I stand my ground when it comes to the mark up on the first appearance of Carnage.

Ever since Marvel’s Kevin Feige confirmed that Spider-Man would not be connected to Sony’s Venom movie (the short version is that Marvel’s licensing agreement with Sony puts the Wall Crawler in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which separates him from Sony’s proposed Venom-verse), I have predicted that the mad rush for Venom and Carnage key issues would be a short-term gain. Frankly, as I’ve written before, a Venom movie without Spider-Man sounds terrible, which is why I advise steering clear of those overpriced copies of “Amazing Spider-Man” #361.

Apparently my warnings are not being heeded.

Since June 16, graded copies of ASM 361 have been selling at a blistering pace. So much so that, over the past month, ASM 361 has become the number one selling graded comic on eBay, surpassing even Venom’s first appearance in “Amazing Spider-Man” #300 and Deadpool’s debut in “New Mutants” #98. The eye-opening number is this: 111.7. That’s the percentage of increased sales for a graded 8.0 of ASM 361 over the past three months. And as prices soar for that issue, collectors are also buying up copies of his second appearance. “Amazing Spider-Man” #362 rocketed in popularity since June, gaining 146 spots to move to number 41 on the most popular comics list.

Carnage isn’t the only character riding the wave of excitement. Last week, Sony revealed that She-Venom will be appearing in “Venom,” and collectors have been digging up copies of her debut and death.

Relatively short-lived, She-Venom made her first appearance in “Amazing Spider-Man” #375. Personally, I had read up on She-Venom, and what I found is an interesting story that may translate well onto the screen. Here’s the brief summary. At this point, Eddie Brock was still Venom. His ex-wife, Anne Weying, was shot and Eddie passed the symbiote to her in order to save her life. She bonded with the symbiote and murdered her attackers before the suit returned to Eddie. In later issues, Anne would use the suit to help Eddie, but eventually it all became too taxing. Her tragic end came in “Amazing Spider-Man” #19 (volume two) when she committed suicide by jumping off a building.

I remain skeptical of Sony’s “Venom,” but I will say this: Anne Weying’s story is compelling enough to save this movie so long as Sony sticks to the original story.

With that being said, Anne could steal the spotlight in the movie, and that would make her very popular very quickly. Her first appearance without the costume in “Amazing Spider-Man” #375 is up 169 places and is now in the top 100 at number 71. By this time next month, expect to see the first full appearance of She-Venom in “Venom: Sinner Takes All” #3 to crack the top 100 and possibly the top 50 as well.

Continuing the trend of all-things-symbiote hysteria, we have “Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars” #8 with the iconic Mike Zeck/John Beatty cover. It’s no surprise that the first appearance of the alien symbiote is riding the coattails of the Venom/Carnage fervor. In the past month, Secret Wars #8 has moved from the seventh spot to number five. “Amazing Spider-Man” #252 is seeing a boost in sales as well and has risen into the top-10 most popular graded comics in the last month. So in total, three of the top five and four of the top 10 hottest comics on eBay are all symbiote-related key issues. Now if Sony will pull off the unimaginable and make a good Venom movie, then we’ll see these comics hit the stratosphere.