put into all their other comics to advertise the launch of the Beano the week before. The flyer is the sort of thing people would have put in the bin when they received it, so this is particularly rare."

However, he added that the price was pushed up even further by the fact there were two very keen collectors, who were determined to get their hands on the issue, and said: "We were extremely surprised at the figure it finally sold for."

In the past few months Comic Book Auctions has seen a number of very high grade early issues of The Beano fetch unusually high prices, including a number 2 that sold for £4,200, and issues of number 3 and 4 that sold for £2,500. Philips said that the seller of the Number 1 is a regular customer, who saw the popularity and prices of the early Beanos and decided the time was right to sell.

How does it compare?

In the next few months the same auction house will be selling a Dandy Number 1, which is expected to fetch a similarly stratospheric price. However, it's unlikely to challenge the highest price ever paid for any British comic. That title went to a copy of the Dandy Number 1 sold in 2004 - which stood out because the seller even had the toy whistle that came with the first issue.

However, if you're searching the attic for valuable comics, what you really want are some of the American superheros. The most valuable comic book of all time is Action Comics No 1, which saw Superman appear for the first time. This was published in 1938 and is thought to mark the beginning of the super hero genre. In October last year a copy of the comic book sold for an incredible £1.94 million.

Auction stories on AOL Money

Four-minute mile shoes make £266,500 at auction

Titanic menu to be auctioned for $70,000

Elvis auction surprises - including $7,500 for his socks