The Justice League did not debut in Justice League of America #1. They debuted a year earlier in The Brave and the Bold #28, a tryout book, and only got their own title after that experiment worked. That is where Justice League of America #1 value starts.
Both comics are worth real money. They are not worth the same money, and owners mix them up constantly.
Why the distinction costs so much
The first appearance carries the premium in this hobby, and on these two books the gap is wide. A high-grade Brave and the Bold #28 has brought $810,000 at auction. The best documented result on this title is $348,000.
So if someone tells you they have the first Justice League, the cover settles it in a second: The Brave and the Bold in a February-March 1960 cover date, or Justice League of America dated October-November 1960.
This book has its own claim, though, and it is not a small one. It is where the team became a going concern rather than a trial, and the run that follows carries keys of its own.
Two reported peaks and a long way down
CGC has reported two sales of this book. The rest of the ladder comes from Heritage results and completed eBay sales, and the difference matters when you read it.
| Grade | Result | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 9.6 | $348,000 | Heritage Auctions, April 2024 |
| CGC 9.2 | $36,550 | ComicLink, May 2024 |
| CGC 9.0 | $37,200 | Heritage Auctions, July 2020 |
| CGC 9.0 | $31,200 | Heritage Auctions, November 2020 |
| CGC 8.5 | $11,160 | Heritage Auctions, December 2024 |
| CGC 8.0 | $12,500 | eBay, March 2022 |
| CGC 7.5 | $7,995 | eBay, March 2024 |
| CGC 7.0 | $7,200 | Heritage Auctions, November 2020 |
The $348,000 at the top is a real result and a misleading one to price against. It is a single CGC 9.6 in an April 2024 Heritage sale, and there is nothing else near it. The next reported sale down the ladder is $36,550, about a tenth of it, four tenths of a grade lower.
The middle of this book is where the useful numbers are, and it is unusually flat. A 9.0 brought $37,200 in July 2020 and $31,200 four months later; a 9.2 brought $36,550 in 2024. Three sales, two grades, four years, and they all land in the thirties of thousands. A 9.2 that sells for the same money as a 9.0 tells you the census is thin enough that grade stops driving price up there.
Below 8.5 the book behaves like an ordinary expensive DC key: $11,160, $12,500, $7,995, $7,200, in a band that has held since 2020. If your copy is complete and honest but shows its age, that is the part of the table it belongs in, and it is the part almost nobody quotes.
As with everything on this site, those figures come through CGC’s reporting of other companies’ auctions and Heritage’s own published results. GoCollect and PriceCharting track Justice League of America #1 independently, and if their numbers disagree with mine it is worth finding out which of us is wrong.
Justice League of America #1 value, by grade
189 sales tracked back to 2004; here are the three freshest in every grade.
| Grade | Sold for | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| CGC 9.6 | $348,000 | Heritage Auctions, April 17, 2024 |
| CGC 9.2 | $36,550 | ComicLink, May 28, 2024 |
| CGC 9.0 | $31,200 | Heritage Auctions, November 19, 2020 |
| CGC 9.0 | $37,200 | Heritage Auctions, July 9, 2020 |
| CGC 8.5 | $11,160 | Heritage Auctions, December 13, 2024 |
| CGC 8.0 | $4,255 | eBay, January 25, 2026 |
| CGC 8.0 | $6,600 | Heritage Auctions, July 25, 2025 |
| CGC 7.5 | $5,002 | Heritage Auctions, March 16, 2026 |
| CGC 7.5 | $6,600 | Heritage Auctions, October 10, 2024 |
| CGC 7.5 | $4,550 | eBay, April 19, 2024 |
| CGC 7.0 | $4,500 | eBay, November 13, 2025 |
| CGC 7.0 | $3,600 | Heritage Auctions, October 31, 2025 |
| CGC 7.0 | $4,800 | eBay, May 10, 2025 |
| CGC 6.5 | $2,040 | Heritage Auctions, September 2, 2024 |
| CGC 6.5 | $2,000 | eBay, August 6, 2024 |
