Chuck explains his Mile High pricing

[ComicConnoisseur]

My further understanding is that Chuck did not get rich from the Church collection. He's quoted as being barley able to keep the lights on in his stores by the end of it all.This is capitalism folks. People may think he's a bad guy but bringing the Church collection to light just isn't his path to perdition.

 

Being a retailer, and an inept one at that is however real cause for criticism.

 

As far as the Church family goes; some people just are not comic book dealers. The family clearly didn't have the time,interest,desire or energy to devote to marketing the books themselves. That is exactly where a comic book dealer would come in.

 

It just sounds like there is a lot of hate for both capitalism and comic book sellers going on here.

 

Also he found it about 40 years ago?A dollar was also worth a lot more back then. A whole lot more.

$1 in 1977 → $4.03 in 2015.

Comic books as an investment were just starting to take off.

Not many knew the heights they would reach.

In the 1970s most everybody was into stamps as the hot collectible.

 

 

 

[Gatsby77]

Yeah -- it's also worth it to note that he didn't have the money at the time. And had to immediately promise significant portions of the collection to co-financers.

 

And not only was he not the first comic book store owner called, or even the second.

[roulette44]

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.

 

ahem....you rang? :)

 

If I can have some free cannabis and be allowed to peruse his jumbo warehouses, I might be inclined to offer an appraisal!!

 

...... Youngblood 1 F+ ......oh, whoops, it's marked as NM....okay, $150... cough* $250

......

......(as I keep looking)....

......

......

.....Oh, here's a nice one: Brave and the Bold 30 CGC 5.0 - $1,995

 

 

Seriously though, wonder if he has an appraiser in his pocket? Or some other way to be able to get the collateralized debt so leveraged?

 

 

[roulette44]

I just wanted to drop in my $0.02, because..... well, why not?!

 

- Chuck can charge any price he wants, it's his right

- The explosion of online purchasing (versus brick and mortar store buying) makes it increasingly less likely that folks will pay MH price ASSUMING that person is buying based on price (and not some other factor). I think the % buying based on price is very high. 98%? 99%? 99.7253534?

 

At the end of the day, my two issues with MH are a) their grading and b) how Chuck can come across....with a) being most of it.

 

JD

 

 

 

[Vikingreed]

Their grading is awful.

 

[Mmehdy]

Chucks plan...to own every comic book in the world....or at least a copy of it....needs revision. I can understand the mentality of that mindset....25 years ago..but he is gonna have to do a complete turn around in his business and stop looking at how many books he owns and what is most he can charge a customer not matter what the true market price of the book is in order to get the worlds largest collection.

 

The prices need to be dropped about 1000%, he needs to revise his website and make it more user friendly, have stricter grade control... or at least make it consistent.

Better promotion and better videos (instead of look at what I have...I have millions of comic books and you don't....so you have to pay me MORE than what the market price is).

 

Don't get me wrong, I like the video's there are some of the most entertaining out there...keep it up...but in order take this at a serious level....one must flow with the changes over time and its not like the old days, when collectors were at the mercy of the comic book advertisers dealers out of the marvel comic books which controlled the limited market.

[mrc]

Chucks plan...to own every comic book in the world....or at least a copy of it....needs revision. I can understand the mentality of that mindset....25 years ago..but he is gonna have to do a complete turn around in his business and stop looking at how many books he owns and what is most he can charge a customer not matter what the true market price of the book is in order to get the worlds largest collection.

 

The prices need to be dropped about 1000%, he needs to revise his website and make it more user friendly, have stricter grade control... or at least make it consistent.

Better promotion and better videos (instead of look at what I have...I have millions of comic books and you don't....so you have to pay me MORE than what the market price is).

 

Don't get me wrong, I like the video's there are some of the most entertaining out there...keep it up...but in order take this at a serious level....one must flow with the changes over time and its not like the old days, when collectors were at the mercy of the comic book advertisers dealers out of the marvel comic books whiche controlled the limited market.

