Chuck explains his Mile High pricing

[slym2none]

Define radically overpay.

 

When you jump over the cash register on a jet ski that's on fire, chugging whiskey and getting a hand job (and pay $50 more than FMV).

 

TIL a new definition for "radical."

 

 

 

 

-slym

[ttfitz]

My brother and I always like to make fun of the ridiculous elias sports bureau stats that Fox always trots out in the Playoffs like "The Yankees have never lost a game when leading by more then 3 runs in the top of the 8th inning when the moon is in the 3rd vertical of it's 9th elliptic and there are two runners on base."

 

Here's why I won't deal with Chuck, plain and simple. 90% of what he has, I don't collect. The 10% that he has that I do collect is overpriced and easily found from other sources who are a) cheaper and b) more easy to deal with.

 

 

Same here. I've probably bought hundreds of books from him over the years, but that was back when I was in the market for what shows up in the dollar bin (the quarter bin at the time) to fill runs. Don't buy that stuff now, so there really isn't anything of interest on his site. But it apparently still fills a need for a lot of people, or he'd be gone by now like so many others.

 

[mycomicshop]

Regarding the statements in the YouTube videos that they're not so much a business as a research institution, that they don't care about turn over, would rather accumulate more and more comics than sell them, etc.--given that he's been presenting himself for years as the biggest and foremost comic retailer, to claim at this juncture that you don't care about selling anything sounds like a rationalization of current circumstances rather than the intentional turning away from retailing that it's presented as.

 

As to topic of largest comic store, I believe the following to be true:

 

- Mile High has the largest number of comics and books in their possession. If they have 10 million, that's more than we have.

 

- Mile High has the most warehouse space of any comic retailer.

 

- Mile High's Jason Street store is the world's largest physical comic store. It's a cool space they have created and I hope it does well for them.

 

- MCS has the largest selection of comics. If we're measuring selection rather than inventory quantity, a given issue only counts one time no matter how many copies you have in stock. There are plenty of books that we have in stock that Mile High doesn't, and there are plenty of books that they have in stock that we don't, but overall I believe we have a non-trivial advantage in selection. And this advantage in selection is maintained despite the fact that we sell quite a bit more books than they do, with our books tending to move into buyers' collections while Mile High's tend to sit on the shelf due to noncompetitive prices.

 

- MCS sells the most comics, by quantity and dollar volume. We sell more comics at the low end of the market, and we sell many more $20+, $50+ and $100+ items where Mile High barely registers because they're so overpriced or don't have the book in stock in the first place. As an example, anybody who cares enough to get a pro Terapeak subscription can compare the sales of any seller on eBay. Past 30 days, MCS has $149K in eBay sales on 14,120 items sold, vs Mile High's $34K in eBay sales on 8,851 items sold. That's eBay, not web sites.

 

- MCS buys the most comics (new and back issue combined). I don't know Mile High's numbers, but don't think it's close. Lately they seem to be focused more on sifting value out of their existing piles of bulk comics than buying new material. That, and the money they're putting into cover variants.

 

- MCS has significantly more web site visitors

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/mycomicshop.com

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/milehighcomics.com

https://www.quantcast.com/mycomicshop.com

https://www.quantcast.com/milehighcomics.com

 

Based on selection and sales, I'm comfortable claiming that we're the largest comic store/largest comic retailer and have been for quite some time. Mile High has the largest brick and mortar store (by square footage and selection but not necessarily sales) and the largest inventory (total inventory count, not selection).

 

[budsbundy]

Great post MCS

Interesting to see the comparision

[oakman29]

Chuck is a........

 

Chuck is a this........

 

 

Chuck is a that.......

 

 

 

 

 

Who really cares....

[Park]

Define radically overpay.

 

Without getting into dollars and cents, I've paid next years prices for this years books more than once. Sometimes 25-30% over what they are worth on expensive books.

 

 

Why? Were there no other books at a cheaper price available? Was it speculation and you were assuming the price was going to go up?

