Chuck explains his Mile High pricing

[rjrjr]

This is a true story. Not sure if my brother Brian remembers this one or not:

 

Back when I was a novice collector, I used to love looking at the MH ads in the Marvel comics and dream about owning some of the comics. I once saved up to buy a NM copy of Incredible Hulk 102, my first and only mail order purchase as a kid. I was so excited to add that comic to my collection when I finally did scrape together the money and sent off the check. When the comic arrived however, my disappointed couldn't be bigger. The "NM" copy of Incredible Hulk 102 had foxing (clearly seen in the white portions of that comic) and the comic had other damage as well. I remember telling my parents and they were not happy so we packaged up the comic and sent it back. That prevented me from even trying to buy mail order again until I was an adult.

 

I do know from experience (I bought some "NM" comics from him a few years ago and documented the experience on these boards) his grading is still some of the worst the industry has to offer. So, when you consider his prices in conjunction with the grading, it makes no sense to me how he stays in business. I can only guess those happy with his practices are not aware of what a correctly graded books is or feel the occasionally correctly graded book they got at a "deal" make up for this.

[Prince Namor]

There a pretty simple reason why Chuck charges what he does. Because he can.

Nuff Said.

 

That's not the basis of most of the gripe here.

 

spewing their usual nonsense.

 

The whole point of a forum is to discuss things.

 

I've discussed the topic and my thoughts on it.

 

I've given examples and factual information.

 

Feel free to refute any of it.

 

You won't. Because you can't.

 

So you try and discredit it by attacking the source.

 

I just find that so very strange.

 

So tell us, 'Shadroch', what is acceptable for us to discuss about Chuck and Mile High Comics? His pot smoking, is that off limits? His tattoos? His pottery?

 

His pricing is apparently off limits, and his lack of moral compass, so what is the line to be drawn?

 

How can we make the forum so much easier for you so that you don't have to put up with mine and someone else's 'usual nonsense'?

 

God forbid anyone give an opinion here that disagree's with you or anyone else. We might end up with an actual discussion.

 

Or in the case of some, all they have to offer is an insult or an attack.

[steveinthecity]

There a pretty simple reason why Chuck charges what he does. Because he can.

Nuff Said.

 

That's not the basis of most of the gripe here.

 

spewing their usual nonsense.

 

The whole point of a forum is to discuss things.

 

I've discussed the topic and my thoughts on it.

 

I've given examples and factual information.

 

Feel free to refute any of it.

 

You won't. Because you can't.

 

So you try and discredit it by attacking the source.

 

I just find that so very strange.

 

So tell us, 'Shadroch', what is acceptable for us to discuss about Chuck and Mile High Comics? His pot smoking, is that off limits? His tattoos? His pottery?

 

His pricing is apparently off limits, and his lack of moral compass, so what is the line to be drawn?

 

How can we make the forum so much easier for you so that you don't have to put up with mine and someone else's 'usual nonsense'?

 

God forbid anyone give an opinion here that disagree's with you or anyone else. We might end up with an actual discussion.

 

Or in the case of some, all they have to offer is an insult or an attack.

At this point i would favor posts revolving around Chuck's pot smoking!

[mrc]

There a pretty simple reason why Chuck charges what he does. Because he can.

Nuff Said.

 

That's not the basis of most of the gripe here.

 

spewing their usual nonsense.

 

The whole point of a forum is to discuss things.

 

I've discussed the topic and my thoughts on it.

 

I've given examples and factual information.

 

Feel free to refute any of it.

 

You won't. Because you can't.

 

So you try and discredit it by attacking the source.

 

I just find that so very strange.

 

So tell us, 'Shadroch', what is acceptable for us to discuss about Chuck and Mile High Comics? His pot smoking, is that off limits? His tattoos? His pottery?

 

His pricing is apparently off limits, and his lack of moral compass, so what is the line to be drawn?

 

How can we make the forum so much easier for you so that you don't have to put up with mine and someone else's 'usual nonsense'?

 

God forbid anyone give an opinion here that disagree's with you or anyone else. We might end up with an actual discussion.

 

Or in the case of some, all they have to offer is an insult or an attack.

At this point i would favor posts revolving around Chuck's pot smoking!

 

...presumably that's why it's called mile "high" comics

 

 

 

 

[dupont2005]

I actually don't doubt that Chuck has more longboxes filled with comics than any other retailer.

