If you’ve driven by Big B Comics on Essa Road in Barrie in the last few weeks and your spidey sense was tingling, it’s no surprise, as there is a quite valuable Spider-Man comic book inside just waiting for a serious buyer.
The book, Amazing Fantasy, number 15, published in August 1962, marked the first-ever appearance of Spider-Man in a comic book.
With a price tag of $30,000, the comic seems like a bargain in reality.
In 2021, the same comic, with a high-grade quality rating of 9.6 out of 10, sold at auction for $3.6 million, which is the third highest of the most expensive comics ever sold, with Action Comics number one, featuring Superman, leading the way with a $6-million sale in 2024, both in U.S. dollars.
The book here in Barrie has a rating of 2.0 out of 10 due to small pieces which are missing from the edges of the cover, with flaking of the edges and general wear-and-tear on the comic.
“These don’t come around every day,” Big B Comics owner Marc Sims tells BarrieToday at his shop.
“Old comics like this are one of our specialties. As you came in, I was on the phone talking to somebody about that book, so it’ll move,” he told the reporter.
Sims says the demand for that particular comic is “so high, I’ve had several people reaching out to me since I acquired it, which was maybe a month or so ago.”
He bought the issue from a collector.
“A guy I know put me in touch with another guy, and it’s a small network, really, when it comes to these sort of bigger books,” Sims says.
In the fall of last year, Sims says he sold another of the same issue, graded at 1.5, for $28,000.
He says he has owned different copies of that same comic 30 or 40 times in the past, “but the prices are much higher than they were 30 years ago.”
Whether old or new, Spider-Man comics rule the roost, and Big B Comics sells more of the webslinger’s adventures than any other title in their shop.
Some people buy comics as investments, while other older buyers pick them up again to rekindle memories of their youth.
“So much of what we do is based on nostalgia,” Sims says. “It’s what you loved when you were 10, 11, 12 years old that sticks with you your whole life.”
He was an X-Men kid growing up when it came to comics.
Having owned so many gems over the years, is there one which has eluded Sims up to now?
“Superman number one, that would be nice,” he says after thinking about it for a moment.
This is the comic immediately after the iconic Action Comics number one.
“That’s the one that’s eluded me that feels within reach,” Sims says.
“I’ve had Batman number one, Wonder Woman number one, Green Lantern number one — all those 1940s ones. I’ve had them all except the Superman one."
For regular, everyday collectors, there are many new comics that are generating excitement among avid readers.
A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, which launched not long ago, is garnering some buzz in the industry, Sims says, with Transformers being popular right now, as well.
There are also the re-imaginings of classic ones like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman relaunched now with new twists to the old stories.
With around 80 years of history tied to these stalwart comic heroes, Sims thinks it must be hard for the authors to come up with new ideas — but they have.
“They’ve done it successfully, and they’ve been really well-received. They are some of our best-selling books,” he says.
For young kids, comic books are a great way to get children reading.
Big B Comics has been running a program for around 20 years called Free Comics for A’s, where they reward kids with free comics when they bring in their report cards.
“We give everybody at least two free comics, and for every A on their report card, they're going to get more comics, too,” Sims says.
The program runs until this Sunday, March 9.