It may be the world's most valuable comic book

It cost its current owner only 35 cents, but this time around an original Superman comic book could net $400,000 or more at an auction, say the experts.

Starting today, an unrestored copy of Action Comics No. 1 – "Superman and Friends," the comic that introduced Superman to the world – is up for bid.  The book originally went on sale in 1938, when it was priced at 10 cents. The current owner is reported to have found it in a second-hand bookstore in 1950 and begged his father for 35 cents to purchase it.

"It's the Holy Grail of comic books," said Stephen Fishler, owner of Comic Connect, an online liaison between comic book buyers and sellers. "Some books seem to go in and out of fashion," reads the auction blurb at comicconnect.com. But "Action Comics No. 1 will never be one of those books."