 

I'm just not understanding the concept of someone saying they would "radically overpay" for something and be happy about it.

 

I buy new comics on occasion from my LCS and other times I buy them from DCBS for 40% off.

 

I am happy about doing it.

[slym2none]

Chuck is a........

 

Chuck is a this........

 

 

Chuck is a that.......

 

 

 

 

Who really cares....

 

Colonial Mustard does.

 

 

 

-slym

[Mmehdy]

Regarding the statements in the YouTube videos that they're not so much a business as a research institution, that they don't care about turn over, would rather accumulate more and more comics than sell them, etc.--given that he's been presenting himself for years as the biggest and foremost comic retailer, to claim at this juncture that you don't care about selling anything sounds like a rationalization of current circumstances rather than the intentional turning away from retailing that it's presented as.

 

As to topic of largest comic store, I believe the following to be true:

 

- Mile High has the largest number of comics and books in their possession. If they have 10 million, that's more than we have.

 

- Mile High has the most warehouse space of any comic retailer.

 

- Mile High's Jason Street store is the world's largest physical comic store. It's a cool space they have created and I hope it does well for them.

 

- MCS has the largest selection of comics. If we're measuring selection rather than inventory quantity, a given issue only counts one time no matter how many copies you have in stock. There are plenty of books that we have in stock that Mile High doesn't, and there are plenty of books that they have in stock that we don't, but overall I believe we have a non-trivial advantage in selection. And this advantage in selection is maintained despite the fact that we sell quite a bit more books than they do, with our books tending to move into buyers' collections while Mile High's tend to sit on the shelf due to noncompetitive prices.

 

- MCS sells the most comics, by quantity and dollar volume. We sell more comics at the low end of the market, and we sell many more $20+, $50+ and $100+ items where Mile High barely registers because they're so overpriced or don't have the book in stock in the first place. As an example, anybody who cares enough to get a pro Terapeak subscription can compare the sales of any seller on eBay. Past 30 days, MCS has $149K in eBay sales on 14,120 items sold, vs Mile High's $34K in eBay sales on 8,851 items sold. That's eBay, not web sites.

 

- MCS buys the most comics (new and back issue combined). I don't know Mile High's numbers, but don't think it's close. Lately they seem to be focused more on sifting value out of their existing piles of bulk comics than buying new material. That, and the money they're putting into cover variants.

 

- MCS has significantly more web site visitors

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/mycomicshop.com

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/milehighcomics.com

https://www.quantcast.com/mycomicshop.com

https://www.quantcast.com/milehighcomics.com

 

Based on selection and sales, I'm comfortable claiming that we're the largest comic store/largest comic retailer and have been for quite some time. Mile High has the largest brick and mortar store (by square footage and selection but not necessarily sales) and the largest inventory (total inventory count, not selection).

 

 

 

very well done....a lot better than Barney Bear 59 cent which chuck claims he will sell for two dollars...I mean 90...with discount 33 or whatever.....so he has 10 million barney bears and he goes on the internet and says he is the biggest and the baddest comic book dealer on the planet...thanks for the above info....I cannot wait for #6 video from Chuck aka uncle comic scrooge...

[RockMyAmadeus]

Define radically overpay.

 

Without getting into dollars and cents, I've paid next years prices for this years books more than once. Sometimes 25-30% over what they are worth on expensive books.

 

 

Why? Were there no other books at a cheaper price available? Was it speculation and you were assuming the price was going to go up?

 

I'm just not understanding the concept of someone saying they would "radically overpay" for something and be happy about it.

 

Because it's not about the money.

 

I recently bid on, and won, a book that I have been looking for for 15 years. It's a 90's limited variant, to be sure, but it's something I'm very much interested in. There have been a grand total of 3-4 sales of this book on eBay in that time. It is, of course, not for sale at any of the usual places.

 

The last time it was on eBay, I missed it. That was in 2007.

