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Historic Charlie Hebdo Issue Selling for $1,100 on eBay

By: Brad Tuttle
Brad Tuttle, expert in Personal finance, shopping, consumer trends, and Senior Editor at Money
Brad Tuttle
Senior Editor | Joined January 2014
Brad Tuttle is a senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.
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Published: Jan 14, 2015 3 min read
The weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, on January 13, 2015 in Villabe, south of Paris, a week after two jihadist gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the satirical magazine, killing 12 people including some of the country's best-known cartoonists. Its cover features the prophet with a tear in his eye, holding a Je Suis Charlie sign under the headline All is forgiven .
The weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Jan. 13, 2015, a week after two jihadist gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the satirical magazine, killing 12
Martin Bureau—AFP/Getty Images

Within days of a grisly massacre that killed 12 at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the surviving staffers published a new issue of the French satiric newsweekly. To say copies are in high demand is understating things: Millions of copies have sold out in France at the newsstand price of €3 (about $3.50), and around the globe buyers seeking print editions of the historic issue have turned to online auctions, with many bidding 100 or more times the list price.

Charlie Hebdo, known for publishing cartoon versions of the Prophet Muhammad and mocking various religions (among other institutions), was reportedly targeted by extremist gunmen seeking "vengeance for the Prophet." The post-massacre edition of the newsweekly again features a cartoon version of the Prophet—an act that some consider deeply insulting to Islam—along with the words "Je Suis Charlie" (I Am Charlie) and "Tout Est Pardonne" (All Is Forgiven).

Normally, Charlie Hebdo distributes around 60,000 copies per week. For the latest edition, the print run was hiked to 3 million and has since been upped to 5 million. One week after the killing, people in France waited in long lines early in the morning to buy multiple copies of the new Charlie Hebdo. Within hours of those millions of copies selling out, issues began turning up on eBay.

On Wednesday the (U.K.) Independent reported that online auction bids have passed £500 ($760) at U.K. and U.S. versions of the auction site. The Hollywood Reporter noted that dozens of bids at one U.K.-based auction pushed the price of one copy up to £760, or $1,153. CNBC rounded up various copies of the new Charlie Hebdo on eBay listed at "Buy It Now" prices of €20,000, €50,000, even €100,000. At today's exchange rates, those asking prices are the equivalent of around $23,500, $60,000, and $118,000, respectively.

Starting at the end of this week, a few hundred issues will be go on sale in the U.S. at a select few locations—mostly in big cities such as New York and San Francisco. Presumably, the few sellers with copies will have no trouble finding interested buyers. Charlie Hebdo isn't normally distributed in the U.S., but as USA Today reported, magazine sellers all over the country are trying to find ways to get their own copies that can be put up for sale.