Set Description
Synopsis: I wonder if anyone has ever finished this set, as we seem to be the only collectors trying to do so currently (at least the only ones who have registered their books). While we have been hunting these books hard and have lowered the minimum grade we would accept, just to fill some empty slots, we still have a ways to go to finish this set.
When we first registered these books, I called this set a starter set. While this set certainly graduated from that status a couple of years ago and now tops the census by a wide margin, there are still several holes in the set. Currently, we own 64 of the 67 books, including 19 9.8s, 33 9.6s, 10 9.4s, and a pair of 9.0s. Eight of our books are single highest graded examples in the census, including two of the four Showcases. Still, this set is well behind our top DC sets, such as Flash, Green Lantern, and JLA, in terms of both registry points and completeness and could still be considered a work in progress. Our goal is to finish it in 2022, but my confidence level is none too high.
Background: We have long owned Showcase #30-33, but only had them registered in our Showcase set. We changed our focus in 2018-19 away from upgrading existing sets to starting new ones, which is much more fun to be honest. This set has far more holes than slots filled. But with the first four Showcases already in place at high grade, why not slowly add books? I figure it will take years to finish this one.
June 2020 Update: The two people previously leading the registry both sold their sets over the past year or so, the first in a CC auction and the second in a CL auction. The books in the first auction went at pretty low prices and we were able to add a number of high-grade books at very reasonable prices. The second auction was more competitive, but the two auctions allowed us to jumpstart this collection and leap to the top of the registry. This set still has a number of holes, but we do have good examples of the 4 Showcases and the first eleven standalone issues-well, the first 10 anyway, LOL.
2021 Update: Really not much to report on this front, as we only upgraded or filled a couple of later slots over the past year.
2022 Update: Man, this is a tough set. We still lack five books to finish the set after only acquiring one book the past year. We did acquire a 9.6 Issue #38 and upgraded our #28 with a 9.8, but that was it for 2021. One big difference between Aquamans and many DC sets is that nobody has much of a collection, at least in the registry. As a consequence, you cannot find books you need from searching registered sets and offering trades to fellow collectors. I have come to believe that, unlike the other DC titles we collect, there is a high grade unregistered set of these books out there, as there are lots of these books in the census that we have never seen on the registry or in the market.
May 2022 Update: We have made finishing this set one of our collecting goals for 2022 and have found two of the missing five books in separate translations. So we now need a #12, #35 and #36 to finish this set and would accept a 9.0 or up, if anyone has one to sell.
