Spider-Man, Wolverine, X-Men Comics On Sale! Howdy! It was really hard to get out of bed this morning. Aside from my usual difficulty with dealing with the dark mornings that accompany the onset of winter, I also worked myself into a frazzled state this weekend while trying to integrate as much as possible of my personal comics collection together in the new storage bins that I installed in my library/collecting center. While I dearly love my comics, mass is still mass, and weight is still weight. Hauling an additional ton of books and comics into the library, and then sorting and cleaning for ten hours, left me pretty much wiped out this morning. This weekend was definitely a case of "making hay while the sun shines," however, as we were blessed to have an abnormally warm day here in Colorado on both Saturday and Sunday. Daytime warmth is quite important right now, as the attic insulation in my new library has yet to be installed, so it is near impossible to heat. That is a tolerable state of affairs (at least temporarily...) for simple storage, but when I'm cleaning up my empty packing boxes and individually sorting comics, I really do need some measure of warmth. Walt Kelley's 1954 New York Flower Show (click on image for larger view) The good news from this weekend is that I, once again, was able to reacquaint myself with many of my long-forgotten "friends." As a case in point, I have long been a fan of Walt Kelley's POGO. I own one of the first few daily strips, as well as an incredible set of unpublished charcoal sketches that Kelley produced for a 1954 New York flower show. It had completely escaped my memory, however, that about 25 years ago I purchased a rather nice copy of the 1940's Dell Comics POGO #1 at an auction. I also own about a dozen of the other Dell issues, but that #1 copy is particularly nice. All were stored in a long box marked "Disney's," which explains why I had not seen them for a while... While my POGO's were just one example of the great finds that I was making, I did also want to mention that I found a complete long box full of comics (350+) that my wife, Nanette, and I personally set aside from the incredible MILE HIGH II collection. The entire story of the MILE HIGH II find is archived in my Tales from the Database link, but suffice it to say that the deal consisted of 1,800,000 unread comics and magazines that I purchased on Long Island in 1985. This is relevant in that the copies of the Mile High II books that we put away are in such nice condition that I am planning to send them away to CGC for professional grading. While unread, the Mile High II comics were mostly newsstand returns, so there are only a few 9.6 or 9.8 copies, but many issues that grade out at 9.2 and 9.4. Where this becomes important is in the consideration that, when we put these comics away, it was essentially just as reading copies. In 1985, they retailed for perhaps $3-$5 each, and were relatively common, even in higher grades. Fast-forward 23 years, however, and what was common in 1985, is suddenly scarce, especially in higher grades. Since I purchased these issues only to read, I will trade them to the company for lower grades of the same comics, and then we'll send my better ones off to CGC to be "slabbed." At the end of the day, I will not be at all surprised if one long box of Mile High II comics ends up retailing for more than $20,000! Where I am leading to in all this is a strong suggestion to all of you who collect comics to "buy and hold" for as long as you possibly can. I have now been stashing away comics for nearly 40 years, and I still continue to be amazed at the seemingly inexorable trend for even unpopular comics to eventually gain substantially in market value. I can remember, for example, during the early 1980's when we would mark all of the 1970's Marvel horror reprint titles we received in collections down to 20 cents each, as they were just not worth the trouble to include in our mail order catalogs. Today, those same issues sell really well in the $10-$50 range. So well, in fact that they are quite difficult for us to keep in stock. The print runs on those Marvel horror titles were actually quite low, so it didn't take much of a surge in demand for the prices of those issues to skyrocket. I believe that the exact same environment exists today for darn near all new comics, as print runs have dropped to where all but the most popular 10 titles sell under 60,000 new copies per month. If you can do as I did, and simply store away some long boxes of current comics for a couple of decades, I think that you will end up eventually being stunned at how much they appreciate in value. Turning my tale to today's current events at Mile High Comics, I have been so successful at buying collections over the past 12 months that I now have well over one million "surplus" comics in stock. The reason this huge overabundance of comics came about is because, in order to get the lowest possible price, I oftentimes buy mass accumulations of comics. Some of these comics that I buy come from private collections, but a great many also come from the inventories of comics stores that failed at some time in the past. Simply put, novice comics dealers go bankrupt in droves, most frequently because they cannot get the hang of ordering new comics correctly from their distributor. That being the case, it is not at all uncommon for a bankrupt comics dealer to own 100,000+ comics, mostly of recent vintage. Because we have our new comics ordering system down to where we sell well over 96% of the new comics that we order within 30 days of arrival, we actually very much need these unsold new comics that our bankrupt contemporaries over ordered. To get them at the best bulk price, however, I most frequently have to buy everything that defunct store owned, even