What Am I Missing with Mile High Comics... 4 4

[Doctor Obscure]

Not trying to troll... genuinely wondering what the deal is, what your thoughts are. Can prices go up if the store in question is notable due to ads within comics? I'm asking seriously here...

Just as a random example. Iceman #2 is 65.00 in NM at Mile High Comics. Sixty-Five Dollars. 

What am I missing.

By contrast, Iceman #2 is 7.20 in VF at MyComicShop.  Seven Dollars and Twenty Cents. No, I do not work at MCS and I have no prior interaction with Mile High. I genuinely went on Mile High to look for back issues and initially thought there was a mistake with the various non key eighties books I looked at.

So... what am I missing about this store?

 

 

[Cat]

Chuck doesn't care if he sells his comics. His customers also rely on sales to do their shopping. 

[Ken Aldred]

Nothing. You expect their prices to be extortionate and shocking, along with feeble grading.

Typical operating procedure.

You get desensitised to it eventually.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[Doctor Obscure]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:11 PM, Cat said:

Chuck doesn't care if he sells his comics. His customers also rely on sales to do their shopping. 

So it is predicated on needing a Sales code on every book? I guess that explains it though it would make shopping slightly unwieldly... an odd sales plan. But thank you.

[Doctor Obscure]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:11 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Nothing. You expect their prices to be extortionate and shocking, along with feeble grading.

Typical operating procedure.

Well Ken, I didn't expect that but that's possibly because I've never shopped on MHC's site before. I am surely learning.

[Cat]

On 4/20/2023 at 10:12 AM, Doctor Obscure said:

So it is predicated on needing a Sales code on every book? I guess that explains it though it would make shopping slightly unwieldly... an odd sales plan. But thank you.

I don't know if he still runs sales codes or just runs a straight '50% off everything this weekend' type deal now, but it's one or the other. That's what his customers are trained to what for. It is an odd sales plan, but see my other point, Chuck really doesn't care if his books sell or not. He really doesn't. He has aspirations of his collection being this beacon in comicdom or some other nonsense, so really doesn't want to sell, he's mentioned it many a time. Weird, I know. 

[Doctor Obscure]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:17 PM, Cat said:

I don't know if he still runs sales codes or just runs a straight '50% off everything this weekend' type deal now, but it's one or the other. That's what his customers are trained to what for. It is an odd sales plan, but see my other point, Chuck really doesn't care if his books sell or not. He really doesn't. He has aspirations of his collection being this beacon in comicdom or some other nonsense, so really doesn't want to sell, he's mentioned it many a time. Weird, I know. 

I had no idea about that. This is a serious question but is he trying to get a world record for largest collection or some kind of record/validation for having the largest collection... does anyone know who has the world record for most comics?? That's odd, I guess he bristles every time someone buys a copy of Youngblood. 

[thehumantorch]

On 4/19/2023 at 6:09 PM, Doctor Obscure said:

Not trying to troll... genuinely wondering what the deal is, what your thoughts are. Can prices go up if the store in question is notable due to ads within comics? I'm asking seriously here...

Just as a random example. Iceman #2 is 65.00 in NM at Mile High Comics. Sixty-Five Dollars. 

What am I missing.

By contrast, Iceman #2 is 7.20 in VF at MyComicShop.  Seven Dollars and Twenty Cents. No, I do not work at MCS and I have no prior interaction with Mile High. I genuinely went on Mile High to look for back issues and initially thought there was a mistake with the various non key eighties books I looked at.

So... what am I missing about this store?

 

 

Mile High has 350,000 plus listings on ebay and 1.7 million plus sold items.   They just have such a volume of stuff listed that they're gonna find buyers who can't find a book anywhere else and don't care, within reason, what it costs.  I'd guess they'll also combine shipping so if you find one book you have to have any additional books get cheaper.  And they have keyword sales all the time and I suspect most of their customers are conditioned to utilize those sales to pick stuff up.

