# Intro I want to tell you about a guy I know. I wager he's lived a more interesting life than most. Here's a man who was raised on a pig farm, opened his own comic shop when he was just 21, lived the LGS owner dream, and retired in his 40s. How did he do it? Come along, dear reader, and I'll tell you.
# Act I - Origin Story Mike was born in 1973, and spent his first few years on his grandparents' farm in the middle of somewhere Alberta, but probably nowhere you'd recognize. At the age of three, Mike, his younger brother, and his parents moved onto their own farm, this one being a little farther from anywhere and closer to nowhere. This second farm was a hog farm, and it was here that Mike would spend his formative years. Speaking of his early years, Mike said, “It was perfectly fine. I worked a lot.” At seven-years-old, Mike started working small jobs around his parents’ hog farm – raking, sweeping, and the like – earning himself a cool $0.75 per hour. Mike’s Dad had also grown up on a farm, and his father had never paid him anything for his labour. Mike’s Dad held a lot of resentment over this, so he made sure Mike and his brother were always paid for their work. Mike saved up his money until he could afford to buy sets of Lego, mostly the space-themed ones. One particularly impressive set cost around $40 at the time (representing over 53 hours of his labour). “It taught me about money,” Mike chuckled, thinking back on the experience, “I understood how long it took to earn a box of Lego.” Work ethic was a core value in the Bower household, where the highest compliment one could receive was “you are a hard worker.” In 1984, at the age of 11, comic books entered Mike’s life for the first time. While on a family road-trip, Mike’s mother bought him and his brother each a comic book from a convenience store to keep them entertained on the long drive. His first comic book? _G.I. Joe_ issue #26. “That was the start,” Mike reminisced, “From that point on I was pretty much hooked.” _G.I. Joe_ was all the rage at the time. Mike already had some action figures and watched the TV show, but when he read the comics his life was forever changed. The discovery of _G.I. Joe_ comic books really struck a nerve with Mike and, in no time at all, he had expanded his horizons to include other comics. “_G.I. Joe_ only came out once a month! That wasn’t enough.” Mike recounted. His brother began collecting _Star Wars_ comics, while Mike picked up issues of Marvel’s _Secret Wars_ and _Web of Spider-Man_, along with many others.
![GI Joe Issue 26.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/GI_Joe_Issue_26_b1cca85258.webp) Mike’s copy of _G.I. Joe_ issue #26. Photo supplied
Soon after his introduction to comic books, a comic store opened at the mall in the nearest city centre and Mike was exposed to the whole gamut of different series. Unfortunately, that store only lasted for about a year. “They went out of business because they were a comic store in a mall and it was a bad idea,” said Mike, “But in their close-out sale, I bought the last four or five issues of _Secret Wars_, which was a huge 80s thing.” Shortly thereafter, in 1985, _Secret Wars 2_ was released. _Secret Wars 2_ featured a new concept, that of crossovers, which tied-in characters from all of Marvel’s other comics. By dint of this clever maneuver by Marvel, Mike (who had to have all the tie-ins) estimates that he was collecting 90% of all Marvel Comics’ offerings by the time _Secret Wars 2_ concluded. When he was just 12, Mike spied his first opportunity to turn a profit from comic books. A local department store had a promotional deal where they sold grab bags of five comics for $1.29 [CAD]. The bags, each of which contained the same five comics, included _G.I. Joe_ issues #13 and #14. Mike happened to know Mile High Comics would purchase those particular issues for $4.50 [USD] each, and he explained the opportunity for arbitrage to his parents. “I badgered them long enough that they let me buy 10 bags.” said Mike. Keeping the best condition copies for himself, Mike mailed the other nine copies of each of the _G.I. Joes_ to Mile High. Mike’s parents were incredulous, but sure enough, several weeks later a check arrived in the mail for $81 [USD] (approximately 36-billion dollars Canadian). Mike’s parents then allowed him to buy out the department store’s remaining stock of grab bags.
