Man Buys Spider-Man Comic for $1K, Sells It for $454K

A Dallas-based auction house says a rare copy of a comic book featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man has sold for $454,100. The comic book was purchased by an anonymous collector, and Heritage Auctions says Thursday's sale is a record for a public auction price for any Spider-Man comic book, reports the AP. The 1962 edition of "Amazing Fantasy" No. 15 was graded as near-mint, with a score of 9.4 on a scale of 1 to 10.

In a look at the seller in advance of the sale, the AP reported that Walter Yakoboski scraped together nearly every penny he made as short-order cook in 1979 to begin buying a small collection of rare comic books for $10,000, hoping his boyhood passion could one day pay off as an investment. The 60-year-old Long Island man purchased the "Amazing Fantasy" issue for $1,200 in 1980. Its cover, featuring a price of 12 cents, shows Spider-Man clutching a villain in one arm and swinging from his web with the other. Yakoboski wants to use the proceeds to buy his late father's 17-acre vegetable farm in Calverton. In 2011, a private collector reportedly paid $1.1 million for another near-mint copy. (Click for 10 graphic novels you need to read before you die.)