My Valiant Story
Moderators: Daniel Jackson, greg
- Shadowmatt
- If you gave Aric hugs and kisses, would it be XOXO X-O?
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:38:54 pm
- Location: Grafton, WI
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My Valiant Story
I have been a comic collector since roughly 1986, when I was old enough to be able to understand what was going on in the story. I was primarily a Batman and the Flash reader, but after a while, I started to drift off to an occasional reader. Around 1991, I came back to the comic store on a more regular basis, as that was the "cool" thing to do. Eventually, I saw a cover that just struck me as being extremely cool looking, so I had to pick it up. That book was Solar #1 and I picked up most of the entire series. The next book I got into was Rai, followed by my personal favorite, Shadowman.
I read these comics for roughly four years, right up until just after the Chaos Effect, when my local comic shop seemed to stop ordering Valiant books other than Ninjak or X-O Manowar at all. I would pick up Shadowman, Solar, and Magnus whenever I could (especially since Magnus was written by John Ostrander and later Keith Giffen, and Solar was written by Dan Jurgens toward the end).
I never really stopped reading Valiant books, I would get as many of them as I could whenever I could. Currently, I'm working on filling in some gaps in my collections (I only need four more issues of Shadowman, ten of Solar, and about fifteen of Magnus). I stumbled upon this website looking for a listing of all of Solar's appearances.
Hopefully in the near future I will have complete runs of these books. Thankfully I'm able to pick up larger runs on ebay for affordable prices. Whatever I can't find on ebay, a local comic shop sells some Valiant books for cover price, so I look there!
I read these comics for roughly four years, right up until just after the Chaos Effect, when my local comic shop seemed to stop ordering Valiant books other than Ninjak or X-O Manowar at all. I would pick up Shadowman, Solar, and Magnus whenever I could (especially since Magnus was written by John Ostrander and later Keith Giffen, and Solar was written by Dan Jurgens toward the end).
I never really stopped reading Valiant books, I would get as many of them as I could whenever I could. Currently, I'm working on filling in some gaps in my collections (I only need four more issues of Shadowman, ten of Solar, and about fifteen of Magnus). I stumbled upon this website looking for a listing of all of Solar's appearances.
Hopefully in the near future I will have complete runs of these books. Thankfully I'm able to pick up larger runs on ebay for affordable prices. Whatever I can't find on ebay, a local comic shop sells some Valiant books for cover price, so I look there!
- Heath
- The Saints will win the Super-Bowl!
- Posts: 11527
- Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:05:06 pm
- Valiant fan since: 1992
- Favorite character: VH1 Shadowman; VEI X-O
- Favorite title: VH1 Shadowman; VEI X-O, Harb
- Favorite writer: Bob Hall; Dysart, Van Lente
- Location: Torque's Hundred-Yard-Long New Orleans Saints' Themed Dining Hall
-
- ...it has been down hill ever since.
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- Shadowmatt
- If you gave Aric hugs and kisses, would it be XOXO X-O?
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:38:54 pm
- Location: Grafton, WI
- Contact:
I try to get as many runs off ebay that I can, but it seems that around here, all of the comic shops have discontinued their discount bins (unless it's a Silver Age book in crappy condition). Since Mile High jacked their prices, I'm staying away from ordering from them when there are so many other resources on the net.depluto wrote:Welcome. And don't settle for cover price. Most collections on this site were built for much less. This is a good place to trade and buy, too.
- Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
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- Technique
- Thatched Roof Cottages!!!
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- Location: The S is for Sucks
Does MHC even do any market research? Or do they just automatically jack their prices by 500% if they get an inkling that somethings hot?Daniel Jackson wrote:Shadowmatt wrote:Since Mile High jacked their prices, I'm staying away from ordering from them when there are so many other resources on the net.
I don't blame you; right now is definitely not the time to buy Valiants from Mile High. Welcome to the boards btw.
I bought from them once, a few months ago. I don't think I will buy from them again they messed everything up so bad.
- Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
- Posts: 38007
- Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:33:38 pm
I'm not sure what Chuck's angle is for jacking the Valiant prices up so much, but I do know that they are not going to get many purchases that way (at least not from me anyway).Technique wrote:Does MHC even do any market research? Or do they just automatically jack their prices by 500% if they get an inkling that somethings hot?Daniel Jackson wrote:Shadowmatt wrote:Since Mile High jacked their prices, I'm staying away from ordering from them when there are so many other resources on the net.
