Sorry, you've come to the wrong place for that question. We're an archive site covering (in quite some detail) the more than 14,000 comics and books (including variants) that starred, featured, referenced, described, or reprinted Spider-Man in the first five decades of his career.
There's an ever growing list of Spider-Man comic appearances on the Comics Index page. It is almost certainly the most complete index of Spider-Man appearances ever constructed, but doubtless there are still a few more entries yet to be discovered.
If you're looking for the first ever Spider-Man comic, then you need the Comics Chronology index.
The Golden Age of comics started some time in the 30's or 40's. The first "Marvel Comics" came from that time, and created Captain America, The Sub-Mariner, and The Human Torch (an android version, not the later Johnny Storm).
The Silver Age began in the late 50's/early 60's and was pretty much lead by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and the rest of the Marvel guys with their creations of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Daredevil, The Avengers, Iron Man, Dr Strange, and all their contempories.
Most people agree that the Silver Age ended in late 1970, when Kirby left Marvel. Others put it even earlier, at mid-1968, when new distribution arrangements meant that Marvel could and did rapidly expand its range of titles, resulting in more creative staff being brought on and new directions being taken.
For a more detailed history of Marvel and the rise and fall of comics in the 20the century, you'd be well-advised to go read one of the books from our Books (History of Comics) list that we have so kindly reviewed for you.
Traditionally, comics were sold in newsagents. When bar-codes became common, they were added to comics like any other item. During the 90's the ever-growing presence of specialist comic shops lead distributors to produce two batches of comics.
The first batch would go to comic shops, where the dedicated fans eagerly awaited them. Because most comic shops don't use bar-code scanners, these first distribution books did not have a bar-code. A few weeks later, the next batch goes to newsagents and super-markets, where a bar-code was generally expected, and hence is included on the cover.
With very few exceptions, the only difference between the two versions of the comic is the presence or lack of the bar-code. Collectors almost never distinguish between the two versions in this case - they are considered the same comic, and collections will mix the two versions without comment.
There are other cases where the new-stand version was different, but these are not common, and are too detailed a topic to cover here.
Spider-Man is translated into many foreign languages - German, Italian, French, Dutch, Indian, etc. Foreign language comics are generally considered in the same category as reprints, and are not an area of interested for most collectors.
In Australia, I have seen at least one 90's comic which is a locally printed version of a comic, nearly exactly the same as the original comic, released at the same time, but printed on different paper stock. Some of the advertisements may also be different, I'm not sure.
In England during the 70's/80's the same thing happened, the comic was simultaneously released with a UK price printed on the cover. But nowadays, this seems to be quite rare. In any case, I believe that such comics are generally considered to be of equal value as the U.S. printing, except possibly for exceptionally valuable issues.
Nowadays in England, the Spider-Man comics are collected and reprinted in a different format - often with a significant time delay, under a different title name. These are also not generally valued by collectors.
Here's a basic grading scale. Grading comics is a very specialist activity, and accurate grading requires considerable experience. Please do not ask us for help with grading or pricing comics.
For comics pricing information, the most widely accepted price guide is the Overstreet price guide. Wizard magazine also publishes a partial price guide each month. You can also find a price guide online at www.comicspriceguide.com.
| Grade | Score/10.0 | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Mint (M) |
10.0 |
A perfect, unread comic. White pages, sharp corners, perfectly aligned cover, tight staples, sharp square corners, no creases, marks, fading of any kind - no flaw whatsoever. Most comics fail to reach this grade even when they are fresh off the printing press. The mint grade is so hard to achieve that few graders bother inspecting for mint, and few collectors bother trying to buy mint comics. Depending on the actual issue, a Mint comic can sometimes fetch a premium of 20% or more over the official Near Mint price. |
|
Mint/ Near Mint (M/NM) |
9.9 |
Often the grade Mint/Near Mint is used to denote a comic which is totally untouched, and appears to be Mint, but which hasn't been given the absolute rigourous inspection to fully earn the Mint grade. For valuation purposes, generally considered the same as Near Mint. |
|
Near Mint (NM) |
9.0 - 9.8 |
This is what most comics look like when purchased new. Tight staples, glossy cover, sharp corners, no marks, white pages. But look very closely and a perfectionist will see a miniscule mis-alignment of the cover with the pages, or a tiny, tiny rounding of a corner. Run your fingers down the spine and you may feel a crease which isn't visible to the eye. Those are the kind of things which mean that nearly all "as new" comics are graded as Near Mint rather than Mint. The Near Mint price for a comic is the standard quoted price in guidebooks. Other grades are typically valued as a percentage of the Near Mint price. |