comics that vastly duplicate those that we already own. What I have just provided you with is, not only the origin of many of the back issue comics that we have on our website right now that are steeply discounted, but also a great reason for you to be stocking up on them. As I mentioned last Friday, for the past four weeks I have been laboriously slogging my way through all one million of our overstock back issues, carefully selecting comics where we have too many in stock for our current needs. Depending on how many we have in stock on any given title and issue number, I have then been discounting those overstock comics to somewhere between 50 cents and $2.00 each, primarily by taking comics that are actually in Very Fine - Near Mint conditions, and instead artificially dropping them into the much lower priced grades of Fair, Good, Very Good, and Fine. I have already dropped the prices on well over 100,000 Marvel comics, as any quick perusal of our website will easily show. What our current pricing does NOT show, however, is that on all of the comics that I am steeply discounting, I am also stashing away anywhere from 30-600 copies each for our own future use. I absolutely believe in the long term viability of the comics market, so while I am, indeed, selling a huge quantity of our overstock comics right now at giveaway prices, I have also carefully reserved about eight million comics for our own future needs. Our overstock comics I am certainly willing to sacrifice, but over the longer term, I think that owning collectible comics over the next 40 years of my life will actually prove even more lucrative than during the past 40. Simply put, I think that you would be well served to join me in putting away as many comics as you can for the future... OK, a quick summary. First, over 100,000 comics are on sale for you right now on our website at prices ranging from 50 cents to $2 each. Second, we have a great 30% off codeword: SUNSHINE still in effect, which you can use to drop your cost on ALL of our back issue comics, including our steeply discounted comics and magazines. Only new comics and Dallas Stephens issues are excluded from the 30% off SUNSHINE codeword sale (also the codeword does not apply to trade paperbacks, hard covers, graphic novels, statues, or supplies). Third, all of our trade paperbacks are on sale right now at 30% off, which can really help you when you are trying to reach our free shipping minimums of $50 for orders being delivered in the USA, and $125 for International orders (no express carriers). Fourth, our New-In-Stock and $50+ New-In-Stock listings are amazing for the past week, so you would be wise to peruse the listings of all; the comics that we've received during the past 7 days. Pam's inventory crew added about 60,000 additional back issue comics and magazines into our inventory just since last Monday... Finally, while steeply discounting our comics last week, I made my first pass through the latter part of the Marvel alphabet, which includes titles such as SPIDER-MAN (1963), WOLVERINE, and X-MEN (1963). I'll be making a second pass on the Marvel P-X titles today through Friday, so great new specials should appear in our listings each day. Keep a sharp eye on our daily New-In-Stock postings for our very best deals. Finally, please do bear in mind that when I steeply discount some comics, I only place a couple of comics on sale for that price. We've already seen a few specials sell out, so ordering quickly is definitely to your advantage when trying to lock in particular bargains... Happy collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. Advance Previews of next weeks comics from Archie Comics PS: Here are quick links to our most popular titles. A great many of these titles have steeply discount items available for you right NOW! Quick Links to Popular Marvel Titles Amazing Adventures (1970) Amazing Spider-man (1999) Avengers (1963) Avengers (1997) Black Panther (2005) Captain America (1968) Captain America (2004) Captain Britain and MI 13 (2008) Classic X-Men (1986) Conan (1970) Daredevil (1964) Daredevil (1998) Deadpool (1997) Defenders (1972) Doctor Strange (1966) Doctor Strange (1974) Fantastic Four (1961) Ghost Rider (1973) GI Joe Hulk (2008) Invaders (1975) Iron Fist (1975) Iron Man (1968) Journey Into Mystery (1972) Marvel Team-Up (1972) Marvel Two-In-One (1974) Master of Kung Fu (1974) Mighty Avengers (2007) Ms. Marvel (2006) New Avengers (2004) New Mutants NYX (2003) Peter Parker (1976) Powerman/Iron Fist (1972) Punisher Max (2004) Runaways (2005) Secret Invasion (2008) Sgt Fury She-Hulk 2 (2005) Silver Surfer (1968) Silver Surfer (1987) Spider-Man (1963) Spider-Woman (1978) Strange Tales (1951) Sub-Mariner (1968) Tales of Suspense (1959) Tales to Astonish (1959) Thor (1962) Thor (1962) Thunderbolts (1997) Tomb of Dracula (1972) Ultimate Fantastic Four (2003) Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) Ultimate X-Men (2000) Ultimates (2002) Ultimates 2 (2004) Ultimates 3 (2007) Web of Spider-Man (1985) Werewolf By Night (1972) What If... (1977) Wolverine (1988) Wolverine (2003) Wolverine: Origins (2006) X-Factor (1988) X-Force (2008) X-Men (1963) Quick Links to Popular DC Titles Action Comics Adventure Comics Adventures of Superman All Star (1976) Batman (1940) Batman Family Brave and the Bold (1955) Detective Comics Flash (1959) Green Lantern (1960) Jimmy Olsen (1954) Justice League of America (1960) Legion Of Super-Heroes (1980) Lois Lane (1958) Mad Magazine Our Fighting Forces (1954) Phantom Stranger (1969) Plop (1973) Secret Society Of Super-Villains Sgt. Rock Showcase (1956) Super-Team Family Superboy (1949) Superman Superman Family (1974) Tarzan (1972) Teen Titans (1966) Warlord (1976) Weird War Tales (1971) Witching Hour (1969) Wonder Woman (1942) World's Finest (1941) Current Newsletter