 

So, the next time it came up for sale, I determined I was going to win, no matter what it cost (and I could afford.) That didn't happen again until December of this past year. When I saw it, I immediately entered a snipe bid.

 

That bid? $469.

 

I won the book for a shade over $100.

 

But I was willing to pay $469 to own that book, and would have been fine paying that amount to own it.

 

Most of the people reading this would scoff, and pass on that book for $10, $25 if they knew what it was. Obviously, in the current market, it's not worth more than $100...but I was perfectly willing to pay $469 for it, and, had the owner had it at that price as a Buy It Now, I *probably* would have paid it. I definitely would have paid $250 without giving it a second thought. That's what it means to "radically overpay" and still be happy about it.

 

It's not about the money.

 

Once more, with feeling: it's not about the money.

 

None of us is immortal. We will not live forever. I wanted to complete my collection, and now I have. Took me 15 years to do it, start to finish. Four months later, I am still giddy thinking about it, because I accomplished what is, to me, a major feat that took me years of patient waiting to accomplish.

 

And there are thousands and thousands of people just like me out there, waiting, not caring how much it costs, just waiting for the opportunity to fill that spot in their collection with that impossible to find book, or that impossible to find grade.

 

Centaur collectors know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Late 40's/early 50's high grade DC collectors know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

60's Fanzine collectors know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Detective Comics completists know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

It's just not about the money. It really isn't.

[Sqeggs]

Define radically overpay.

 

Without getting into dollars and cents, I've paid next years prices for this years books more than once. Sometimes 25-30% over what they are worth on expensive books.

 

But that's not really the issue. The issue is that you can't really tell someone what they can charge for a product. You can only choose whether you will pay it or not.

 

You can talk about it on the internet too if that floats your boat but if people are going to make it personal and derogatory then they lose credibility with me.

 

And again, I'm not a Chuck supporter or a detractor, and as far as I know, I have never done business with him.

 

You either accept free enterprise or you don't but if you don't accept it then don't play the double standard - give up everything for the greater good of your fellow man.

 

That surprises me. I can't believe there are many people who have been around as long as I assume you have been who haven't dealt with him.

[Sqeggs]

You would be wrong.

 

99.9999999999999999% of your arguments include a statement like this.

 

Hyperbole aside, you are offended, because you don't like forthrightness. You would rather have people dance around the issue, using coddling language, couching everything in indirect, nebulous, vague, indecisive terms.

 

 

Leave my posts out of this fight!

[Mr Sneeze]

Define radically overpay.

 

Without getting into dollars and cents, I've paid next years prices for this years books more than once. Sometimes 25-30% over what they are worth on expensive books.

 

 

Why? Were there no other books at a cheaper price available? Was it speculation and you were assuming the price was going to go up?

 

I'm just not understanding the concept of someone saying they would "radically overpay" for something and be happy about it.

 

Because it's not about the money.

 

I recently bid on, and won, a book that I have been looking for for 15 years. It's a 90's limited variant, to be sure, but it's something I'm very much interested in. There have been a grand total of 3-4 sales of this book on eBay in that time. It is, of course, not for sale at any of the usual places.

 

The last time it was on eBay, I missed it. That was in 2007.

 

So, the next time it came up for sale, I determined I was going to win, no matter what it cost (and I could afford.) That didn't happen again until December of this past year. When I saw it, I immediately entered a snipe bid.

 

That bid? $469.

 

I won the book for a shade over $100.

 

But I was willing to pay $469 to own that book, and would have been fine paying that amount to own it.

 

Most of the people reading this would scoff, and pass on that book for $10, $25 if they knew what it was. Obviously, in the current market, it's not worth more than $100...but I was perfectly willing to pay $469 for it, and, had the owner had it at that price as a Buy It Now, I *probably* would have paid it. I definitely would have paid $250 without giving it a second thought. That's what it means to "radically overpay" and still be happy about it.

 

It's not about the money.

 

Once more, with feeling: it's not about the money.

