A comic book you could buy for 12 cents in 1962 is being sold for $44,000 today

• A Canadian comic book store hopes to sell a copy of Marvel's "Amazing Fantasy #15" for $44,300.
• The comic book was the first-ever issue to feature Spider-Man, and retailed for 12 cents in 1962.

A comic book store in Canada is seeking around $44,300 for a 1962 Spider-Man comic book that originally retailed for 12 cents.

The Comic Hunter, run by manager Rémi Vienneau LeClair, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the shop is seeking 60,000 Canadian dollars for its copy of "Amazing Fantasy #15," which featured Spider-Man's first-ever debut.

Vienneau LeClair said the store bought the book when it was already graded by the Certified Guaranty Company, which rates comic book copies based on their authenticity and condition.

The $44,300 copy was rated with a 3.5 out of 10 condition, according to a photo published by CBC.

"It's always wild, you hope it's the real thing," Vienneau LeClair told CBC. "When someone calls, most of the time, people think they're sitting on a gold mine and 99 times out of 100, they're not."

The "Amazing Fantasy #15" was originally sold in stores for 12 cents, according to its cover.

A separate copy of the same comic issue broke sales records in September 2021 when it was auctioned off for $3.6 million, according to Heritage Auctions. It was rated with a 9.6, meaning the book was in almost-mint condition.

However, the "Amazing Fantasy #15" sale was dethroned in April 2022 when a copy of the first Superman comic issue was sold for $5.3 million. The 1938 comic book was graded with an 8.0 rating, per CGC.

The market for rare sports paraphernalia, trading cards, and comic books has surged in the last few years, with new sales records broken more frequently since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

For example, a Mickey Mantle baseball card was sold for $12.6 million in August 2022, while a Pikachu Pokémon card was sold to YouTuber Logan Paul for $5.275 million in April 2022.

In September of that year, Michael Jordan's "Last Dance" jersey sold for $10.1 million at an auction.