![GI Joe Issues 13 and 14.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/GI_Joe_Issues_13_and_14_bd03c2730b.webp) Mike’s copies of _G.I. Joe_ issue #13 and 14. Photo supplied
Around the age of 13 or 14, Mike subscribed to the _Comic Buyer’s Guide_ (_CBG_), a weekly publication about comic books which included a classified section and dealer listings. “I started ordering from these wholesale places in the US, and I would buy mostly 1960s stuff from them, dirt cheap, like 10 or 20% of the guide price. And then I would go to the local conventions, and I would trade them to the dealers to build my collection,” said Mike, remembering his early teenage years, “I was already hustling at that age.” Mike attended a small K-to-12 school numbering around 400 kids. “School was a way for me to see my friends.” Mike said of his grade school experience. The proximity of his parents’ farm placed him several miles away from his nearest buddies, so school was the social centre of Mike’s early life. The school did not have any clubs or extracurricular activities, meaning there were no major distractions from Mike’s primary passion, which was comic books. Throughout grade school, Mike's collection of comics continued to grow, as did his appreciation for their appeal and value. Mike did very well in high school, easily completing his schoolwork and achieving high grades. “School was easy for me.” said Mike, who finished at the top of his graduating class.
# Act II - The Decision With his exemplary grades, Mike had his pick of career paths. His family and teachers only considered three careers as worthy options: doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Mike’s older cousins were all starting, or even well developed, in one of those careers, so the path seemed even more set. Not really knowing what he was getting himself into, Mike decided on engineering, and off to university he went. This was a big move! From a hog farm in very rural Alberta, where he had spent his entire life, Mike moved to one of the largest cities in Canada to attend the University of Calgary. “I chose engineering because I didn’t really want to do the other two (doctoring or lawyering), but then I discovered I didn’t really want to do engineering either,” said Mike. While attending – and hating – university in Calgary, Mike found Phoenix Comics, which became his local comic haunt. Mike remembered his time spent there fondly and became well acquainted with Ben Falconer, who owned the store. Mike had received several university scholarships on account of his high marks in high school. Of these funds, Mike commented, “I spent a good chunk of that money on comics from Ben, which paid off much more than the education did!”
![Phoenix-SW.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Phoenix_SW_39b52f772d.webp) Phoenix Comics. Source: yellowpages.ca
In the summer of 1993, having completed the first two years of his engineering degree, Mike was ready to call it quits. He knew engineering was not the right path for him, and he had been toying with the notion of starting a comic business. Mike floated the idea of opening his own comic store by Ben, and Ben offered to let Mike use the Phoenix Comics name in return for a nominal monthly fee. That same summer, Ben had bought an enormous collection of comics consisting of 250 long boxes – approximately 90,000 comics! Ben had purchased the collection mainly for the higher end 1960s comics which it contained, but the sheer volume of it presented a storage problem, even for one of the bigger comic stores in the city. So, Ben agreed to sell the bulk of the collection, over 200 boxes, to Mike for the reasonable price of $0.30 per comic. “There was some really good stuff in there,” Mike said of the collection, “Basically everything from 1970 to 1993 from Marvel Comics, plus some other stuff.” As the price for the collection was approximately $25,000, Ben agreed to let Mike pay him back in instalments. Within days of agreeing to purchase Ben’s comics, Mike decided to drop out of university. “[I] had a big fight with my parents. They were not happy,” Mike laughed. Mike had always worked on his parents’ farm during his summers. Now, with no classes to return to, Mike moved back home and signed on with his parents to be a full-time farmhand, putting in 10-hour days, six days per week. With his tens of thousands of comics, Mike spent his limited time off in the evenings and on Sundays sorting and cataloguing his newly acquired inventory; the Bower family work ethic had been turned toward a fantastic and novel new purpose. On occasion, Mike would take a weekend and venture out to one of the various comic shows which took place across Western Canada. There, he would sell comics and use the revenues to pay down his loan to Ben. Mike carried on like this for a little over a year. Then, in September 1994, Ben called Mike out of the blue. Ben had gotten wind of a dirt-cheap, city-owned rental property that had come available back in Calgary. Even though the city planned to demolish the building in the future, Ben urged Mike to take the opportunity and lease the space with him. “It’s time to go! This is the spot – go!” Mike chuckled, remembering Ben’s pivotal phone call. Mike was far from certain, but he took a leap of faith and decided to take the space. “Let’s do it,” he agreed. At this point, Mike had paid Ben back in full for the comic collection and had even managed to save up some additional funds. Using his savings, Mike subleased part of the space from Ben and renovated it to suit his needs. In November, just six weeks following Ben’s phone call, Mike opened Phoenix Comics NW.