 

 

...exactly. And the website IS bad.

 

 

 

[Vikingreed]

Very bad.

I think it looks the same as it did on launch day, .

[roach04]

Very bad.

I think it looks the same as it did on launch day, .

 

It actually does! I was reading a comic recently (now I need to find it...may have been MK Doctor Strange) where the MHC ad was a picture of their website. It has not changed in any meaningful way!

[theddybear-migration]

Citing my recent history with ordering from mhc. I cant wait to see how many orders get canceled. Since he clearly didn't want the code word to stack with his "new pricing algorithm". I expect anyone who was able to order will soon tell us their comics were not shipped after receiving no information about their order.

[Mmehdy]

Citing my recent history with ordering from mhc. I cant wait to see how many orders get canceled. Since he clearly didn't want the code word to stack with his "new pricing algorithm". I expect anyone who was able to order will soon tell us their comics were not shipped after receiving no information about their order.

 

Any word yet?

[botolo]

I don't understand how can people hate this guy. He also knows how to dance and sing!

 

[oakman29]

You know, maybe we are looking at Chuck in the wrong light. Watching his #3 video about his wharehouse ,it dawned on me. Maybe he prices his books that high because he doesn't really want to sell them,maybe what he really is is the ultimate hoarder. Just a thought,but that's the impression he gave me in that video.

 

Oh,and now I know why his books always look so sheity,watch the vid you'll know what I mean.

[comicnoir]

I don't understand how can people hate this guy. He also knows how to dance and sing!

 

 

Holy Cripe. That's some hair!

[OrangeCrush]

I just finished reading the final pages of the Church collection from Chuck and I am was just blown away when I came across this part:

 

"Another question I am frequently asked, is whether I have had any further contact with the Church heirs. My last visit to Edgar Church's house was in late April of 1977, three months after the comics deal was concluded. Despite their earlier haste, the Church heirs had not succeeded in selling the house by that time, and kept calling me with more collectibles to buy. In total, I believe I made six, or seven, additional trips to the house. During the last trip, I purchased a few dozen posters they had found in the attic. To help (in a small way) compensate them for the incredible bargain I received in buying the comics, I paid them about double for the posters what I would have paid anyone else."

 

Wow, just wow. I take back everything I said about this deal being underhanded and immoral. He got over 18,000 near mint golden age comics for dirt cheap and his way of repaying the heirs was to pay 2x the value on a couple dozen posters. Wow, what a guy!! Just a class act all the way around. I'm legitimately inspired by this act of kindness of selflessness.

 

I may have read the account years ago so I don't remember the details - do I remember correctly that the books would have ended up in the trash if Chuck hadn't shown up to look at them?

 

Did the family set a price or did Chuck make an offer?

 

Has anyone ever documented what the collection would have been worth at the time that Chuck purchased the collection?

 

If so, what would have been a 'fair' price to pay for the collection?

 

I have no clue what the value was back in the day and they agreed upon a per bushel price, which was basically X amount per box/bin he took out. Again, I don't care what came before, what he did for the hobby after, or anything in between. the bottom line is the collection wound up being worth FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR more than anyone anticipated, including Chuck. the right thing to do would have been to give the heirs more money, period. Even just a couple thousand dollars as a token and I don't buy for a second that 9 out of 10 people on these boards would have acted in the same manner. Call me naive but I have more faith in people than that. Yes, there are greedy people everywhere, but there are also honest hard working people everywhere as well.

 

Chuck paid for a $21,000 ad campaign in Marvel comics with sales from some of the books and he still had 14,000 comics left over after that Marvel ad deal. Not to mention he gave 10% of the collection away for the comic store. So even back then....well, were talking about a SIGNIFICANt amount of money. the heirs were utterly clueless and Chuck took advantage of that fact. Personally, I deem such behavior as immoral and classless. technically he did nothing wrong, but anyone with any sort of decency knows that the right think to do would have been to give the heirs more money. Again, for all we know, Mr. Church himself could have benefitted from some of that money. In my opinion, Chuck is a greedy pig. that is my opinion and people are welcome to disagree.

