Ivan Ballesteros:"I will be going into the Mira Mesa theater on December 17 at 5:30 p.m. dressed as Spider-Man."

As I wrap up this article on December 7, three eBayers within 15 miles of North Park are selling Spiderman: No Way Home movie tickets for $15,000, $4,499.99, and $3,000, respectively. Many other San Diegans are slinging Spidey-premier tix for hundreds of dollars apiece.

"How much did you originally purchase your tickets for?" I asked Sean T., an eBayer from Chula Vista. "$13.99 each from the AMC [American Multi-Cinema] site," he responded. "I might sell my wife's ticket."

Sean "Spidey senses" that the AMC movie-premiere tickets for December 17 sold out on Cyber Monday because of AMC's exclusive Spider-Man NFTs.

NFT is an acronym for a non-fungible token, which can be a digital one-of-a-kind photo, video, music clip, an in-video game accessory and character, and a fusion of files. NFTs are predominantly bought and sold via the Ethereum blockchain, although the Spidey NFTs will be slung on the WAX blockchain. A few NFTs sold for over a million dollars earlier in the year, nearing the $3.6 million record sale of Amazing Fantasy number 15 comic book. This tangible art piece contains the first appearance of Spider-Man.

"Swing in and grab #AMCTheatres first Eco-Friendly NFT!" tweeted AMC, the movie-theater company that owns eight theaters in San Diego County and more than 600 worldwide. "Get ready, Spidey-Fans! #SpiderManNoWayHome tickets will be going on sale on Spider-Monday, November 29 at 12:01 a.m. EST!"

Sean, who works remotely on his computer as a graphic designer, saw the tweet. "I hopped onto the AMC site," he explained to me. "Then I was in a waiting room, and they said it would take 15 minutes, then it crashed over and over, then finally it said something like 'over hour wait times.'"

Despite Sean seeing multiple "Error 500 / This may appear in the movie outtakes" messages, he persevered and advanced into an area of the site where he chose the theater and seats of his liking, but it "crashed a couple more times," he continued. Finally, after three hours, he landed his tickets. "We have to actually walk into the movie theaters, so they scan our tickets to get our NFT. Otherwise, we don't get the NFT."

On that Cyber Monday, throughout the U.S., comic-book collectors, NFT investors, ticket scalpers, and parents and guardians broke the internet. Regal Cinemas and Fandango also offered Spider-Man movie premiere tickets but no accompanying NFTs. The Fandango servers also reportedly crashed.

"It took me three hours on the Regal site to secure the ticket, but it was well worth it," said Ivan Ballesteros. "I will be going into the Mira Mesa theater on December 17 at 5:30 p.m. dressed as Spider-Man. See you there, Webheads."

Ballesteros is a local Spider-Man cosplayer who attended Comic-Con Special Edition at the San Diego Convention Center on November 26-28, the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before Cyber Monday. "[The show] needed more celebrities and freebies, but cosplay and the vendors' booths were amazing."

Last week's Con was reportedly much smaller and quaint than its usual summertime showing. Duane, a vintage Spider-Man collector who's been attending the Comic-Con since the 1970s, said that "there was only 10-15 percent of the normal 130,000 plus crowd."

Other Comic-Con attendees said there was a buzz about Spider-Man NFTs brought about by rumors that some of the attendees watched Spider-Man: No Way Home at the show but had to keep it as secret as Peter Parker's alternative identity.

"As part of the Comic-Con panel, I watched the whole movie with two-end credits," Ballesteros confirmed. "They made everyone turn off their cell phones, and they had electronic wands to scan you before seeing the movie, and of course they told us, 'don't say anything.' I so want to talk about the movie, but I can't say anything. Marvel has done a good job keeping the secret for [the characters played by] Tobey and Andrew Garfield. I respect that, and it leaves the fans happy. I'm not spoiling the surprise."

AMC and Sony Pictures collaborated with Cub Studios to create more than 100 different Spider-Man NFTs. On the Friday premiere, AMC ushers will scan the Spider-Man movie tickets, which will begin the allotted 86,000 NFTs' activation process. The NFT owners' information will be inputted into the blockchain, a transaction ledger linked to computer networks worldwide. On December 22, the NFT will be available to view and show off after Spider-Man fans follow the email instructions sent by AMC and WAX.

One Spidey Redditor keyed in. "This is cool because it could bring more people into NFTs and, inevitably, crypto. I've not seen something as big as Spider-Man give out free NFTs yet!"