Mile High Chuck's place in the hobby

[HighStakesComics]

I have a theory on the ridiculous prices over there, but first you need to put yourself in Chuck's shoes. Imagine what it must be like, to have in your possession the greatest comic collection ever uncovered, sell most of it in the late 70's and early 80's when the economy was in a bit of a rut, and then watch the prices of everything you sold absolutely go through the freaking roof! Best case it would probably give you a little OCD about your current holdings, cause you to buy out every collection in sight in search of the next Edgar Church, and then jack up the price on everything since what you once had is selling at 2000-3000% percent of what you originally sold it for. With a warehouse full of that many comics, he should try to churn that inventory as quickly as possible, but instead he's seems in be stuck in hoarding mode. I sense the Mile High empire may be on the ropes.

[Vikingreed]

I've read his history, and his life has been amazing.

Just amazing.

 

 

Yeah, I've enjoyed his "tales" as it's one person's insight into comic collecting history, and from someone who has been very involved with it. It's idiosyncratic, which is fine. He's not striving for impartiality from what I see. It's him providing his take on things.

 

Like others, though, I've gone to the website, found something on my want list, and suffered enough sticker shock to keep looking elsewhere. I wonder if he's painting himself into a corner. If he re-priced everything to what's commonly understood to be market value and at the same time released all his back stock, maybe he really would flood the market. Does anyone here have an idea, because I don't, of what his back stock is like? I get the impression that he must have mountains of books that probably aren't even available at any given time.

 

 

According to a newsletter earlier this month, "What makes this all a little unusual is that we really do not need to pick up any more collections right now. As a direct result of my numerous buying trips of the past few years, we currently have over one million (!) unsorted back issue comics already in storage in the back of our Jason St. Mega-Store. If my post-San Diego Comic-Con operational plans come to fruition, however, we will be sorting and grading most of those comics for you by the end of this year. That may seem an unrealistic goal, but when you realize that we have already sorted over 500,000 comics this year, it seems somewhat more achievable."

 

 

Wow.

That is insane.

[Vikingreed]

Those WD prices are ridiculous, or I'm sitting on a goldmine. I had a little sympathy when I read his article, but with prices like that, it is no wonder customers pass him by. Mile High almost makes CPG look like a reputable pricing site (almost).

 

+1

No doubt. That's the reason I haven't browsed his website in 10 years.

Just over the top prices.

[awakeintheashes]

I've read his history, and his life has been amazing.

Just amazing.

 

 

Yeah, I've enjoyed his "tales" as it's one person's insight into comic collecting history, and from someone who has been very involved with it. It's idiosyncratic, which is fine. He's not striving for impartiality from what I see. It's him providing his take on things.

 

Like others, though, I've gone to the website, found something on my want list, and suffered enough sticker shock to keep looking elsewhere. I wonder if he's painting himself into a corner. If he re-priced everything to what's commonly understood to be market value and at the same time released all his back stock, maybe he really would flood the market. Does anyone here have an idea, because I don't, of what his back stock is like? I get the impression that he must have mountains of books that probably aren't even available at any given time.

 

 

According to a newsletter earlier this month, "What makes this all a little unusual is that we really do not need to pick up any more collections right now. As a direct result of my numerous buying trips of the past few years, we currently have over one million (!) unsorted back issue comics already in storage in the back of our Jason St. Mega-Store. If my post-San Diego Comic-Con operational plans come to fruition, however, we will be sorting and grading most of those comics for you by the end of this year. That may seem an unrealistic goal, but when you realize that we have already sorted over 500,000 comics this year, it seems somewhat more achievable."

 

Earlier that day...

[ComicConnoisseur]

Chuck is 60 now. I wonder how long he wants to do this?

What happens to the comic book market when he wants out and wants to sell?

[HighStakesComics]

Chuck is 60 now. I wonder how long he wants to do this?

What happens to the comic book market when he wants out and wants to sell?

 

Bingo

[shadroch]

Hopefully he does an auction similar to the Torpedo Comics one and I buy another 25000 books for a nickel each.

[goldust40]

Chuck is 60 now. I wonder how long he wants to do this?

What happens to the comic book market when he wants out and wants to sell?

 

I would say his sudden absence would make little difference, due to the vast majority of his inventory being cheap, low-end books and variants with a limited shelf life - he doesn't seem to have many high-end GA and SA books left on his site. It may make a difference on a regional level as customers in Colorado would no longer have the option of visiting his megastores.

[shadroch]

Chuck is 60 now. I wonder how long he wants to do this?

What happens to the comic book market when he wants out and wants to sell?

 

I would say his sudden absence would make little difference, due to the vast majority of his inventory being cheap, low-end books and variants with a limited shelf life - he doesn't seem to have many high-end GA and SA books left on his site. It may make a difference on a regional level as customers in Colorado would no longer have the option of visiting his megastores.

 

Imagine his heirs renting a parking lot near Comic Con and running a weeklong 3/$1 sale.

[Buzzetta]

Chuck is 60 now. I wonder how long he wants to do this?

What happens to the comic book market when he wants out and wants to sell?

 

I would say his sudden absence would make little difference, due to the vast majority of his inventory being cheap, low-end books and variants with a limited shelf life - he doesn't seem to have many high-end GA and SA books left on his site. It may make a difference on a regional level as customers in Colorado would no longer have the option of visiting his megastores.

 

Imagine his heirs renting a parking lot near Comic Con and running a weeklong year long 3/$1 sale.

 

Fixed it

[ComicConnoisseur]

I believe he owned five shops and a separate comic distribution company at the time he bought Mile High 2. At the time, he was quite possibly the largest dealer in the world.

Yes, he lucked into the Church collection and overnite went from being a small fry dealer into the inner circle of BSDs. That was thirty seven years ago and he is still going strong.

