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Just hours after it hit newsstands in France, copies of the so-called Charlie Hebdo “survivors issue” have begun appearing on eBay with sellers charging many times their face value, The Independent reported.

Shops in Paris are selling the magazine for €3 (£2.30), but online listings are offering it for around in a direct purchase for around €50 – and auction lot bids in the UK and US have passed £500.

There has been huge demand around the world for Wednesday’s edition, printed in an unprecedented run of three million copies.

Its front cover carries a cartoon of a crying Prophet Mohamed holding a sign saying “Je suis Charlie”, a response to the killing of 12 people, including eight journalists, at its Paris offices.

By 7am on Wednesday, most retailers in France’s capital had sold out of the new edition. Long queues formed outside stores that opened later, as the country’s creaky distribution system appeared to struggle with the extraordinary demand.

The inflated eBay listings will be galling to some, particularly as some of the proceeds from the souvenir edition are to go the families of those killed.

But the bumper run will also save the magazine from what had been seen as near-bankruptcy.