‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ issue #1 comic sells for over $1.3M
This comic book’s price tag made collectors’ spidey senses tingle.
A near-perfect copy of “The Amazing Spider-Man #1” sold for over $1.3 million at auction, breaking the record for the highest price the issue has ever fetched on the block.
The unrestored copy of the Marvel hero’s self-titled series debut was purchased for a staggering bid of $1,380,000 through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions on Thursday.
The record-breaking sale was part of a larger comic auction that included a 7.0-grade “Fine/Very Fine” copy of “Superman #1,” which sold for $2.3 million.
Industry experts said the Spidey comic’s 9.8 “Near Mint/Mint Condition” grade by the Certified Guaranty Company, the comics industry standard, easily justifies the seven-figure price tag.
Only one other copy is known in existence to have the same grade, and none have received a higher-rated appraisal, according to CGC.
“For a buyer in today’s market, to obtain a copy of this issue in a 9.8 could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” CGC President Matt Nelson told The Post, adding that a 9.6-graded copy of the same issue went for just over $520,000 last year.
“This Spider-Man #1 represents literally the launching of his own title that has lasted for decades, so historically, this is a very important book in the Spider-Man universe.”
“The Amazing Spider-Man #1,” by artist Steve Ditko and writer Stan Lee, hit the newsstands seven months after the world first met nerdy high schooler Peter Parker — who fights crime as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man after being bit by a radioactive arachnid — in “Amazing Fantasy #15.”
Spidey’s eponymous series debut, which sold for just 12 cents in 1963, retells Parker’s origin story — how he gained his superpowers and how a burglar murdered his Uncle Ben while he was out web-slinging.
The issue also introduces readers to villains including the Chameleon, who he confronts during a crossover yarn with Marvel’s Fantastic Four, and Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson.
The copy of “The Amazing Spider-Man” No. 1 is deemed to be a “curator pedigree” book, meaning it was part of a coveted personal collection of well-preserved comics that were rumored to have previously belonged to a museum curator, according to Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval.
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