Set Description:
Synopsis: This is a set we have showcased for several years in hopes of winning a Best SA set award, but to date it has proven to be an exercise in futility, We did, however, add a few upgrades to this one over the past year, so maybe it will be its year.
It is a complete set of all 100 issues with a minimum grade of 9.4, which has topped the registry for seven straight years. I think I can say without hesitation the it is also the the best collection of JLAs in existence. Significantly, of the first 28 issues, 27 of our books are highest graded examples, including ten single highest graded and another 12 that are 1/2 highest. The lowest graded books in the set are six 9.4s, three of which are highest graded. Ninety of the books in the set are highest graded examples, including 22 single highest, and no book in the set is worse than second highest graded.
Background: The JLA is an all-star ensemble cast of established DC superhero characters who occasionally assemble as a team to tackle especially formidable villains. They stand in contrast to certain other superhero teams such as the Fantastic Four and X-Men, whose characters were created specifically to be part of the team, with the team being central to their identity. The cast of the Justice League usually includes a few highly popular characters who have their own solo books, like Superman and Batman, alongside a number of lesser-known characters who benefit from the exposure in the magazine. The JLA was reportedly created to boost the profiles and sales of the more minor characters through cross-promotion to develop the DC Universe as a shared universe. Beyond comic books, the Justice League has been adapted to a number of television shows, movies, and video games.
I believe JLA is the first superhero team in the Silver Age. The team was conceived by writer Gardner Fox as a revival of the Justice Society of America and first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #28 (March 1960). After three try-out issues in Brave and the Bold #28-30, DC gave the JLA its own series starting in Oct-Nov 1960, which is where this set begins.
The JLA quickly became one of the DC’s best-selling titles, which led it led to create a bunch of other superhero teams, such as Doom Patrol and the Teen Titans. Marvel noticed the Justice League's success and created the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the X-Men. The initial Justice League lineup included seven of DC Comics' superheroes who were regularly published at that time: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman. Fox also created a new, non-superhero character named Snapper Carr, who was intended to represent DC's teenaged readership and joined the League as an Honorary member in their debut story. While Superman and Batman were included in the JLA’s initially lineup, they were largely absent from the League's early stories playing only minor roles as the pair were already starring together in DC's World's Finest Comics and Fox was worried the two more famous heroes would detract attention from their less popular teammates. In fact, neither Superman nor Batman appeared on a JLA cover until Issue #10 and were generally not seen on the covers for the first couple of years of publication. But as the series continued, Superman and Batman became more and more present. The team roster would also expand with Green Arrow (Issue #4), Atom (Issue #14) and Hawkman (Issue #31) added to the team over the first four years.
Our Collection: While we started collecting CGC graded examples of these books over 20 years ago, it was not until we finished our Flash and GL sets that we really started seriously focusing on finishing this set. At the time there were three other very serious JLA collectors, which led to a series of extremely competitive auctions. It was not until those three collectors sold their collections between 2018-2020 that we completed ours, as we were able to cherry-pick from each of their sets. This set first topped the registry in 2020 and has continued to do so by a very wide margin ever since.
Unlike some of our sets where we top the registry because the best books are not registered, I can say without hesitation that this is far and away the best JLA (#1-100) set that has ever existed or could ever exist absent our selling some books or some drastic changes in the census. We currently own high grade copies of all 100 issues in the set, with 90 of our books being highest graded examples, 22 of which are single highest graded. Around 40% of our books come from pedigree collections, with 12 Pacific Coasts and 8 Twin Cities.
Overall, 72 of our books are 9.8s, 22 books are 9.6s, and six are 9.4s. In all cases, none of our books are worse than second highest graded.
Highlights of the set include our #1 9.6, which is one of two highest graded, our #9 9.8, which features the origin of the JLA, and our #21 9.8, featuring the first SA appearance of the Justice Society. Our single highest graded books include Issues #6 9.8, #7 9.8, #8 9.8, #13 9.8, #14 9.8, #17 9.8, #19 9.6, #22 9.8, and #24 9.8, making nine out of the first 25 issues. This set currently boasts 22 of the 30 current single highest graded books #1-100, making it far and away the best JLA collection of these 100 issues, at least of CGC graded books.
So, while not our most valuable set and not close to some other sets in terms of registry points, this collection is probably the closest thing to perfection we own in a SA set of 100 books or more.
It should be noted that there have been some substantial changes in the census of these books over the last couple of years, as our set has gone from a high of 28 single highest graded books to just 22 today. Significantly, our examples of Issues #5, #9, #10, #11, #23 and #25, all of which once stood alone atop the registry, now share that distinction with another book, Of course, the census count in the early issues is still relatively low at the top. Four of the first ten issues have just two highest graded examples, #1, #5, #9, and #10, and only Issues #3 and #4 have more than two books topping the census. In other words, these aren’t Marvels, they are still considerably rarer in high grade.
That being said, for the most part JLAs remain relatively unloved, despite the Snyder Cut, which is actually quite good. There were, however, two noteworthy sales on the JLA front post-COVID, which perhaps signal some renewed interest in this title, as highest-graded copies of the two biggest JLA keys hit the auction market and were greeted with astronomical prices. First, the single highest graded copy of Brave and Bold #28, which is not part of this set, but featured the first JLA try-out, was sold not once, but twice. The first sale was a private sale in late 2023 where the long-term owner received $750,000. The buyer of that book then turned around and sold it at auction in January 2024 on Heritage for $810,000, resulting in a small loss for a very brief holding period. Nevertheless, the first seller ended up making over a 500% profit for his 12 years or so of owning the book, not bad.
The second major sale was of the other JLA #1 9.6 mentioned above. In this case, the book made a hammer price on Heritage in April 2024 of $348,000, which was basically what it had been listed for on ComicConnect for several months. That price was three times what the same book sold for on ComicConnect just three years earlier. We were bidders on the B&B #28 9.6, although we dropped out very early in the process. But since we own the only other JLA #1 9.6, we felt quite good about the $348,000 price its sister book made at auction. It appears that these long ignored books are finally getting some well-deserved love by the market. However, the market for most SA DCs remains so thin that it’s hard to gauge whether such price boosts will extend to any other books in this set.
While we were never a serious player for the B&B #28 9.6, we did add a few acquisitions ourselves to this set the past year when we acquired three newly graded books: Issues #7 9.8, #19 9.6, and #26 9.6, each of which tops the census alone. The #7 9.8 was a book we were offered back when it was a 9.6 CBCS, which I now obviously regret passing on, as we had to pay dearly for it this time. It was a tough decision to buy that one, and in most other titles we would have passed on the upgrade, especially since we felt that we seriously overpaid. But in this case, JLA is one of our two best longer DC sets and we still have some hope of finding a #2 9.8 and getting back to having highest graded copies of the first 25 issues, which we briefly enjoyed a few years back. I know nothing about the history of the other two books, both were bought in non-auction settings. |