A Flurry of Bidding Has Started on a Mint Condition Spider-Man Comic

An impressively well-preserved issue of The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 from 1963 will be sold at auction early next year and bids have already reached six figures.

The inaugural issue, which cost 12 cents when it hit newsstands 60 years ago, is in such good condition that it’s being called the “world’s greatest copy” by Heritage Auctions, which is selling the collectible as part of its Comics & Comic Art SignatureAuction, running from Jan. 11-14.

Considered to be in “near mint/mint” condition, the issue has a grading of 9.8 out of 10 from Certified Guaranty Company (CGC), a third-party grading service for pop-culture collectibles.

The comic is from a collection that was amassed by an employee of a museum who stored the comics in tight packs on the museum’s premises. It’s “considered one of the best Silver Age collections ever discovered,” said Heritage Auctions, referring to the Silver Age of Comic Books, a period that spanned roughly from 1956 to 1970 and saw the creation of some of the most famous superheroes including the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man and, of course, Spider-Man.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the current bid for the comic, which marked Spider-Man’s first appearance in his eponymous title, stood at US$220,000.

In July, another first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, in slightly worse condition, sold for US$520,380.

Also selling at the auction is “one of the world’s finest copies” of Superman No. 1 from 1939, according to Heritage. It’s one of only two in the world graded a 7.0 by CGC and considered to be in “fine/very fine” condition.

“This is the finest unrestored copy we’ve ever offered,” the auction house said online.

A Superman No. 1—with a CGC grading of 8.0—sold for US$5.3 million in January 2022, breaking the record for the most expensive comic ever sold.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the highest bid for the issue stands at US$460,000.

U.K.-listed Intermediate Capital Group plans to sell one of Singapore’s largest independent tertiary education institutions, which could be valued at as much as 700 million Singapore dollars, equivalent to US$526 million, people familiar with the situation said.

The alternative asset management company, which acquired PSB Academy in 2018, is working with corporate advisory firm Rippledot Capital Advisers to explore options, the people said.

ICG and Rippledot declined to comment.

The U.K.-based company, which has $107.0 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2024, acquired PSB Academy from Baring Private Equity Asia for an undisclosed price.

Set up in 1964, PSB Academy currently hosts over 20,000 students each year and offers certification, diploma and degree courses. It has operations across Asia, including Indonesia, China and Sri Lanka.

The Asian education sector has become increasingly attractive to private-equity firms and strategic investors due to rapid urbanization and a fast-growing middle class that can now afford higher education for their children.

In 2021, private-equity firm KKR invested in EQuest Education Group, Vietnam’s largest private education institution. A year before, China Maple Leaf Educational Systems paid S$730.0 million to buy Canadian International School in Singapore.