| CGC 6.5 | $2,125 | eBay, February 10, 2024 |
| CGC 6.0 | $1,885 | eBay, May 18, 2026 |
| CGC 6.0 Conserved | $2,000 | eBay, May 30, 2025 |
| CGC 6.0 | $2,040 | Heritage Auctions, November 30, 2024 |
| CGC 5.5 | $1,889 | eBay, August 9, 2026 |
| CGC 5.5 | $1,800 | eBay, February 3, 2026 |
| CGC 5.5 | $2,395 | eBay, January 19, 2026 |
| CGC 5.0 | $1,498 | eBay, April 6, 2026 |
| CGC 5.0 | $1,600 | eBay, March 11, 2026 |
| CGC 5.0 | $1,660 | eBay, January 11, 2026 |
| CGC 4.5 | $1,195 | eBay, July 4, 2026 |
| CGC 4.5 | $1,025 | eBay, November 24, 2025 |
| CGC 4.5 | $700 | eBay, September 25, 2025 |
| CGC 4.0 | $1,150 | eBay, June 17, 2026 |
| CGC 4.0 | $1,299 | eBay, May 31, 2026 |
| CGC 4.0 | $1,350 | eBay, May 10, 2026 |
| CGC 3.5 | $950 | eBay, April 10, 2026 |
| CGC 3.5 | $950 | eBay, February 24, 2026 |
| CGC 3.5 | $805 | eBay, December 25, 2025 |
| CGC 3.0 | $700 | eBay, August 7, 2026 |
| CGC 3.0 | $950 | eBay, May 21, 2026 |
| CGC 3.0 | $671 | Heritage Auctions, May 14, 2026 |
| CGC 2.5 | $630 | eBay, August 4, 2026 |
| CGC 2.5 | $675 | eBay, June 23, 2026 |
| CGC 2.5 | $528 | Heritage Auctions, December 2, 2025 |
| CGC 2.0 | $660 | eBay, June 1, 2026 |
| CGC 2.0 | $739 | eBay, September 29, 2025 |
| CGC 2.0 | $513 | eBay, August 25, 2025 |
| CGC 1.5 | $539 | eBay, May 13, 2026 |
| Raw | $150 | eBay, July 24, 2026 |
| Raw | $208 | eBay, July 6, 2026 |
| Raw | $120 | eBay, June 22, 2026 |
Every row above is a documented sale, verifiable in Heritage’s public Justice League of America issue index and in CGC’s published auction reporting. 191 sales are recorded. The newest three per grade are the ones with anything to say about today.
18 of these share one grade. The CGC 5.5 line reads $1,860 in 2023, $1,440 in 2024, $1,500 in 2025, $1,889 in 2026. $1,860 to $1,889, with the 2025 peak at $2,500.
The band almost every copy lands in
Since the start of 2025 I count forty-two sales in the readable grades, and what stands out is how little room there is between them.
A 3.5 brought $950 in April 2026. A 6.0 brought $1,885 in May and a 5.5 brought $1,889 in August. In between, three separate 4.0 copies sold at $1,150, $1,299 and $1,350, and a 4.5 at $1,195. Two and a half grade points across that whole list, and under a thousand dollars separating the bottom from the top.
That flatness is worth understanding before you pay to have a copy graded. On a book where a 4.0 and a 6.0 differ by about seven hundred dollars, the fee, the postage and the wait can eat most of what the higher grade would earn you. The calculation is different on the copies at the top of the table above, and it is different again here.
Selling a Justice League of America #1
- Confirm which book you have. Brave and the Bold #28 is the first appearance; this is the first issue of their own title.
- Ten cents, late 1960. DC has reprinted this cover on anniversary editions that name themselves in the indicia.
- Do not sell the run piecemeal without reading it. Early JLA issues carry first appearances of their own.
- Grade before you assume. The gap between a 5.5 and an 8.0 on this book is the difference between four figures and five.
Which Justice League book do you have?
One photo of the cover answers it, and three photos price it. Text them over and you will know the same day which of the two you are holding.
I read every request myself.
Send photographs and I will place your copy in its grade lane against the same recent sales you can read above. Where you take it next is your call, and the options for selling in Southern California are worth knowing either way.
Related
- The Brave and the Bold #28, the actual first appearance.
- The 100 most valuable Silver Age comics.
- What a free appraisal covers.
Cover images on this page are shown small, for identification, with the publisher credited in the caption. If you are a rights holder and want an image removed, contact me and it comes down.
