Set Description:
I am honestly not sure why we ever started this set, especially after our experience with Wonder Woman. Like WW, I just don’t believe this is a completable set, at least not at a bar of 8.0, which we have been using to date. For years we made quite a bit of progress and now have 88 of the books, including single highest graded copies of three of the key issues: Issue #233, the first appearance of Batwoman, Issue #259, the first appearance of Calendar Man, and Issue #298, the first appearance of Clayface. But we have never even seen copies of many of the issues we lack and have added just three books in the last two years.
The challenge here is a little bit different than WW where the challenge is not just the difficulty of finding decent copies of some issues, but the extreme cost of such issues. We already own probably the most expensive issues in this set, so unlike WW, I do think we could probably afford to complete this one over time, but there are several issues in this set where I have never seen a decent copy. Consequently, with our current policy of only displaying completed sets, unless we substantially drop the bar, I doubt this set will ever see the light of day. It’s a shame, I love the books, but it has become more a source of frustration than anything else.
Synopsis: This set contains 88 of the 100 books so it still has a ways to go; however, there is a lot of quality here, as 54 of our books top the census with 31 of those single highest graded examples. This set has topped the registry since June 2023, although if a percentage of completion component is introduced into the scoring of registered sets, a change which we would very much support, that status would likely change.
Background: Detective Comics is an anthology comic featuring detective characters, both superhero and civilian. The longest-lasting character in Detective Comics was Batman, as from the time of his debut (#27, May 1939), the Caped Crusader was almost always the star of the cover and lead story.
Detective Comics has remained in publication longer than any other DC Comics title, and indeed, the very name DC was taken from its initials. In March 2019, Detective became only the third American comic book in history - after Action and the Four Color series of the 1930s-60s by Dell Comics - to publish a 1,000th issue.
This set begins in November 1953 with Issue #201 and continues through Issue #300, which is dated February 1962. It thus straddles the Golden and Silver Ages.
Our Collection: Detective Comics is a very long run and one we did not collect when we started actively pursuing this hobby again 20 years ago. But I have long admired many of the covers and started buying some in the upper range of this set when several big collections started appearing at auction.
Initially, we only bought books from the 1960s, but later started buying issues from 1957-1959. I really wish there was a pure Silver Age set for these books, as I am really not that big of fan of some of the earlier covers. But we have nevertheless picked some up when they are both highest graded and reasonably priced. From what I can tell, with the sale of the Alfred Pennyworth books, there are really no collectors trying to replicate his collection, which has left an opportunity for us to start this set. But it is so far from being finished, that I can’t say we are in this one for the long haul. Still, it’s a decent start, highlighted by 26 single highest graded issues, including our Issue #298, which features the first appearance of Clayface.
For the time being, we are only targeting books graded at least 9.0 or 8.5s that are at least second highest graded. That seems like a pretty low bar, but the census in some issues is almost devoid of high-grade examples. In fact, 9.8s are pretty much non-existent-I think we currently have just one. In fact, even 9.6s are rare, with many issues having as low as an 8.5 topping the census. Also, white page examples are very rare, as are pedigrees.
I am really not sure where we are going with this collection. Being completist, this is not a set where I really see that goal as being achievable, at least not with the parameters we have established for this set. If we were going to do that, we probably needed to be much more aggressive buying these books a few years ago when so many were on the market. As is, I think the Detective Comics #300-400 set may be completable, although a good copy of Issue #359 will be very costly. I am really not seeing it as an achievable goal for this set.
2023 Update: While this set currently tops the census, it’s really a mess. Currently, we only have about half the books with none between #221-#239. We were doing pretty well on #201-220, but a 8.5 of #203, which we needed, recently came to auction and we came nowhere close to acquiring it. The book ended up selling for about $17k, which seems ridiculous for a book graded that low, and certainly not something we could do chasing as many titles as we are currently. In point of fact, that’s more than we have paid for any of our single highest graded books in the #201-220 range, including those graded 9.4-9.8. I am really not sure what we are going to do here, as we have clearly bitten off more than we can chew with this one and we may end up selling these books. For now, we are lowering our minimum grade on this set to 8.0 for the earlier Golden Age books and may start acquiring some books that are third highest graded just to fill some slots. Still, there are several books in this set that we have never seen on the market in any grade.
2024 Update: Well, we now have 63 of these books, as we have started acquiring a few more books that are not highest graded, but the chances of ever finishing this one seem extremely remote. There are some highest graded slot fillers on the market currently, but the asks are simply astronomical. If the registry points awarded this set are supposed to correlate to market values, all I can say is they are a joke. It would take hundreds of thousands to complete this set in high-grade examples -and that's if you can even find all the books.
2025 Update: We have made substantial progress filling slots in our quest to acquire the 200 books from #201-#400 in the past year and now have 184 books, leaving us with 16 to go. Many will not be easy finds and the rarity of these books have forced us to lower the bar to 8.0 for #201-#300 and 9.2 for #301-#400. Still, we are making progress.
2026 Update: This set still has a long ways to go compared to the later #301-#400 set, and we did not make a whole lot of progress over the last year, filling just one slot and upgrading another. Overall, we still need 14 books,12 in this set and just two in the latter one.
|