# Act III: Magic Timing “That was a bit of a scary time.” Mike recalled. But, as luck would have it, Mike had an aunt and uncle who lived in Calgary and had just retired. They were heading off to do some travelling and arranged for Mike to stay at their house, rent free, in return for him acting as caretaker of their property. Before they left, Mike’s aunt and uncle left him a copy of _The Wealthy Barber_, which Mike read and took to heart – more on this later. “I lived there for probably nine months, and I think they were back twice for two weeks at a time,” said Mike. Considering the opportunity to acquire Ben’s comics, the availability of a cheap commercial space, and the serendipity of his relatives’ invitation to stay in their home, Mike noted, “There was a lot of good timing.” So, how cheap was this space, exactly? Well, Mike’s portion of the commercial lease was $370 per month for about 1,200 sq ft of space. People of the present day may equate this sum with about how much they pay for their monthly Netflix subscription. “The building was shitty,” Mike quipped, “But it didn’t leak.” This was a good thing, considering the valuable paper-based products he was storing there. Three new business ventures split the space together. Ben rented the main floor to Mike, for Phoenix Comics NW, the upstairs Ben leased to his girlfriend, the proprietor of Purr Clothing, and the back room was allotted to Sloth Records. Amazingly, all three of those businesses have done tremendously well and are still around today. “The day I opened, I opened with zero debt,” Mike recalls, “I remember it being slightly under $1,000 that I had left in my bank account.” On his opening day, Mike sold a single comic book and Phoenix Comics raked in $3.75. And now for the _Magic_ connection! In 1993, a new type of trading card burst onto the scene and forever changed the tabletop gaming industry: this was the advent of _Magic: The Gathering_ and the introduction of trading card games, or TCGs. Having opened Phoenix Comics about a year after the launch of _Magic_, Mike’s timing – yet again – was exceptional. “I don’t even know if I’d heard of _Magic_,” remembered Mike, “Some of the first few people coming in were asking if I sold _Magic_ cards. After three or four people asking if I am selling this thing, I’m like, ‘why am I not selling this thing?’” Mike immediately began investigating the new phenomenon and located a distributor in Calgary. In February 1995, the local distributor had two sets of _Magic_ cards available: _Revised_ and _Fallen Empires_. “They had infinite _Fallen Empires_, they would gladly sell me _Fallen Empires_,” said Mike, “The world had already figured out that [set] was flooded with garbage.” To get a box of _Revised_, on the other hand, there was a waitlist. Luckily for Mike, a forklift incident had resulted in damage to a box of the distributor’s stock of _Revised_ cards, and Mike was able to purchase the damaged goods at a discount. The new product was a hit, and kids from the nearby school started coming in to buy packs of cards. “Probably by the end of February, [_Magic_] was outselling comics. And it outsold comics the whole way,” said Mike, “So, it was a comic store, but really it was a _Magic_ store.” One of these early customers was interested in selling their deck of _Magic_ cards to Mike. “OK, I sell back issue comics, I should probably sell single _Magic_ cards,” thought Mike, “I had no idea what to pay, so I’m like, ‘I’ll pay five cents each.’” And he paid the young student around $5 for his deck of 100-or-so cards. That evening, Mike went to another game store and purchased a copy of _Scrye_ magazine, a new periodical which contained price guide information for _Magic: The Gathering_ cards. The deck Mike had just purchased contained two copies of Fork, which _Scrye_’s price guide listed as being worth $8 each. “Hmm, if I can buy these for five cents and sell them for eight dollars, I can make some money in this business,” laughed Mike. In those first months, Phoenix Comics did not have many customers. “Some days three or four people was all that would come in the store. So, I read the whole _Magic_ rulebook, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this game sounds really cool!’,” Mike recalled. Soon after Mike had read the manual, one of his comic book regulars noticed that Phoenix was now selling _Magic_ cards and informed Mike that they played. “Do you want to show me how?” Mike asked them, and there started a lifelong relationship between Mike and _Magic_, not just as a vendor to a product, but as a member of a passionate and thriving community. It turned out that the comic book regular was the best player in the city, and he taught Mike how to play the game. Mike and his new gaming partner played together continuously. “A couple weeks into starting to sell _Magic_, I already learned that you need Moxes and a Lotus, and these are the real cards in this game – these other cards don’t really matter,” Mike surmised. Within a month after opening, Phoenix Comics was stocking all the staples of the game which were important to competitive players. Mike attended his first tournament where he finished in second place – his mentor took the number one spot. “There was nothing like [_Magic_] before,” said Mike, “The early tournament scene was crazy.” Phoenix Comics NW was too small to