|
Very Fine (VF) |
7.5 - 8.9 |
Still excellent condition. Sharp, bright and clean. May have minor spine wear or a small corner crease, or slight surface wear. Often, at first glance a Very Fine comic will appear Near Mint, although closer inspection will reveal minor but clearly visible imperfections. This is typically the best grade seen for Silver Age comics. Valued 60%-80% of listed Near Mint price. |
|
Fine/ Very Fine (F/VF) |
6.5 - 7.4 |
Close to Very Fine, but with one or two defects. No serious wear, good cover gloss. Valued around 50% of near mint price. |
|
Fine (FN) |
5.5 - 6.5 |
A nice book, still attractive to look at. Clearly worn, but still clean with no tears. Staples still firm, but color typically creamy and obviously off-white. No structural flaws. Valued 30%-40% of near mint. |
|
Very Good (VG) |
3.5 - 5.4 |
Not well cared for, although still obviously readable. Not attractive to most collectors. Probably has two or more major flaws - e.g. faded cover with no gloss, browny pages, rolled, creased, chipped, folds and dog-ears, even noticible rips or tears. But it won't have all of those flaws, and nothing noticable is missing from the comic. Valued at 15%-30% of near mint. |
|
Good (G) |
1.5 - 3.4 |
Basically as trashed as you can get while still being complete and readable with the entire cover still loosely attached. Some small bits may be missing - but it's still fundamentally a comic. This is the lowest grade you would really consider as part of a collection. Value between 10%-15% or near mint. |
|
Fair (FR) |
0.5 - 1.4 |
Also seen as (F). Be sure not to confuse Fair (F) with Fine (FN). A Fair comic is dirty, scruffy and battered. Part of the cover or inner pages may be missing, although the story is still basically readable. Worth approximately 5% of near mint value, if that. |
|
Poor (PR) |
0.1 - 0.4 |
Also sometimes seen as (P). Totally trashed. Cover missing, staples loose and rusted, significant parts of the comic missing. Sentimental value only, generally. |
This list does not cover the bizarre world of CGC graded and slabbed comics - that's a whole different story. Hype about particular comics, or about particular fashionable practices like CGC grading can severely skew the regular comics grading and valuation mechanisms.
There are plenty of other factors in the comic grading and valuing world, such as second printings, autographed copies, and comic restoration. Hopefully you now understand the basics, but just be careful out there!
Because the Marketing guys decided it was a good idea. But if you're curious about their reasons for doing so, here's our cynical two-cents worth.
When comic sales are down, there are two ways to push sales back up. Either recover your former fans... which means hiring decent talent for the comics. That involves editorial and management integrity, which isn't easy to find in modern corporates. The alternative is to renumber the comics to #1 so that young fans have a point to start collecting.
As a young fan, it's a bit discouraging to see #783 on the front of a comic book, and to realise that they are coming in so late in the series - so a re-numbering can help provide a jump-on point. Combine that with the words "#1" and "Collector's Edition", add a couple of variant covers, and you have the Spider-Man Reboot, which took place in January 1999.
In practice, it doesn't really make much lasting difference, except to annoy long-time fans, to make life more difficult for archivists like ourself. Even Todd McFarlane's #1 of Spider-Man in 1990 isn't worth more than a couple of bucks over the surrounding comics of the era. In the long run, a comic book needs a good character, good corporate backing, and last but not least - good artists and writers.
Why do the Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) and Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Vol. 2) comics have two numbers on the front... e.g. #40 in big letters, and #481 in smaller letters?
In January 1999, Marvel renamed all of the Spider-Man titles to Volume 2, and started the numbers from the beginning again. See the previous questions for some explanation of why this seemed a good idea at the time.
Shortly afterwards, they realised that they had destroyed nearly forty years of comic history, and cancelled one of the longest running comics of all time - for no really good reason, since most fans could see that this was still basically the same comic.
Joe Quesada was the writer on Daredevil, which had just done the same thing. He started the practice of listing the "old" issue number on the cover of that comic... i.e. the number that the comic should have been, if there had been no renumbering.
When Joey Q became Editor-in-Chief at Marvel, he wisely decreed that the same thing would be done with Spider-Man. So so you now see the Volume 2 number, and also the number that the comic should have borne, if it were not for the foolishness of some short-sighted marketing morons.
Hey, it's impossible for anybody to answer that question! Only you can decide what comics to collect. People collect comics for all sorts of reasons - and my personal tastes are very unlikely to coincide with yours!
Try Comichron, e.g. Comichron - Amazing Spider-Man Sales Figures, Comichron - Monthly Comic Sales.