 

None of us is immortal. We will not live forever. I wanted to complete my collection, and now I have. Took me 15 years to do it, start to finish. Four months later, I am still giddy thinking about it, because I accomplished what is, to me, a major feat that took me years of patient waiting to accomplish.

 

And there are thousands and thousands of people just like me out there, waiting, not caring how much it costs, just waiting for the opportunity to fill that spot in their collection with that impossible to find book, or that impossible to find grade.

 

Centaur collectors know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Late 40's/early 50's high grade DC collectors know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

60's Fanzine collectors know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Detective Comics completists know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

It's just not about the money. It really isn't.

 

I have definitely overpaid for paid for a few items as well and didn't bat an eye doing it. It's the bane of the collector I guess.

 

Years ago, I was selling some sports cards on ebay and I put up a second year Bernie Parent. I acquired the card thinking it was a Topps but the seller sent me an O-Pee-Chee instead so I let it go on auction. It was a nice card, NM/MT - a $20 card at best. The auction ended over $100 - a ridiculous amount at the time. I almost (almost) felt bad taking the guys money. He came to pick it up in person and he was stoked. He had searched for that card for years apparently. I wonder what his snipe was?

[Sqeggs]

Also, wouldn't Chuck's buying the warehouse be preferable to renting it anyway? Even if takes 10 years to break even, he's been in business for 40 years & surely is planning to be in business more than a decade more.

 

The feeling I get about this particular thing is that a purchase required a sizable down payment, while a rental would not. Yes, the purchase is better over the long run, but he's always apparently dealing with cash-flow difficulties, so having to come up with the down payment was more of a problem. He apparently sold the last of his personal copies from the Church collection to raise the funds.

 

As I mentioned many, many pages ago, I think you have to take his claims of endless financial squeezes with a grain of salt. My take is not so much that he's slinging it to gain our sympathy -- although for all I know, he may be -- as that it's part of his attempt to build a community with his buyers by supposedly taking us into his confidence. (I say "us" but although I read his e-mails most days, in recent years I have bought mostly trades from him and then only occasionally during his half-off sales.)

 

It's the equivalent of a bartender or the guy running the bagel store shooting the breeze with you. They aren't really your friends but chatting with you is way of building a relationship that makes it more likely you'll come back. Chuck's daily updates are a way of bonding with buyers that may keep them buying from him rather than Metro or MCS.

 

That's my guess at what he's doing with the newsletters.

[Sqeggs]

One positive for me from this thread. I had no idea what the Church Collection was and its history. Always happy to learn.

 

Oh, it's wonderful. I've only had Church slabs in my hands, never actual raw copies...and I could still feel the history.

 

Chuck's story behind it, taken with whatever grains of salt one thinks is appropriate, is quite the thrilling adventure.

 

Can you imagine? He had just about everything. "Finest known" is true for the vast, vast majority of the collection.

 

 

One of my favorite things about his story, and yes, 'grain of salt' and all of that, is that he wasn't the first person contacted about the collection, he was the first person who agreed to get up off his duff and go see it...

One of my favorite things about the collection is that I got to paw through stacks of them at Burrel's house in 1977.

 

Think what the grades would be if he had only locked the door when he saw you coming!

[COI]

I just overpaid for something a few minute ago, and I don't know how to feel about it. I think Josh Nathanson sold his soul to Lady Gaga to get the strongest auction prices possible.

[Sqeggs]

But my question was more along the lines of "would those multiples exist, if the Church collection was unknown until, say, 2006?", assuming Chuck did have those resources in the first place.

 

I say no. Overstreet held sway for 3 decades, and it was his policy to show only slow gradual repetitive growth in issues over time. Rozanski was among the first to declare that the OPG was not a law, and that books could be sold for multiples. Even so, it was pretty much ONLY the Church books that could be sold that way for a long time, at least consistently. Remember-- Mehdy made international news just for paying a couple of times guide for Action #1, that's how rare the practice was!