 

How many of them are Youngblood #1 though? I'm not entirely sure Chuck has more worthwhile comics than any other retailer. First, he's not the biggest dealer in GA or keys, that's for sure. Not sure if he actually sells ANY GA keys at all. He has a couple, with big fat pricetags, but they don't sell.

 

On to of that, he doesn't seem to be the main guy for high grade slabs, modern variants, or even the largest online subscription service, even though he's been at it longer than anyone else. Those are all huge business errors in my opinion. Why should DCBS be able to step in and annihilate him on current comics from out of the blue? He had all the advantage. Why are much smaller retailers getting the hottest exclusive variants?

 

Where he is king is most likely dollar comics, and even there, only by a margin ahead of Lonestar.

[ChrisInBaltimore]

There a pretty simple reason why Chuck charges what he does. Because he can.

Nuff Said.

 

That's not the basis of most of the gripe here.

 

spewing their usual nonsense.

 

The whole point of a forum is to discuss things.

 

I've discussed the topic and my thoughts on it.

 

I've given examples and factual information.

 

Feel free to refute any of it.

 

You won't. Because you can't.

 

So you try and discredit it by attacking the source.

 

I just find that so very strange.

 

So tell us, 'Shadroch', what is acceptable for us to discuss about Chuck and Mile High Comics? His pot smoking, is that off limits? His tattoos? His pottery?

 

His pricing is apparently off limits, and his lack of moral compass, so what is the line to be drawn?

 

How can we make the forum so much easier for you so that you don't have to put up with mine and someone else's 'usual nonsense'?

 

God forbid anyone give an opinion here that disagree's with you or anyone else. We might end up with an actual discussion.

 

Or in the case of some, all they have to offer is an insult or an attack.

 

How did you know he was talking about you?

[oakman29]

There a pretty simple reason why Chuck charges what he does. Because he can.

Nuff Said.

 

That's not the basis of most of the gripe here.

 

spewing their usual nonsense.

 

The whole point of a forum is to discuss things.

 

I've discussed the topic and my thoughts on it.

 

I've given examples and factual information.

 

Feel free to refute any of it.

 

You won't. Because you can't.

 

So you try and discredit it by attacking the source.

 

I just find that so very strange.

 

So tell us, 'Shadroch', what is acceptable for us to discuss about Chuck and Mile High Comics? His pot smoking, is that off limits? His tattoos? His pottery?

 

His pricing is apparently off limits, and his lack of moral compass, so what is the line to be drawn?

 

How can we make the forum so much easier for you so that you don't have to put up with mine and someone else's 'usual nonsense'?

 

God forbid anyone give an opinion here that disagree's with you or anyone else. We might end up with an actual discussion.

 

Or in the case of some, all they have to offer is an insult or an attack.

[oakman29]

I think we should discuss his morbid obsession for Indian pottery.

[Gatchaman]

I have bought from both places and will say that MH, even though has a lot of books I need, has lost my business purely on their bad business practices. They have a lot of Fanzines I want, but they have been very late on shipping without communicating to you and have been dishonest in when they say they ship. If you try and contact them trying to find out what is going they treat you like you are being impatient and bothering them.

 

I have bought a lot from MCS. They have great packaging, fast shipping, and excellent communication, but there is also a lot I have not bought from them because they like to charge 3x-6x market value on a lot of their non-key books. I.e. for some books I can get for $1-2 from most other sellers they have them for $4-6. I spend a lot of money completing my runs, but to many times I have chosen not to buy those books from them.

 

I would prefer to keep using MCS for their customer service for all of my purchases if they would just be a little better on pricing.

[shadroch]

I have never bought from MH and never will. He must be doing something right though

 

maybe he is dong something right. Not sure, kinda don't care.

 

However-- I have always thought about his "operation" and thought-- hmmm-- what an ideal setup to launder truckloads of cash for some wiseguys.

 

ALL OF THIS IS OF COURSE PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART. Never met the man or been to his place of business. But when you have that much volume of stuff-- I can see how accounting can get "creative". And who is to say the numbers don't look legit?

 

just a possible way that a floundering business model might be propped up since clearly selling drugs out of the back of the store in Denver is probably not going to cut it anymore, at least weed-wise.

 

Chuck is a Master of creative accounting, just read how he financed Mile High 2.

Let's not forget he also obtained the Dallas Stephens collection with almost no money up front.

He plays chess while his critics seem to be playing checkers.

There are several things a business can do with inventory, only one of those is to sell it.

