Rocket Raccoon, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Starlord Variant Editions Howdy! After driving over 800 miles from Los Angeles in a single day, I arrived at my home in Boulder, Colorado just before midnight last evening. Since I was completely alone during that entire journey, I had plenty of time to reflect upon what transpired at this year's San Diego convention. As I have expressed in my previous newsletters, never have we gone into a convention with such high hopes, only to have our efforts fail so miserably. Believe me when I say that made my already long drive home seem even longer... Chuck in Black Dragon Canyon Utah So you know, my initial reaction to our failure was to just withdraw from the convention entirely. I really did believe that we had done our very best with our San Diego convention booth for this year, and that there were no further improvements that we could reasonably make. Especially in light of the fact that nearly every comics publisher and toy/game manufacturer at the show seemed determined to displace us. After receiving over 100 requests from fans (both online and in person at the show...), however, I reluctantly changed my mind, and went ahead and renewed our booth space just ten minutes before the final deadline. Our SDCC 2014 Booth Now that the decision has been made that we are going to return to San Diego in 2015, I am already revamping our exhibit to make it lighter (which cuts transportation costs) and to make it easier to build (which reduces labor and hotel charges). I am also going to eliminate certain products that failed to gain a positive response, while increasing our selection on items that proved popular. This is certainly provides no guaranteed that we will succeed next year, but with our efforts already beginning today, I think that it will significantly improve our odds. Another factor that should help us plan for the 2015 San Diego convention is that we are going to start exhibiting at other comics conventions around the country, testing response to our booth with comics fans in different markets. While those tests in other cities cannot replicate the extremely hostile environment created against us by the comics publishers who sell exclusive editions in San Diego, at least we can get a better sense of just how much of our lack of success at the 2014 show is directly attributable to their actions. As soon as I know as to which city we will be heading to next, I will let you know. Moving on to other news, the 60% off SANDIEGO codeword sale that I put into effect on our back issue comics and magazines on Tuesday has already provided enough replacement revenue to offset our entire loss at the convention. Since I told everyone that I would keep that 60% off SANDIEGO codeword in effect until noon on Saturday, however, that codeword sale will continue to be honored until the original deadline is reached. Please enjoy the great savings provided by this sale with our sincere thanks for so willingly supporting us in our hour of need. Guardians #1 Another time constraint that I need to announce today applies to our two exclusive Mile High Comics GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2013) variant editions. As some of you already know, we invested over a year ago in printing an exclusive edition of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1, and then went ahead and also printed copies of a Mile High Comics edition of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #5, featuring the first appearance of ANGELA in the Marvel Universe. With the GUARDIANS movie now looking to be a huge hit, and ANGELA currently being written into the Marvel Universe mythos as THOR and LOKI's sister, our gamble appears to be finally paying off. In a nutshell, worldwide demand for our Mile High variants of those two key issues has suddenly surged, with a vastly increased number of orders being placed. Guardians #5 While increased demand for our exclusive variants is a good thing, I remain committed to the concept that we do want to keep all of our variants available on our website, indefinitely. That is why I gradually bump up our asking prices as our remaining supply of each issue diminishes. That being the case, I think it very important for you to know that I am going to raise our asking prices of both of our GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY variant editions from their current price point of $24.95, up to $29.95, on Monday. Even that increase may not be the end if things, however, as I may raise them even further later in the week, depending on just how many orders that we receive after the film opens. With GUARDIANS receiving such an amazing number of positive reviews, there may soon be no limit to worldwide demand for our variants... Along those same lines, we are now out of stock on almost all 13 of the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con variants that we offered earlier this week. The ROCKET RACCOON #1 SDCC variant and the STARLORD #1 SDCC variant, in particular, are blowing out. All remaining copies of those 13 variants will be repriced in the inventory price update that will go into effect at noon on Saturday, with the ROCKET RACCOON #1 SDCC and STARLORD #1 SDCC asking prices rising up to either $19.95, or perhaps even $24.95. If you want a copy for your collection at our original asking price of $9.95, please place your order with us right away. We do, however, have to request that you limit your order to one copy each of ROCKET RACCOON #1 and STARLORD #1, please. Trust me, this movie is going to be a huge hit! Happy Collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. July 31, 2014 2014 San Diego Comic-Con Variants Extinction Parade: War #1 (MR) - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 2,000 copies - $9.95 Adventure Time #30 - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 3,000 copies - $9.95 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #47 - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 5,000 copies - $9.95 Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #1 - SDCC 2014 Edition Cover A Limited to 3,000 copies - $9.95 Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #1 - SDCC 2014 Edition Cover B Limited to 3,000 copies - $9.95 Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #1 - SDCC 2014 Edition Cover C Limited to 600 copies - $29.95 Black Science #7 - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 3,000 copies - $9.95 Rocket Raccoon #1 Skottie Young B&W Variant - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 5,000 copies - $9.95 Spider-Man 2099 #1 B&W Variant - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 4,000 copies - $9.95 The Legendary Star-Lord #1 Skottie Young B&W Variant - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 5,000 copies - $9.95 Uncanny X-Men #23 Minimates Variant - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 5,000 copies - $9.95 Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #1 - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 3,000 copies - $9.95 Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #1 - SDCC 2014 Edition Limited to 3,000 copies - $9.95 Current Newsletter