LABORDAY Codeword - ALL Comics On Sale! Howdy! Holding a matched set of 1920's Santa Clara bear effigy candle holders. (click on image for larger view) Ashley and I returned to Boulder late last evening, after a wonderful trip to the annual Santa Fe Indian Market. This having been Ashley's first experience at this huge tribal gathering, she was completely blown away not only by all of the incredible art on display, but also by the warmth and friendliness of all of the native peoples that she met. While all of our friends from New Mexico greatly enjoyed meeting Ashley, they also very much missed being able to once again see my wife, Nanette. When I explained, however, that Nanette graciously stayed home to watch over our family farm while our daughter, Rowan, participated in a national championship pool tournament in Las Vegas, they all completely understood why she could not make it. Family always comes first to them, too... I am certain that Nanette will return with me to Santa Fe next year, as will Ashley, in all probability. Once you've experienced Indian Market, you really, really do want to come back again... One factor that made Indian Market especially relaxing for me was the fact that our website was quite busy over the weekend. I pretty much knew that was going to be the case when I began our annual 40% off LABORDAY codeword sale on Friday, but I have to tell you that it is still quite gratifying to know that when you pull the trigger on an especially generous sale, that your expectations of at least moderate success were not unwarranted. I want to personally thank all of you who placed orders via our new codeword sale over the weekend, as you really helped to put my mind at ease. We now have a fairly large order backlog going into this upcoming week, which means that Ashley and I will have at least a moderate buying budget for at next weekend's Baltimore Comic-Con. Thank you very much for your kind support! For those of you who have yet to place an order utilizing the LABORDAY codeword, I'll mention very quickly that we are doing our absolute best right now to place temptation in your path. Our head of inventory, Pam Brandle, was on vacation last week, but thanks to the heroic efforts of our vice president of operations, William Murakami, we still managed to grade and enter over 25,000 back issue comics and magazines into our online listings during the past five working days. That number is critically important to me, as I have made it our company goal for this year to come as close as we possibly can to adding a net (after all sales are taken into account...) one million back issues into our inventory before December 31st. While that huge number may seem like an overly ambitious goal, we are actually on track to possibly hit the one million mark. We have had a couple of good weeks this year where we added more than 30,000 comics, and a few slower ones where we were in the 22,000 - 23,000 range, but we've generally remained pretty close to my 25,000 per week goal. The complicating factor is that in some weeks we have had fans with especially sharp eyes notice that we've added huge numbers of intentionally downgraded comics into our Fair/Good/Very Good at prices that average about $1. We then see our unit sales skyrocket for that week, which makes our net gain far less. After 30 weeks of effort, however, we are now well past the net 500,000 point, which means that we do still have a shot at reaching the one million mark before the end of the year. I will be hosting a staff meeting later this morning, during which we'll be discussing how to slightly alter our procedures in order to shift just a little more labor into sorting and grading even more comics per week. If we can average just slightly higher per week, I think that we can still make our goal for this year. In case you're wondering, I'm telling you all about this inventory improvement goal of ours because I want to bring some clarity as to why our website listings have expanded so greatly during 2010. As those of you who follow our New-In-Stock and Premium New-In-Stock updates on a regular basis are already aware, we have been adding nearly 100,000 great back issue comics and magazines into our online listings each month of this year. This includes massive improvements to our Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, Harvey, Archie, Dell, Gold Key, and Independent Publisher listings, as well as adding well over 100,000 Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age and CGC-graded comics into our system for you. The critical element of this program of which you might not be aware is that Ashley and I use computer-generated inventory books during our numerous buying trips, which tell us exactly which comics that we need to either fill holes in our inventory, or to trigger our automated pricing algorithm to lower our prices for you. We then work quite diligently to purchase only those back issues that we specifically need, with the net result being that the comics that we are buying act to create the greatest benefit for you. If you check out our New-In-Stock listings for last week, I think that you will quickly see exactly what I mean... I'll close out today's newsletter with a quick reminder to everyone to please remember to take into account the 40% that you save on all of your back issue comics and magazine purchase when utilizing the LABORDAY codeword when calculating as to whether you have reached our free shipping minimums of $50 for domestic orders, and $125 for International orders (no express carriers). The savings provided to you by a 40% off codeword are wonderful, but they do also mean that you need to order nearly double the amount of comics in order to reach your free shipping minimum on a net basis. That having been said, the good news is that you then receive nearly twice as many comics in your package as normal! Please do enjoy the savings provided by the LABORDAY codeword (please keep in mind the codeword does not apply to new comics, trade paperbacks, hard covers, graphic novels, statues, or supplies), with my personal thanks for your continuing kind support of our efforts on you behalf here at Mile High Comics... Happy Collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. Advance Previews of next weeks comics from Archie Comics PS: with our inventory improvements having been so broad of late, I am asking Lynne to include for you the entire array of links to our most popular titles at the end of this newsletter. Even if you have looked at one of these titles very recently, I think that it is well worth the time for you to take a second glance today. Not only have we added tens of thousands of additional listings over the past couple of weeks, but a great many of our base prices are now lower than they were in the past. Please do enjoy this great sale! Quick Links to Popular Marvel Titles Alias (2001) Alpha Flight (1983) Amazing Adventures (1970) Amazing Spider-man (1999) Astonishing X-Men (2004) Avengers (1963) Avengers (1997) Avengers/Invaders (2008) Black Panther (2005) Captain America (1968) Captain America (2004) Captain Britain and MI 13 (2008) Champions (1975) Civil War Classic X-Men (1986) Conan (1970) Daredevil (1964) Daredevil (1998) Deadpool (1997) Deadpool (2008) Defenders (1972) Doctor Strange (1966) Doctor Strange (1974) Elektra (2001) Exiles (2001) Fantastic Four (1961) Ghost Rider (1973) GI Joe Hulk (1962) Hulk (2008) Invaders (1975) Iron Fist (1975) Iron Man (1968) Iron Man (2004) 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 (1987) 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) Ultimatum (2008) 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) X-Men (1991) X-Treme X-Men (2001) Young Avengers (2005) Quick Links to Popular DC Titles Action Comics Adventure Comics Adventures of Superman All Star (1976) Authority Batgirl (2000) Batgirl (2008) Batman (1940) Batman & Robin Adventures Batman Family Birds of Prey (1998) Brave and the Bold (1955) Catwoman-The Series Catwoman (2001) Challengers of the Unknown (1958) Dark Knight (1986) Detective Comics Fables (2002) Firestorm (2004) Flash (1959) Flash (1987) Green Lantern (1960) Green Lantern (1990) Green Lantern (2005) Green Lantern: Rebirth Jack of Fables (2006) 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 (1939) Superman Family (1974) Tarzan (1972) Teen Titans (1966) Warlord (1976) Watchmen (1986) Weird War Tales (1971) Witching Hour (1969) Wonder Woman (1942) World's Finest (1941) Click here to view all the Free Bonus Book Giveaways Current Newsletter