Go look in a 1984 Overstreet and see the attrition rate this hobby has. Where is Moondog? Where are the guys from Super Hero World? Pacfic? Seagate? Capital City? Theo? Robert Bell? Gary Ross? Million Comics? New England Comics? Fantazia? Sal Q?

The Levines? Howard whateverhisname? The real Sparkle City?

Look at the financial nightmare Steve Geppi is caught up in.

 

Seems like a lot of the old guard is gone?

[goldust40]

Chuck is 60 now. I wonder how long he wants to do this?

What happens to the comic book market when he wants out and wants to sell?

 

I would say his sudden absence would make little difference, due to the vast majority of his inventory being cheap, low-end books and variants with a limited shelf life - he doesn't seem to have many high-end GA and SA books left on his site. It may make a difference on a regional level as customers in Colorado would no longer have the option of visiting his megastores.

 

Imagine his heirs renting a parking lot near Comic Con and running a weeklong year long 3/$1 sale.

 

Fixed it

 

Indeed. Given the colossal inventory he has (8 million books?), they could fill the main exhibition hall and still need a year to turn over the books, providing they're correctly priced, of course.

[RCheli]

Do you guys really think that Chuck hasn't considered (and re-considered) all of the things that you're talking about? Do you really think he prices comics at a level where they don't sell or that doesn't give him a positive cash flow?

 

You may not like the way he does business or how he prices his books, but he sells a mess ton of comics every day. Probably more than any other dealer in the country. He has been in business for 40 years. He knows what he's doing.

[shadroch]

Back in the Eighties when I was just thinking about opening my first store, I met with a couple of guys from SCORE. I explained how I would be buying new books at 50% off the sixty cent cover price. Whatever didn't sell at sixty cents would go into the back issue bins and be priced at seventy five cents or higher. One of the guys asked me why I wanted to sell books today for sixty cents that I'd be able to sell for seventy five cents in a month.

i think that goes a long way towards Chucks pricing.

[letsgrumble]

Chuck needs a massive reboot.

Out of touch with current reality.

 

He'll be in the limelight again if a film about the Mile High find is ever released.

[1904 Comics]

He's kinda like a great actor who is not-so-great off camera. I think he's done a lot for the industry simply by being a big player (and yes, he is HUGE in Colorado - in the early 90s, there were like 5-6 Mile High Comics in malls around the city) - but I think he must have a skewed view of how people want him to interact with the public.

 

His emails - while chock full of interesting and from-the-heart content, really need to be edited in such a way that he doesn't come off as A) whiney or B) car salesman-ey.

 

If he tweaked his messages just a bit to less self-promotion and more industry-specific topics - he'd begin to understand that the benefit to his business of speaking to a huge online community comes in the residual affinity that followers feel towards an "online persona" rather than trying to do the "immediate sale" pitch to customers.

 

Since social media really started ramping up about 10 years ago, by now he could arguably have been the most well-known and borderline beloved comic dealer in the world, if he had taken his time (or hired someone to take the time) to understand the nuances and psychology of communicating to a customer base online. He could have finessed his legacy much like how Stan Lee has done for himself - and really put the majority of the collecting community on his side with some careful tailoring of what he puts on the internet.

 

Instead, he's managed to shoot himself in the foot on a near month-to-month basis for the past several years (I personally enjoyed the times where he'd talk about a national tragedy, and in the next sentence offer a special sales on books ) . He may be successful in terms of numbers and dollars, but boy - he probably left more than that on the table due to some social media and online missteps he's made.

 

great analysis :thumbsup:

appeal to people = appeal to sales, I always look forward to your stamp of approvals

[letsgrumble]

I've witnessed Chuck at many cons over the years. More than once, I have seen him carry around these large binders full of inventory reports printed out on dot matrix printer paper. He will concentrate on a few large booths, usually inexpensive ones, and painstakingly comb through each comic box, check books against his sales reports, and pull out hundreds if not thousands of comics, golden age to moderns. Reminded me of Galactus devouring a booth of all its sustenance. When I first witnessed this, I thought: why is this mighty comic book mogul doing this type of low-level grunt work? But I just chalked it up to what was obvious: the man loves comics.

[General Zod]

he's a captain of industry, dag-gummit

 

Oh I agree but maybe it's time for him to retire. If not completely re-think his business model. I respect what he's accomplished in his lifetime. He's just not keeping up with the times (now) and frankly his public image is suffering. It's funny to assign the words "public image" to a comic book dealer but Chuck's been larger than life for a while now.

[RCheli]

Back in the Eighties when I was just thinking about opening my first store, I met with a couple of guys from SCORE. I explained how I would be buying new books at 50% off the sixty cent cover price. Whatever didn't sell at sixty cents would go into the back issue bins and be priced at seventy five cents or higher. One of the guys asked me why I wanted to sell books today for sixty cents that I'd be able to sell for seventy five cents in a month.

i think that goes a long way towards Chucks pricing.

 

Isn't it amazing how stores were able to even stay in business when comics had such a low cover price? I worked at a shop off and on for around 15 years (from middle school up), and big sales days were $800 (on new book Fridays) to sometimes less than $100 on a slow Thursday.

 

You just had to sell so many comics.

 

Chuck's business is he has a huge selection of comics so that you can easily fill your want list in one fell swoop. If you have to pay slightly more, it's okay, because you're saving on shipping, you end up with free stuff, it's all discounted (so even if the prices seem high, after discounts, they're not as high), and it gets to you quickly.

 

People on this board are not his target audience.

[AlexanderM]

I can only find a 86 minutes video that states is was just a 86 minutes long recording of a live streaming from a comic con....

 

Is that the one?