1/6d Summer Special sells for £1,371

British comic collecting circles are buzzing at present with the news that a copy of the 1963 Dandy-Beano Summer Special has sold on eBay for a record figure of £1,371.

According to the description, the 32 page tabloid sized glossy is in "fine unmarked condition" and the photograph (above) would certainly seem to prove it's been well looked after. Summer Specials are notoriously scarce in this condition as many were bought on holiday and were either discarded or at least well-read and dog-eared by the end of the week.

This particular edition is very collectible because it saw The Dandy and The Beano venture into the Summer Special market for the first time. (Although other publishers had created the summer special years earlier.) Hedging their bets, the publishers D.C. Thomson put out this combined issue and saved on expenses by using reprinted material from the weeklies. The special was presumably successful as the following year, 1964, saw individual all-new specials for the two comics which continued annually for decades.

The starting price for the comic on eBay was a mere £1.99 and 27 bids saw it escalate in seven days to £1,371.