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I recently bought a batch of comics from
Mile High Comics, and suffered a little
dissapointment. I thought I might share my experiences, so that you might be
forewarned should you think about offering Chuck and Co. some of your hard-earned
comic cash.
The first thing you need to know about Mile High is, of course, that their company
name was clearly chosen to reflect their prices. Let's pick a couple of comics
at random from my "want list" and see how Mile High prices them. Let's look at
the Mile High full price, the Mile High sale price (they have constant sales),
vs. the "guide" prices from the Overstreet book and the
ComicsPriceGuide website. All
comics NM, except ASM #1 in Good. The Ultimate Spider-Man #2 that I priced was the
"Car" cover.
| Comic | Overstreet | CPG | Mile High | Mile High
Discount |
| She-Hulk (Vol. 2)
#20 | $2.25 | $2.25 | $5.00 | $3.50 (-30%) |
| Howard The Duck
#1 | $22.00 | $20.00 | $35.00 | $35.00 |
| Ultimate Spider-Man
#2 | $35.00 | $45.00 | $100.00 | $100.00 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #1
(G) | $842.00 | $420.00 | $4,000 | $2,000 (-50%) |
So as you can see, most issues are listed at prices at least double the guide price,
although Mile High has Ultimate Spidey #2 at %300 of guide, and non-sale ASM #1
at a
whopping %900 of CPG! These are just ordinary comics we're talking about, not CGC
books - just plain old graded comics.
Now, Mile High always has sales going on most of their books. But don't be
fooled.
Even if you buy an "on-sale" comic, you're generally going to pay over guide,
even for
a discount comic. Of course, this isn't a real complaint... of course you should
buy a
price guide if you're planning to buy back issues. But just be warned, the
bargains
are very few and far between at Mile High Comics! Meanwhile, let's move on to
my real
issues with Mile High - of which I have two.
Firstly - they shipped the wrong comics! In my latest shipment, I received two
incorrect
variant comics. In both cases, my order processing sheet indicated the comic I
really wanted,
but the moron who pulled the comic from the shelves grabbed the wrong comic
book. Maybe he
figured I wouldn't notice! Specifically, I ordered the Spider-Woman (1999) #2
VARIANT cover,
but received the regular cover, with bar code 00211. I ordered Web of
Spider-Man (1985) #113,
but received the variant cover bar code 11321.
Secondly - customer service is non-existent. Immediately after placing my
online order, I
realised I had ordered Web-Spinners #1 Sunburst cover, when I really wanted the
"Another
Universe" cover. I sent off an email right away to customer service, quoting my
name,
order number, and specifying what I had done, asking them to please send the
other cover
and charge me accordingly. Two days later, no reply to my email, and my order
is confirmed
with the wrong title.
I've had problems with this before at Mile High. A year or two ago I got
shipped a comic
with the cover completely sun-faded. That time I did get a response to my
email, even
promising to fix the problem. That was the last I ever heard from them. No
follow-up
ever arrived.
In their favour, I must say that Mile High do have an excellent packing and
shipping
service. They offer free shipping on large orders, and their packing is superb,
I have
never had a comic damaged in transit from them. However, you must also expect
that you
will be charged more than guide price, that complicated orders will be mucked
up, and any
attempts to have problems resolved will very likely require that you actually
pick up the
phone and yell at people. Be warned!
Of course there's also links to many smaller comic dealers on our
Links Page.
For TPB and Books, I have had great results from
Amazon. Their prices are fair, and their
returns
process is excellent. Packing is excellent, although international shipping isn't
cheap.
Good luck shopping!
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