Mile high comics prices 3 3

[Nick Furious]

On 11/24/2023 at 6:14 AM, Chip Cataldo said:

I'd be curious as to what other stuff Chuck has that is "difficult to restock" and not available anywhere else.

Big brass balls underneath an exotic evening dress.  

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 11/24/2023 at 11:49 AM, DougC said:

Chuck has done some despicable stuff like blaming hurricane victims for not buying comics and much more... but if you are looking for a modern he will have it.

About five years ago I was looking for a 9.8 copy of X-Men Forever Apha Bookmarket Variant; this was an impossible issue at the best of times back in 2009 and even today your not going to find NM+ copies (I own all three that have been graded). I had feelers out everywhere and finally sucked it up and emailed MHC who had copies ready to sell locally. Obviously you cannot trust their grading so I took a trip and was very surprised with their customer service. They had about 20+ copies IIRC and allowed me to inspect and select the 5 best, afterwords they gave me a tour and talked about their inventory. Surprisingly Chuck will blind buy bulk (I took this from inference) from around the country which will not be gone through for multiple years as some of it is even stored paletted in 50ft trailers. Inventory overall was a huge problem as even if they go through something to select pull value, by the time they are finished what is "value" has changed again.

People on the CGC forums are not MCS target audience; I have their newsletter subscribed on one of my email accounts and anything that is close to a raw key is snapped up quickly at their outrageous prices. I do not know who is buying X-Men(1991) #1s for $20 but someone is.

I think you need to proof read your post again carefully.

You need to edit the last paragraph.  

[Chip Cataldo]

On 11/24/2023 at 8:38 AM, Nick Furious said:

Big brass balls underneath an exotic evening dress.  

LOL. You are correct there, but I was referring to comic books only. 

[Happy Noodle Boy]

A few things about Mile High Comics:

No photos + suspect grading + overpricing = I am not buying.

If his overpricing business model is so successful, why is he constantly having those 60% off sales?

I have had just as much trouble finding rare back issues from Mile High as anywhere else. 

It annoys me that his ebay listings will refer to a comic as a "comics book". It's a COMIC BOOK.  

[The Lions Den]

On 11/23/2023 at 8:26 PM, Falcon760 said:

I'd certainly pay a premium for a NM copy of a good book I've been looking for, even a modern book for convenience sake, but the problem is that the grading is not correct.  Comics sold as "NM" aren't NM.  So basically they're charging a premium for books that may or may not be in the condition they're listing.

This was my experience...and accurate grading is my number one priority.  

[1950's war comics]

where the insidiously high prices come into play at Mile High is when unsuspecting grandma wants to buy her grandson a nice comic book for his birthday or Christmas and they spend $100 on a comic that is worth $10 .. not knowing they a getting totally ripped off !

[Nick Furious]

On 11/24/2023 at 5:49 AM, DougC said:

Surprisingly Chuck will blind buy bulk (I took this from inference) from around the country which will not be gone through for multiple years as some of it is even stored paletted in 50ft trailers. Inventory overall was a huge problem as even if they go through something to select pull value, by the time they are finished what is "value" has changed again.

This information makes me think that maybe we are looking at it backwards.  That massive unmanageable inventory must make it impossible to stay up to date on all the changes in the market.  The premium pricing strategy may not have originated as an attempt to regularly sell at multiples of FMV.  I know the newsletter said that, but I think that newsletter explanation was concocted out of thin air, after the fact.  More likely the high prices on stale inventory originated as a defensive move meant to reduce the opportunity cost of selling 30 copies of the latest "hot book" before you realized that the price had spiked.  They can still do the bulk of their sales near FMV, either through Ebay, auctions, brief but regular 60% off promotions, or Want Lists (I assume they love Want Lists, because this gives them a chance to research current climate for the items before pricing them).  Selling books one at a time on Ebay risks 1 book being underpriced.  Selling through an online inventory opens the door to being picked clean of all copies by one buyer. This pricing strategy for a massive inventory probably is to give some protection against the opportunity cost of having the cherries picked clean before the Mile High staff realizes that they have ripened.   

Edited November 24, 2023 by Nick Furious

[october]

Chuckles is impervious to market forces. 

He hath transmuted the greatest OO collection in the known universe into a mighty fortress of solitude in the heart of Denver. Its bricks are distributor boxes of Youngblood Strikefile #3 and its mortar are the tears of the lesser dealers crushed neath his size 18 Zara stiletto heels. 

[shadroch]

Chuck buys by the truckload and pays about a dime a piece, so he isn't worried about the one in ten thousand books he sells for $10 but is currently worth $40.  He sells more than enough dollar books for ten dollars to worry.

[D2]

So it’s not just a clever name?

I don’t know if someone made this comment before but…

Don’t people find it ironic, that the one business with high prices, is called Mile High?? Mile High Priced Comics?

Genius marketing 

Edited November 24, 2023 by D2

[LowGradeBronze]

I think Chuck is slightly eccentric. Makes great reading:

https://www.tcj.com/mile-high-comics/

[Chip Cataldo]

On 11/24/2023 at 12:42 PM, D2 said:

So it’s not just a clever name?

I don’t know if someone made this comment before but…

Don’t people find it ironic, that the one business with high prices, is called Mile High?? Mile High Priced Comics?

Genius marketing 

He's in Denver, I believe. The Mile High City. I think that's where the name comes from.

[MAR1979]

Apparently Chuck like most every other Comic Book Dealer wrongly believed himself a "genius" during the pandemic bubble. In reality he was correct about the first few years and it being a mistake losing 90% of his business, if not for the bubble it probably would have grown to 95%.

Hmm, 60% off means it's now only 2-3x FMV for the esteemed privilege to purchase G/VG raw comics sold as NM.