 

CGC would eventually have accelerated the price growth aspect... but probably not to the same degree without the Church collection.

 

Different folks will conclude differently as to whether this has been a good or bad thing for the "hobby". But like it or not MH and their collection influenced a lot... in fact, contrary to earlier posts in this thread... I would argue that MH has had more influence than a number of creators... there are lots of obscure golden-age artists who I don't think it can be said had a lot of influence on comics.... they simply provided workman-like art or scripts that would have been performed by another staffer if they hadn't done it.

 

 

I think Plant and company also priced the SF books at multiples of guide.

[Sqeggs]

Regarding the statements in the YouTube videos that they're not so much a business as a research institution, that they don't care about turn over, would rather accumulate more and more comics than sell them, etc.--given that he's been presenting himself for years as the biggest and foremost comic retailer, to claim at this juncture that you don't care about selling anything sounds like a rationalization of current circumstances rather than the intentional turning away from retailing that it's presented as.

 

As to topic of largest comic store, I believe the following to be true:

 

- Mile High has the largest number of comics and books in their possession. If they have 10 million, that's more than we have.

 

- Mile High has the most warehouse space of any comic retailer.

 

- Mile High's Jason Street store is the world's largest physical comic store. It's a cool space they have created and I hope it does well for them.

 

- MCS has the largest selection of comics. If we're measuring selection rather than inventory quantity, a given issue only counts one time no matter how many copies you have in stock. There are plenty of books that we have in stock that Mile High doesn't, and there are plenty of books that they have in stock that we don't, but overall I believe we have a non-trivial advantage in selection. And this advantage in selection is maintained despite the fact that we sell quite a bit more books than they do, with our books tending to move into buyers' collections while Mile High's tend to sit on the shelf due to noncompetitive prices.

 

- MCS sells the most comics, by quantity and dollar volume. We sell more comics at the low end of the market, and we sell many more $20+, $50+ and $100+ items where Mile High barely registers because they're so overpriced or don't have the book in stock in the first place. As an example, anybody who cares enough to get a pro Terapeak subscription can compare the sales of any seller on eBay. Past 30 days, MCS has $149K in eBay sales on 14,120 items sold, vs Mile High's $34K in eBay sales on 8,851 items sold. That's eBay, not web sites.

 

- MCS buys the most comics (new and back issue combined). I don't know Mile High's numbers, but don't think it's close. Lately they seem to be focused more on sifting value out of their existing piles of bulk comics than buying new material. That, and the money they're putting into cover variants.

 

- MCS has significantly more web site visitors

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/mycomicshop.com

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/milehighcomics.com

https://www.quantcast.com/mycomicshop.com

https://www.quantcast.com/milehighcomics.com

 

Based on selection and sales, I'm comfortable claiming that we're the largest comic store/largest comic retailer and have been for quite some time. Mile High has the largest brick and mortar store (by square footage and selection but not necessarily sales) and the largest inventory (total inventory count, not selection).

 

Very interesting info. Thanks for posting it.

 

If we are talking about largest dealer in terms of sales revenue, I assume that Metro would be the champ.

[RockMyAmadeus]

You would be wrong.

 

99.9999999999999999% of your arguments include a statement like this.

 

Hyperbole aside, you are offended, because you don't like forthrightness. You would rather have people dance around the issue, using coddling language, couching everything in indirect, nebulous, vague, indecisive terms.

 

 

Leave my posts out of this fight!

 

Ah, Win...hard to believe it's been 16 years.

[greggy]

I just overpaid for something a few minute ago, and I don't know how to feel about it. I think Josh Nathanson sold his soul to Lady Gaga to get the strongest auction prices possible.

What was the book sweetie?

[oakman29]

I just overpaid for something a few minute ago, and I don't know how to feel about it. I think Josh Nathanson sold his soul to Lady Gaga to get the strongest auction prices possible.

What was the book sweetie?

 

Greg I love it when you finally come out of your shell.