A collector in the United States has sold the Superman comic book that cost him just a few cents when he was a child for 317,200 dollars in an internet auction, US media reported Sunday.

The comic - Action Comics No. 1 - is dated 1938 and is the first edition of the comic series featuring the flying superhero, the New York Daily News reported. Only around 100 of this specific comic edition are thought to have been preserved worldwide.

The newspaper said it was not common for such a rare item to be sold in an internet auction. The comic was sold for one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic, according to the report. Its seller had brought the comic second-hand at a bookshop in the 1950s for 35 cents when he was nine years old.

The winning bidder came from John Dolmayan, the drummer for the rock band System of a Down. He also deals in comics and said he was buying it on behalf of a client.