[thehumantorch]

On 4/19/2023 at 6:22 PM, Doctor Obscure said:

I had no idea about that. This is a serious question but is he trying to get a world record for largest collection or some kind of record/validation for having the largest collection... does anyone know who has the world record for most comics?? That's odd, I guess he bristles every time someone buys a copy of Youngblood. 

I think he just loves comics and wants to buy as many as possible.  I recall a video where he was walking around his warehouse and talking about the 20 or 30 foot high shelves he had and how he liked to bundle a bunch of copies of the same book in plastic and store them on the shelves, all inventoried so he knew exactly where everything is.  He also talked about buying collections and how thrilled he'd be if he  found something he'd never seen before

[Doctor Obscure]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:28 PM, thehumantorch said:

I think he just loves comics and wants to buy as many as possible.  I recall a video where he was walking around his warehouse and talking about the 20 or 30 foot high shelves he had and how he liked to bundle a bunch of copies of the same book in plastic and store them on the shelves, all inventoried so he knew exactly where everything is.  He also talked about buying collections and how thrilled he'd be if he  found something he'd never seen before

Perhaps I was too harsh. But 65 bucks for Iceman #2 is ridiculous, even if I like Alan Kupperberg's pencils.

[ThothAmon]

To quote Sir Winston Churchill, in a radio broadcast in October 1939: "I cannot forecast to you the action of Mile High Comics. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Chuck’s interest."

[thehumantorch]

On 4/19/2023 at 6:30 PM, Doctor Obscure said:

Perhaps I was too harsh. But 65 bucks for Iceman #2 is ridiculous, even if I like Alan Kupperberg's pencils.

Agreed, it does seem like a silly price and it probably won't sell but Mile High has enough books listed on ebay that a pile will sell each day.  And they'll list more every day.

[Cat]

I don't know if this is still the case, but weirdly their prices used to be cheaper on ebay than their website too. I never could make sense of that. 

[Robot Man]

Hey, weed and women’s clothes are expensive these days…

[BlowUpTheMoon]

A friend of mine took this picture at Chuck's a couple of weeks ago. 

[JollyComics]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:48 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

A friend of mine took this picture at Chuck's a couple of weeks ago. 

That's 97% increase from $3450 average sales.

Correction: 2800% increase. The credit goes to @Lightning55

Edited April 20, 2023 by JollyComics

[MattTheDuck]

So for a while (and maybe still I haven't checked real recently) someone was listing books in the Exchange at ComicLink that were priced way, way high.  But as noted above, if you don't really want to sell, there's no reason not to do that and who knows when someone will come along?

[roach04]

I went to the giant store in Denver - it was like 2000 flea markets in one building but all run by the same guy - Chuck Rozanski.  It was the Indiana Jones warehouse but more disorganized.  Chuck had a giant bowl of noodles and was sorting piles of comics.  I was there for about 45 mins and just took it all in - didn’t buy anything bc it was all too expensive but it was something to behold.

@BlowUpTheMoon - the one book recall in the glass case was Marvel Two-In-One Annual 2 - it was graded NM (and as expected looked F-) for $400.

My favourite website memory - they used to post a want list.  This was probably 2002ish - and very proudly it said “Giant Size X-Men 1 - offers as high as $2.50”.  I just assumed 5x cover was Chuck’s math on everything after the Church collection buy.

He is a legendary figure though - and really does love comics.  But yeah he doesn’t care if he sells any of them.

[StillOnly25Cents]

just as an aside since the OP used the comparison

I can find thousands of ridiculous listings by MCS on ebay

so much so that I wish there was a filter to not to be able to see their listings

now I do understand that a number of their listings are on consignment and they may not have full say on the listing price (they certainly should be able to provide solid guidance).  
on a very positive note I have found MCS to be very conservative with their grades 

if you enjoy your books retaining value, you probably have MCS’s ebay listings to thanks for keeping prices high

Edited April 20, 2023 by StillOnly25Cents

[JollyComics]

I used to shop comic books via G-Mart online. https://www.g-mart.com/    Not much books in stock.  If you see the color bars in the navigation bar, just click on any color bar.  It will expand and you can read the description.

The price is based on the stock.  I think Chuck has the same strategy upon the stock but his price is insane.