Howdy!
Day three of the greatest comics convention in America, and I'm starting to
waver... This show has been very intense, with crowds significantly larger than
last year. Our booth has been non-stop busy, and it has been hard to even
sneak away for a five-minute break. I've been in meetings non-stop all day,
most of them involving folks who want to link their Internet operations up
with ours. This is very much like being at the high school prom, and having
every one wanting to dance with you! Very flattering, but also exhausting.
Nothing may come of all these discussions, or I may be able to work out
some deals where we can improve the number of people we're able to show
our website, or I may be able to improve our website content. We'll just
have to wait and see...
As regards collections, we purchased about 20 different groups of items
today, including a great deal of early marvel Silver Age, and as great
Transformers toy collection. We're already sweating bullets about how
we're going to ship all this stuff back to Colorado. Making us even more
paranoid about our shipping problems is the fact that the pace of people
bring us collections is picking up very rapidly. It seems that seeing $100,000.00
in cash acts as quite a stimulus for people to make that decision to sell
their collection. I have a feeling that we're going to get buried on Sunday afternoon...
My final point for today is the state of the current market for Golden Age
comics, particularly early key books in high condition. Arnie Sawyer (one
of the members of our e-mail list, and a major Golden Age investor) came
by the booth to give me an update on current transactions. I didn't take
exact notes, but the gist of his information was that some major new investors
have moved into the market, coming in from the coin collecting hobby. These
well-funded investors are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on
individual Golden Age comics! This has prompted some dealers to increase
their multiples on certain pedigree books (such as Allentown, Mile High,
Larson, etc.) to an incredible 10 times Overstreet Price Guide. One person
even supposedly offered David Anderson, the owner of the Mile High
ACTION COMICS #1 a cool one million dollars! David turned him down.
I am just stunned. Arnie also said that someone here in the room has a
NM (9.4) AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 marked $100,000.00 He offered
the guy $75,000.00, but he turned it down! I knew the Indian pottery market
was on fire (everything at the last Sotheby's auction sold at 2 times high
estimate...) but apparently this madness for collectibles is spreading on all
fronts Yahoo!!!!
That's it for the news from today, here are the pictures:
1) Warp Graphics Booth
Richard and Wendy Pini have been our friends for over twenty years now.
Their ELFQUEST series is still one of the most popular comics series in
the world.
2) Elfquest Toys
Here are some of the upcoming ELFQUEST action figures. Prices and
release dates are yet to be announced. Don't they look just fantastic?
3) Chewbacca Bronze Statue
Dark Horse had this great statue in their booth. I was told we didn't
offer it through our N.I.C.E. subscription service, but I'm sure we can
get one from Dark Horse. E-mail nice@milehighcomics.com for pricing
information. It's not cheap, but it is way cool.
4) Moore Creations Booth
The Vampirella Snow Globe sculpture was just stunning. This can be
ordered through nice@milehighcomics.com for only $139.95. Seeing these
items long before they ship is one of the best parts of the convention...
5) Image Comics Booth
Alley Baggett , the star of Matt Hawkins' hit ALLEY CAT series, was
signing in the Image booth, and posing for pictures. If our photo looks
like a bit of an odd, it's because Pam was having to stand on tip-toe, and
hold the camera waaay over her head. Alley was being mobbed!
6) DC Comics Booth - Green Lantern Prop
The prototype for the GREEN LANTERN prop was just incredible. It
will ship on 8/23. List on this great item was $249.95, but I made it a
killer Bonus Book item at only $179.95. The production run has already
been set on this item, but the folks at DC indicated that we may be able to
place a re-order.
7) Mile High Comics Crew
Here we are, all together at the end of a long day. The fine gentleman
in the yellow t-shirt is John Hartling, a good friend of our from Tennessee.
This picture was shot by Pinguino, owner of www.penguinpalace.com a
very fun site to visit. She also helped design our website back in the days
when I couldn't even turn my computer on!
See you tomorrow night!
Chuck Rozanski,
President - Mile High Comics, Inc.
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