A rare and pristine copy of the first issue of Action Comics, famed for the first appearance of Superman, has set a record for the most money paid for a single comic book: 2.16 million US dollars.

The issue, graded at 9.0, was auctioned starting on November 11 online at www.comicconnect.com.

The starting bid was just one US dollar but there was a reserve price of 900,000 US dollars. Neither the name of the buyer nor seller was disclosed.

It is the first time a comic book has broken the two million US dollar barrier. The issue was published in 1938 and cost just 10 cents.

"When we broke the record in 2010 by selling the Action Comics No. 1, graded at 8.5, for 1.5 million US dollar, I truly believed that this was a record that would stand for many years to come," said Stephen Fishler, chief executive of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles.

The previous record set in March 2010 was followed by the sale of another copy for one million US dollars.

But neither of those issues was in as good a condition as the issue that sold yesterday, though its pedigree of setting records was already documented.

Twice before it set the record for the most expensive book ever, selling for 86,000 US dollars in 1992 and 150,000 US dollars in 1997.

But in 2000, it was stolen and thought lost until it was recovered in a storage shed in California in April this year.

About 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are believed to be in existence, and only a handful of those in good condition.