When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko brought life to Spider-Man, he was far from a sure-fire hit. A teenage hero had never headlined a book before, as they were usually sidekicks. But his debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 was well-received – so well-received that he was given his own title a year later. Now, the first issue of that title has set an auction house record for the highest price paid for that issue in 9.6, via Hake’s Auctions.
Featuring the first appearances of J. Jonah Jameson and The Chameleon, as well as a guest appearance by the Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man #1 is the definition of a “key issue”. This copy, graded 9.6 NM+ by the CGC, came from the John B. Goodrich Collection, where it had resided for 25 years. Recently certified, there are only two copies graded higher (CGC 9.8) according to the CGC Census, and a current total of 4,688 graded copies in existence.
The issue pulled in $520,380, nearly $200,000 more than another 9.6-graded copy that sold in November of 2022.