The Justice League is for sale! Peter Rickets stumbles upon a device that gives the holder control of those exposed to it. Using its power, Rickets sells the Justice League to criminals and the members of the Justice League must fight each other!
The JLA star in "For Sale...The Justice League!" Superman and Batman do not appear at all in this issue - it was editorial policy to downplay the World's Finest duo in order to give more exposure and action to the lesser know heroes in the team.
This story begins with petty crook Pete Ricketts on the run from the police. Stumbling into an alley, he finds a strange gadget which enables him to control the police as he douses them in its ray of light. To Ricketts' amaement, the police run away when he orders them to! Realising he has found something special, Ricketts continues to use the device to make himself rich as he continues his one man crime spree. Meanwhile the underworld ganglords are bemoaning the fact that takings are down because of the JLA. They decide to put up a million dollar reward for anyone who can get rid of the Justice League - and uppon hearing this, Ricketts believes this is his chance to hit the big time.
Turning his gadget on Green Lantern, Ricketts orders the Emerald Gladiator to tke him to the gangland hideout of the crime bosses. As they approach, the mob shoot wildly at Green Lantern, but GL - under the compulsion of Ricketts Ray makes short work of them. Upon landing, Ricketts boasts that he can deliver the JLA to the mob. The crooks are happy to put up the money if he can prove this to be the case.
Using his strange ray on Green Lantern, Ricketts forces the Emerald Gladiator to tell him where his JLA signal device is located. Ricketts calls the JLA members and as they respond, he zaps each one of them in turn with his controlling ray. Soon, six members of the world's greatest super heroes stand helpless before the crime lords!
Ricketts gets them to image what it would be like to have the JLA commit robberies on their behalf - and then, so that the crooks can reap the benefit of such a venture, auctions off each hero to the eager gangland bosses. Arguing amongst themselves about who has the better buy, the hoods agree to send the heroes up against each other in pairs to commit the same robbery. Helpless to disobey, the JLA set off on their mission - not to solve crimes - but to commit them!
Meanwhile, honorary team member "Snapper" Carr is back at JLA HQ opening the mail. He comes across an interesting plea for help from an inventor, who made a miscalculation in one of his devices, which is called a Cyberniray. The Cyberniray increases a person's ability to learn and remember oral instructions - but the aforementioned miscalculation caused the Cyberniray to be tossed out of the window and into the alley below. The same alley Pete Ricketts and the police had been in at the opening of the story.
"Snapper" looks in the JLA souvenier room for inspiration and finds the Anti-gravity discs recently used by Doctor Destiny. (JLA#5). Taking them on board, "Snapper" suddenly receives two emergency signals from the JLA.
The Flash and Green Lantern are both out to steal some Napoleonic Jewels from the art centre in Circle City. After battling one another to a standstill, the two heroes are amazed to find that the Jewels have mysteriously disappeared. Neither of them are responsible and they have no idea where they have gone, so the heores - still under the influence of the Cyberniray - make their way back to gangland HQ to admit their failure.
A similar thing happens to Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter. Regretfully using their powers against one another, it seems that they will be battling it out all day until they turn and realise that the Radium they were sent to steel has also mysteriously vanished. Again, neither hero is aware of who or how this has happened, and they too return to gangland HQ to admit they have not stolen the goods.
Aquaman and Green Arrow are sent to battle one another as they vie for the takings on a gambling ship.Gadget arrows clash with sea life and it appears another stalemate is on the cards, until both heroes see the safe of takings disappear before them and again they know not how! All they can do is return empty handed to gangland HQ as per their JLA colleagues.
Six Justice League members were sent out to commit crimes and they all returned empty handed, despite being under the compulsion of the Cyberniray to obey the instructions of Pete Ricketts. The mob are dumbfounded, but decide to do away with the League in the carefully prepared traps they have set for each one of them. Still influenced by the Cyberniray, the JLAers must obey Ricketts' commands as he orders them to walk into their respective traps. Aquaman sees the water drain from his tank, Jonn Jonzz is surrounded by flames, Wonder Woman is being covered with Plaster of Paris, Green Lantern is about to be shot with a yellow bullet, Green Arrow is tied to an arrow shaped rocket and heading for space, and the Flash is about to suffocate under some contracting netting.
Then, inexplicably, Aquaman feels he is released from Ricketts' control and he swiftly orders a schoal of fish to carry water to the Martian Manhunter, thus freeing him. Returning the favour by using his super breath to draw a storm cloud towards him, Jonn used the hailstone to shatter the trap holding Aquaman. The Martian then frees Wonder Woman from her predicament by using his Martian Vision to melt the Plaster of Paris away. Her arms freed, Wonder Woman lasso's Green Arrow to safety from his rocket, who in turn fires a volley of arrows into the netting holding the Flash, freeing the Scarlet Speedster just in time for him to prevent the yellow bullet hitting Green Lantern!
The freed JLA surround the mob and a stunned Pete Ricketts realises he no longer has his weapon. Turning he sees it is in the hands of none other than "Snapper" Carr! Snapper tells the JLA how he responded to the signals sent to him by Flash and GL. Although Rickets had ordered the JLA members not to use their signal devices, he did not say they could not use one another's signal device! Using the anti gravity discs, "Snapper" flew to where Flash and GL were battling it out and stole the Napoleonic Jewels while they were preoccupied. It was "Snapper" who ensured the safe of takings from the gaming ship kept on rising as the stunned GA and Aquaman looked on by using his anti-gravity discs and the teenager also took the radium that Wonder Womann and Jonn were battling over.
As he saw the heroes trapped, "Snapper" then snatched the Cyberniray and released the heroes, thus setting in motion the teamwork that saved the day.
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