CALVERTON, N.Y. (AP) – 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.
That day may soon be here.
Yakoboski’s copy of “Amazing Fantasy” No. 15 from 1962 – which introduced the world to Spider-Man – could fetch $400,000 or more when it goes up for auction later this month.
“This is the first time I really sold anything,” said the 60-year-old Yakoboski, who wants to use the proceeds to buy his late father’s 17-acre vegetable farm in Calverton on eastern Long Island.
He insisted that the fact that he was recently laid off as a supermarket baker after more than 27 years is not the reason he’s selling now.