Free 1991 X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN issues Howdy! I am starting to come to the realization that 2014 may go down in as one of the very best years in the history of Mile High Comics! The year had already begun very well, with our sales rising steadily through mid-February. Once I cut the majority of our back issue comics prices in half on February 20th, however, our sales took a quantum leap upward. With the CAPTAIN AMERICA movie now prompting even further gains, we are suddenly back in a growth mode that we have not experienced since the heady days of the early 1990's. What a remarkable change this is from just a few years ago, when more than a few experts in the comics world were predicting the end of print comics... In case you are wondering, I do not attribute our current success to either comics-related movies, or to our radically lowered prices. As I see it, it has been the growth in the availability of online comics that has acted as the catalyst for the surge in sales of printed comics. While it may seem counter-intuitive that online comics would help print sales, the reality is that we have lost almost all of the newsstands and grocery store spin racks that previously allowed potential readers to peruse titles for free. With the Internet now acting as the largest and most available spin rack ever made, we are seeing a phenomenal expansion in comics demand, much of it from overseas. The way that this trend directly affects you is in our prices, and our availability of older issues. While our prices are not going to rise right now, and I am keeping our 50% off SWEETHEART codeword in effect for you for at least another week, the reality is that we are shipping thousands of older comics overseas right now. The vast majority of those comics are on a one-way journey, never again to be offered for sale in the American market. That being the case, even with large numbers of Baby Boomer Silver Age and Bronze Age collections still being offered for sale, it seems almost inevitable to me that prices will soon have to rise. We are already seeing far more demand on pre-1976 Marvel issues than we can fill, and that trend is starting to cross over now to DC's of similar vintage. Another area of comics demand that is surprisingly strong these days is the 1983-1991 period. Certain titles from that period, such as BATMAN, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and AVENGERS are selling like hotcakes, especially in higher grades. A vast number of comics titles and issue numbers from that period are still available through us at prices in the $1-$3 range, but doubt if that is going to be the case for much longer. Demand for those issues that are 20+ years old is growing too fast for those low prices to be sustainable indefinitely. At this point, the best advice that I can give you is for you to stock up on as many pre-1991 back issues as you can, focusing especially on those titles where you can score an entire mini-series for pocket change, or where you can still buy long runs for a pittance. The comics world is already on fire, but if the upcoming SPIDER-MAN movie is a hit, I predict that we could see the biggest escalation in back issue comics prices since the mid-1980's. 'Nuff said... X-Men #1 Cover A X-Men #1 Cover B X-Men #1 Cover C X-Men #1 Cover D X-Men #1 Cover E I will close today's newsletter with an opportunity for you to add some key issues from that 1990 time period to your collection, at no cost. I will start by offering you your choice of covers A, B, C, & D of X-MEN (1991) #1 free as a bonus for placing any minimum $30 order with us, or all four for a minimum $75 order. Cover E (with the gatefold Jim Lee cover) can be yours for free for any minimum $50 order. If you already have those X-MEN issues, how about a first printing of the cool hologram cover edition of SPIDER-MAN (1963) #365, also, available to you for only a minimum $50 order. Just let us know which giveaways you would prefer in the "notes" section of our online order form. We will then include them in your package at no charge. Spider-Man #365 Happy Collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. April 21, 2014 Current Newsletter