 

I have never really cared for Chuck or Mile High, but I have been known to buy a few books from him from time to time. I can honestly say that won't happen again, not after reading that article. the fact that he tries to justify it by paying a bit more for a few posters or clippings...well, it just goes to show that deep down he knew how greedy and distasteful the whole thing really was.

[OrangeCrush]

My further understanding is that Chuck did not get rich from the Church collection. He's quoted as being barley able to keep the lights on in his stores by the end of it all.This is capitalism folks. People may think he's a bad guy but bringing the Church collection to light just isn't his path to perdition.

 

Being a retailer, and an inept one at that is however real cause for criticism.

 

As far as the Church family goes; some people just are not comic book dealers. The family clearly didn't have the time,interest,desire or energy to devote to marketing the books themselves. That is exactly where a comic book dealer would come in.

 

It just sounds like there is a lot of hate for both capitalism and comic book sellers going on here.

 

 

Nope, I love capitalism and am all for comic book sellers. I support multiple sellers on a weekly basis. What I hate are greedy people that take advantage of other people.

 

"The family clearly didn't have the time,interest,desire or energy to devote to marketing the books themselves."

 

No, what the family didn't have was a clear understanding of just what they had and just how valuable it really was. If they did, they would have said screw selling the house, lets focus on the comics. And Chuck wasn't about to fill them in on that fact, not even after the deal was already done and every comic in his possession. Like a thief in the night, he got everything he could, as fast as he could, and raced away.

[shadroch]

I paid $9,000 for a book that is presently worth $23,000. I guess I'm a greedy pig as well. Oh well. It could be worse. Could have turned out to be a gutless shill.

[H0RR0RSH0W]

I paid $9,000 for a book that is presently worth $23,000. I guess I'm a greedy pig as well. Oh well. It could be worse. Could have turned out to be a gutless shill.

 

I think the right thing to do is give the money back. Obviously they had no idea what they were getting into. So unfair.

 

 

 

 

 

In my opinion, Chuck is a greedy pig. that is my opinion and people are welcome to disagree.

I do not think anyone is disagreeing with this. However your argument that the Church collection makes him so does not seem to be getting much support as of yet. Chuck R.'s ineptitude as a retailer and his greed as a self professed hoarder of comic books would appear to be (after 70 something pages of this thread) the real vector of peoples loathing for MHC on these forums.

[ttfitz]

I paid $9,000 for a book that is presently worth $23,000. I guess I'm a greedy pig as well. Oh well. It could be worse. Could have turned out to be a gutless shill.

 

I think the right thing to do is give the money back. Obviously they had no idea what they were getting into. So unfair.

 

 

 

 

 

In my opinion, Chuck is a greedy pig. that is my opinion and people are welcome to disagree.

I do not think anyone is disagreeing with this. However your argument that the Church collection makes him so does not seem to be getting much support as of yet. Chuck R.'s ineptitude as a retailer and his greed as a self professed hoarder of comic books would appear to be (after 70 something pages of this thread) the real vector of peoples loathing for MHC on these forums.

 

Seems like one of those Yogi Berra arguments - Chuck is greedy because he charges so much for his books that nobody buys them.

 

As for his "ineptitude as a retailer", I'd bet there are hundreds if not thousands of former or current retailers that would like to be inept if they could have the career that Chuck has had.

[botolo]

Also, something in addition to what has already been said. The idea of going back to the heirs and give them more money would have been very risky and I would not have done it. The first thing the heirs would have done is to ask for more information:

 

"why are you giving us more money? what were the comics worth? did you sell them? for how much?"

 

And they would have brought suit right after, asking the judge to annul the contract on an unconscionability claim, asking for more money, etc. As you say, Chuck may be greedy, but I am sure the heirs would have been greedy as well.

 

As soon as someone smells money, crazy things happen.