Hey Chuck, have your oh so cherished "Elite" Clientele who were willing to spend 4-7x FMV for over-graded raw glut era comics abandoned you? Good Luck find a new crop of Rubes to do the same during these post-bubble burst times. No need to fret however as I'm positive if you live another 25-30 years until the next bubble, you can once again fancy yourself a "genius". Perhaps during that time you will pry open your wallet and at least bring your website up from the 1990's to early 2000's standards. 

Edited November 24, 2023 by MAR1979

[stormflora]

On 11/24/2023 at 9:50 AM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

A few things about Mile High Comics:

No photos + suspect grading + overpricing = I am not buying.

If his overpricing business model is so successful, why is he constantly having those 60% off sales?

I have had just as much trouble finding rare back issues from Mile High as anywhere else. 

It annoys me that his ebay listings will refer to a comic as a "comics book". It's a COMIC BOOK.  

It's a common tactic with upscale retailers. They deliberately price all of their products higher than the prices offered by the competition but offer sales/discounts to entice visitors. To them, the traffic is more important than the sales, and there are enough scientific studies to prove that people are inclined to buy more than one item at a store once they are there, due to the convenience factor. This works out in his favour due to the sheer inventory he possesses. He can claim to these customers that he has everything.

The 60% off sale still nets him a profit as it remains over their break-even point for the vast majority of comics. To him, it is "liquidation pricing" to open up inventory and free up space. No loss. As I've mentioned earlier in the thread, I suspect that his primary clientele are whales/affluent collectors/large quantity buyers, and physical customers. Not modern day mail order folk like us who have the time and knowledge to comparison shop.

As for why he has a lack of many high demand/rarity comics, chances are, they have already been sold to other people. It's not that he doesn't have any stock for it, it's that he's in the same boat as anyone else in trying to secure those issues and has no incentive in helping clients seek them out unless they are rich and pay him to do so as a middleman. He most likely buys up lots and palettes for cheap and lists whatever he finds in them, just like any other major comic store.

Edited November 24, 2023 by stormflora

[DougC]

On 11/24/2023 at 8:50 AM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

If his overpricing business model is so successful, why is he constantly having those 60% off sales?

 

On 11/24/2023 at 1:25 PM, MAR1979 said:

Hmm, 60% off means it's now only 2-3x FMV for the esteemed privilege to purchase G/VG raw comics sold as NM.

 

Chuck uses the "Discount Pricing Strategy" as a bases for his sales and marketing, there is an older thread where we took a deep dive into it. While this is an old tried and true method it does have drawbacks of being a bit carny; though that fits Chuck. The discount code has been a part of MHC online for as long as I can remember and isn't a direct indication of weakness most think it is, the code varies from 40% to 60% per month and is built into "why" the prices are mile high.

[stormflora]

On 11/24/2023 at 2:59 PM, DougC said:

 

 

Chuck uses the "Discount Pricing Strategy" as a bases for his sales and marketing, there is an older thread where we took a deep dive into it. While this is an old tried and true method it does have drawbacks of being a bit carny; though that fits Chuck. The discount code has been a part of MHC online for as long as I can remember and isn't a direct indication of weakness most think it is, the code varies from 40% to 60% per month and is built into "why" the prices are mile high.

Precisely. If he offered comics at FMV and then offered those 40-60% discounts, he would be taking a loss instead. It's a common tactic with upscale merchants, not discount ones. He isn't running a Walmart.

Edited November 24, 2023 by stormflora

[oldmilwaukee6er]

Chuck has also had an inventory algorithm that prices a comic lower when there is more stock. So if prices are high, he's high or he typically only has a few but if stock is deep then prices (after the codeword sale) is low. And this blanket algorithm doesn't account for speculator news, nouveau Keys, or move fast, it just reacts to a number. One boardie used to buy Sensational Spider-Man 2 from Chuck and flip them as 9.8s to good coin. 

He's also been a historically poor grader, which can be gamed. He was a lateish adopter of CGC, sans the Mile High 2 books, and grades off Overstreet. That means anything NM can be 9-9.8- lots of ppl complain about the 9.0 but fewer about those 9.8s. Recently he's been deliberately downgrading NM books to lower categories too, to fill stock at different price levels. He also used to not differentiate printings or errors which is frustrating until it's not - Thank you for the error Sandman 18s, 19s.

[oldmilwaukee6er]

On 11/23/2023 at 10:31 PM, mattn792 said:

Oh he definitely still puts out the emails, almost on a daily basis.  In a recent one, he railed about ending tours of his Pueblo pottery museum on the 2nd floor because too many people who requested them didn’t know anything about pottery.  Because why take a chance at educating when you can stick your nose up in the air instead?

That was an odd gatekeeping he rant he went on - most def

[stormflora]

Side note: I just realized that it is possible to buy his comics with PayPal by doing so via eBay. Just in case someone was genuinely interested but did not want to fork out their CC info on some sketchy 90's website.

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 11/24/2023 at 2:46 PM, stormflora said:

Side note: I just realized that it is possible to buy his comics with PayPal by doing so via eBay. Just in case someone was genuinely interested but did not want to fork out their CC info on some sketchy 90's website.

I'm going to rant, I can feel it, but off my chest it goes.

Are they same price on eBay as site?

I know Dave and Adams and mycomicshop up the price for eBay, which makes it cheaper on site...

But I ask because there is a similar site called collectors comics... That has same price with both eBay and on site, however on site they have best offer as well ❤️‍🩹 

Is anyone familiar enough with collectors comics? To know if their best offer is reliable or quick to respond? And or idk who to tag, but is minus eBay fees as a best offer on the site (since no price difference) considered a fair offer?

Edited November 24, 2023 by ADAMANTIUM