[Mmehdy]

I have bought from both places and will say that MH, even though has a lot of books I need, has lost my business purely on their bad business practices. They have a lot of Fanzines I want, but they have been very late on shipping without communicating to you and have been dishonest in when they say they ship. If you try and contact them trying to find out what is going they treat you like you are being impatient and bothering them.

 

I have bought a lot from MCS. They have great packaging, fast shipping, and excellent communication, but there is also a lot I have not bought from them because they like to charge 3x-6x market value on a lot of their non-key books. I.e. for some books I can get for $1-2 from most other sellers they have them for $4-6. I spend a lot of money completing my runs, but to many times I have chosen not to buy those books from them.

 

I would prefer to keep using MCS for their customer service for all of my purchases if they would just be a little better on pricing.

 

I bought from chuck...once though the mail.....Nuff said, even with a "discount"

[JollyComics]

State of Colorado legalized pot few years ago.

 

Chuck is stoned and sees $2 as $20, $4 as $40 or whatever.

[dupont2005]

He plays chess while his critics seem to be playing checkers.

[dupont2005]

There are several things a business can do with inventory, only one of those is to sell it.

Another is severely inflate the value of it and then take loans against it. A comic he bought for a penny is inventoried at $40. Do that 20 million times. Two hundred grand in inventory is all the sudden half a billion dollars of collateral. And we all know how far off appraisers can be on collectibles. If anyone was going to bother appraising an inventory as large as Chuck's instead of just taking his word for it.

[1950's war comics]

There are several things a business can do with inventory, only one of those is to sell it.

Another is severely inflate the value of it and then take loans against it. A comic he bought for a penny is inventoried at $40. Do that 20 million times. Two hundred grand in inventory is all the sudden half a billion dollars of collateral. And we all know how far off appraisers can be on collectibles. If anyone was going to bother appraising an inventory as large as Chuck's instead of just taking his word for it.

 

Brilliant analysis and could very well be the answer to why chucks comics are priced astronomically sky high.

price your inventory at 2000% of its value, take out massive loans with the paper on-line value of your comics as collateral, live like scrooge mcduck taking baths in gold coins and caviar for snacks, bury your extra cash in the backyard and eventually declare bankruptcy and the creditors can have their collateral back worth 1/10 what it was leveraged against, but chuck still wins!!!

[jaybuck43]

Only problem with that logic is that for any loan over $30,000 the bank is going to actually want some kind of outside appraisal, not just taking the loan applicants word for it. So they would send in an actuary or appraiser to go through his inventory and tally it up.

[ttfitz]

Only problem with that logic is that for any loan over $30,000 the bank is going to actually want some kind of outside appraisal, not just taking the loan applicants word for it. So they would send in an actuary or appraiser to go through his inventory and tally it up.

 

And according to his newsletter, all his loans are personally guaranteed by Chuck, so his farm is on the line in case of default.

 

[shadroch]

You guys are getting warm.

Warmer, anyway.

Like every super-villain,Chuckles has already revealed much of his plan, just to feed his ego.

[dupont2005]

Only problem with that logic is that for any loan over $30,000 the bank is going to actually want some kind of outside appraisal, not just taking the loan applicants word for it. So they would send in an actuary or appraiser to go through his inventory and tally it up.

Yeah, but comics appraisals are often ridiculously off. I can believe he can get appraisals at pretty much what he lists his comics at. Especially the drek.

[Cephusdog]

I have bought from both places and will say that MH, even though has a lot of books I need, has lost my business purely on their bad business practices. They have a lot of Fanzines I want, but they have been very late on shipping without communicating to you and have been dishonest in when they say they ship. If you try and contact them trying to find out what is going they treat you like you are being impatient and bothering them.

 

I have bought a lot from MCS. They have great packaging, fast shipping, and excellent communication, but there is also a lot I have not bought from them because they like to charge 3x-6x market value on a lot of their non-key books. I.e. for some books I can get for $1-2 from most other sellers they have them for $4-6. I spend a lot of money completing my runs, but to many times I have chosen not to buy those books from them.

 

I would prefer to keep using MCS for their customer service for all of my purchases if they would just be a little better on pricing.

 

I've shopped a bit from both over the years. Strangely enough I've always had difficulty with MCS shipping/handling and none through MHC. I prefer to shop through MCS but sometimes I look elsewhere after having to return several shipments due to damaged books. I occasionally order through MHC if I am find bulk lower priced books on sale. Once I placed an order with Chuck through ebay and it wasn't in stock (a low dollar book and not hot) and I received a $30 credit unexpectedly.

 

Not quite understanding all the hate - Chuck does seem a little out there - but to each his own.