I don't blame you; right now is definitely not the time to buy Valiants from Mile High. Welcome to the boards btw.
I bought from them once, a few months ago. I don't think I will buy from them again they messed everything up so bad.
- Technique
- Thatched Roof Cottages!!!
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Here's the feedback that I left for them:Daniel Jackson wrote:I'm not sure what Chuck's angle is for jacking the Valiant prices up so much, but I do know that they are not going to get many purchases that way (at least not from me anyway).Technique wrote:Does MHC even do any market research? Or do they just automatically jack their prices by 500% if they get an inkling that somethings hot?Daniel Jackson wrote:Shadowmatt wrote:Since Mile High jacked their prices, I'm staying away from ordering from them when there are so many other resources on the net.
I don't blame you; right now is definitely not the time to buy Valiants from Mile High. Welcome to the boards btw.
I bought from them once, a few months ago. I don't think I will buy from them again they messed everything up so bad.
NEG Not worth the trouble of dealing with Mile High Comics again.
NEG Correct books eventually sent. One damaged. No refund given for return shipping.
NEG 5 out of 9 books were the wrong books. Hard to get a response from these people.
NEG 5 out of 9 books were the wrong books. Still no refund for return shipping
POS Awesome books! Superior packaging! Poor communications Slow Shipping
POS This positive is for Lynne. Must be holding the place together singlehandedly
NEU Don't sell books that you don't have. Refund given for this book.
POS Awesome books! Superior packaging! Poor communications Slow Shipping
I had mainly ordered some Bravura gold embossed books that they had for sale.
They had it where they had five for sale and you could buy anywhere from one to five. I bought two of each. I was the only one that purchased any. The funny thing is that after I bought the books they upped the prices. It was like they were saying "hey, someone is buying the books at those prices, we better raise the prices."
It's just funny.
As big as they are you would think that they could invest a little into customer service.
- greg
- The admin around here must be getting old and soft.
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- Valiant fan since: Rai #0
- Favorite character: Depends on title
- Favorite title: Depends on writer
- Favorite writer: Depends on artist
- Favorite artist: Depends on character
- Location: Indoors
- Contact:
Shadowmatt, welcome to the board!
As far as Mile High goes, I believe I recently read that they have implemented
an "inventory-based" pricing model.
As a result, the prices drop when their inventory rises,
and the prices rise when their inventory drops.
(I assume they start with a base price for each book.)
So, if there were 5 copies available, and 2 were purchased,
the remaining 3 would be priced higher automatically.
Mile High as been less than 100% success for me, especially recently,
so I tend to avoid them unless their prices are about 1/2 cover.
If you want to see an example of a crazy Mile High price on Valiant...
check out Bloodshot #51.
As far as Mile High goes, I believe I recently read that they have implemented
an "inventory-based" pricing model.
As a result, the prices drop when their inventory rises,
and the prices rise when their inventory drops.
(I assume they start with a base price for each book.)
So, if there were 5 copies available, and 2 were purchased,
the remaining 3 would be priced higher automatically.
Mile High as been less than 100% success for me, especially recently,
so I tend to avoid them unless their prices are about 1/2 cover.
If you want to see an example of a crazy Mile High price on Valiant...
check out Bloodshot #51.
- Technique
- Thatched Roof Cottages!!!
- Posts: 5238
- Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2004 1:16:31 am
- Location: The S is for Sucks
$75!!! That's insane. I noticed that they priced themselves out of the market for Valiant books but I had not seen that. That's higher than any of their regular pre-Unity books (I think).greg wrote:Shadowmatt, welcome to the board!
As far as Mile High goes, I believe I recently read that they have implemented
an "inventory-based" pricing model.
As a result, the prices drop when their inventory rises,
and the prices rise when their inventory drops.
(I assume they start with a base price for each book.)
So, if there were 5 copies available, and 2 were purchased,
the remaining 3 would be priced higher automatically.
Mile High as been less than 100% success for me, especially recently,
so I tend to avoid them unless their prices are about 1/2 cover.
If you want to see an example of a crazy Mile High price on Valiant...
check out Bloodshot #51.
Inventory based pricing is fine so long as the base price is correct.
Bloodshot 51 should have a base around $15 and that is what they should charge if they have one or two. The price should only go down from there. It seems they set their base at a high number of copies and then raise the price exponentially as thet number dips below the base.
Do they actually want to sell anything or do they just want to gouge stupid people?
- Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
- Posts: 38007
- Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:33:38 pm