host tournaments at the store, but Mike and his customers would play against one another in a small back room. “People would come in the store, hear all this commotion from the back and be like, ‘what’s that?’” recalled Mike, “And it sounded so fun because people were laughing and it _was_ so much fun.” Nearly every day, Mike was teaching people how to play _Magic_. “It grew organically,” said Mike, “People were so into it right from the start, and they would teach someone, and those people would get so into it, and they would teach someone, and yeah, that’s just how it went.” _Magic_ was the first, but not the only TCG which Mike carried at Phoenix. “I did _Star Trek_ and _Star Wars_,” said Mike, “Those were both huge for a while. For a little while _Star Wars_ was bigger than _Magic_.” But none had the staying power of the original TCG. Considering these other, unsuccessful card games, “They screwed up lots of things,” Mike analyzed, “It became too complicated, and [they] couldn’t get new players in because it was so complicated.” In addition to overcomplicating the gameplay mechanics, “They started putting out a set every month, which was too much for people to keep up with. And the power creep became insane,” Mike remembered. Looking back at the downfall of these once popular TCGs, the comparison to Wizards of the Coast (the publisher of _Magic: The Gathering_) and their present-day strategy was inevitable. “These are all problems _Magic_ is dealing with now,” Mike warned, “You know, the signs are there, this killed every other game.” But this is not an article about the shortcomings of WotC and Hasbro (the parent company of WotC), so I digress! Sentry Box, a large game store in Calgary which also carried _Magic_ cards, was one of the first stores in Western Canada to have sanctioned tournaments. “Mostly because I badgered the people running the events to make them sanctioned back then,” Mike recalled, somewhat begrudgingly, “And then I actually ended up doing half the work.” Mike was willing to put in the extra effort because he cared about rankings. In 1996 Mike took a weekend business trip to attend the Canadian nationals _Magic_ tournament, which was hosted in Winnipeg, Manitoba that year. Mike was keen to qualify for the recently inaugurated _Magic: The Gathering_ Pro Tour, which had its first season that same year. Between rounds, Mike did a lot of trading to pay for the trip. “I didn’t do very well in the tournament, but the trip was still quite profitable!” Mike quipped. Mike settled into a new routine: he would run the store during the day, and then compete at tournaments in the evenings. In those early years, Western Canada did not yet have Pro Tour Qualifier (PTQ) tournaments, so Mike even started travelling to Seattle, Washington to compete in the PTQs held there. Eventually there were PTQs in Alberta, allowing Mike to compete and qualify for the Pro Tour without having to leave the country. In total, Mike qualified for 13 Pro Tour events, 10 of which Mike played in. His first one was a Team Rochester event in Washington, DC in September 1999 and his last was an Extended event in Houston in November 2002. Mike never achieved notable results on the Tour, but he chalked a lot of this up to his status as an independent. “Big teams were the only ones putting up good results,” recounted Mike, “And they were hard to get into. They weren’t looking for anyone from Alberta to join.” Frankly, I find it pretty incredible that Mike was able to compete in tournaments at all, while simultaneously running his own business – and that’s to say nothing of repeatedly earning a berth to contend at the highest level of the game! But let us now return to the business of business.
# Act IV: Running the Show “I worked every day the first two years,” said Mike, “Christmas Day and New Year’s Day were my only days off.” Mike brought on his first employee, Donny (“Who I’m still friends with,” Mike added), to work on Sundays. Donny really wanted to start selling manga (Japanese graphic novels) at Phoenix. “In exchange for exclusive rights to sell manga in the store, he would work five hours a week,” Mike recalled, “OK sure, an employee I don’t have to pay. This is great.” Unfortunately (for Donny), manga didn’t sell well in those early days. “His five hours, [Donny] probably worked for a dollar an hour,” laughed Mike, “Three months in, he hired someone to work his five hours.” Donny’s new stand-in was Simon, who was a fantastic employee. After about a year, Donny threw up his hands and walked away, so Mike hired Simon on directly. “Simon was the first real employee,” said Mike, “Simon became manager eventually, and he was with me for about 10 years.” It also turned out that Donny was ahead of his time, as manga eventually became a huge part of the Phoenix success formula. Over the next few decades, there were times when manga outsold North American comic offerings at Phoenix. “I was profitable right from the start,” said Mike, “I made money the first year.” In 1995, there were only two other shops in town that sold _Magic_ cards, and neither of them offered cash for their customers’ cards. “OK, I’ll just pay cash,” figured Mike, and he began offering cash for his customers’ cards at 50% of their market value. The other shops both allowed customers to trade in their individual cards (known in the industry as “singles”) for in-store credit at 50% of the card’s market value, so Mike offered his customers in-store credit for their singles at 80% of market value. With his competitive trade-in policy and option for cash-in-hand, Mike dominated the city’s emerging market for TCG cards. “For years, I pretty much had the singles market all to myself,” said Mike, “[The competitors] could have capitalized on it, but fortunately for me, they let me have the whole market for at least a decade.” In 1996, about 18-months after Phoenix Comics opened its doors, the city kicked Mike and the other tenants out of the building so that it could be demolished to widen 16th Avenue North, which forms part of the Trans-Canada Highway. Luckily, Mike had already saved up enough capital that he could afford the downpayment for a mortgage on a new location (which happens to be the same location where the business resides to this day): a two-story building with a basement, with each of the three floors being about 1000 sq ft (~3,000 sq ft in total). Speaking of luck, the purchase of Phoenix Comics’ permanent space was yet another one of those uncanny coincidences which we find throughout Mike’s career. There just so happened to be a big drop in Calgary’s commercial real estate prices, and the owners of the building could not find a buyer. “They were asking 200-and-something not long before, and they kept dropping the price, and dropping the price, and I offered $150[K] and they took it because they just couldn’t get rid of it,” remembered Mike, “That was probably the absolute maximum I could afford.” By the time he had made the downpayment and renovated the new building, Mike’s accounts were all the way back down near zero. Speaking of renovations, “I’d get up early, go to the new location and put a couple hours of renovations in in the morning, then work all day at the existing store, and then in the evening I’d go back and work as late as I could – 11 o’clock or midnight – doing the renovation, sleep, then do it again, over and over and over, for two months, until I had the place renovated and could move in,” Mike recalled of the exhausting time – thank goodness for that work ethic! The new location was a good fit, and Phoenix picked up new customers from the nearby Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). However, over the next couple of years following the move, the store’s growth slowed and began to stagnate. But then, in 1998, there was a sign. Literally. “I bought that sign that sticks out… 18 months after I put that sign up, business had doubled. It just skyrocketed – it kept going up from there,” said Mike, “That sign was unbelievable, it was such good advertising.” Mike had had good signage before, but always flat against the building. Simply having the sign jut out from the building increased the store’s visibility to passing traffic, and the result was a doubling in sales volume from mid-1998 to the end of 1999.
![The Phoenix Comics Batman Sign.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/The_Phoenix_Comics_Batman_Sign_149d5e3acc.webp) Phoenix Comics NW's iconic Batman sign. Source: phoenixcomics.ca
Mike had a practical, but insightful method for growing his team at Phoenix. “I always hired customers,” said Mike, “Lots of them I watched grow up, so I had a really good idea of who they were.” Around the year 2000, Mike even met his future partner, Jody, at the store. Jody eventually worked both behind the counter and in later years did a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
![Mike Bower - 2011.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Mike_Bower_2011_cd2422d0af.webp) Mike Bower, 2011. Source: Calgary Herald
In 2008, a young man by the name of Brian Ziemba came through the doors of Phoenix Comics. Brian, who was 17 at the time, had recently gotten into Magic and had heard that Phoenix was the place to go for competitive players. “Brian was a kid who played at the store,” remembered Mike. True to his ethos, Mike hired Brian onto the Phoenix staff in 2012 when Brian was 21. Brian worked his way up at Phoenix and proved himself to be a highly competent member of the team. Between 2015 and 2016, Mike promoted Brian to manager.
![Brian Ziemba - 2014.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Brian_Ziemba_2014_c61e403af3.webp) Brian Ziemba, 2014. Photo supplied
Mike slowly staffed-up his business over time, “I always wanted to keep the staff as trim as possible,” said Mike, “It also took me a long time to get good at not micro-managing everything to death.” The ability to let go of responsibility and ownership was difficult for Mike, but he eventually got the hang of delegating tasks to his growing team. “By the end, I couldn’t even work the _Magic_ counter myself, I would be completely lost.” In 2018, I met Mike for the first time. At this point in his career, after 24 years of Phoenix’s very successful cash-for-cards policy, Mike had accumulated a rather staggering quantity of unprocessed _Magic_ card bulk. How much, exactly? About two-million cards, stored in a combination of Mike’s garage (at least one million there), at the shop and even occasionally in the store’s Sprinter van. “We bought everything,” said Mike, “So, that was piled up from collection after collection after collection.” Mike had never set out to horde bulk, and he even went so far as to throw boxes of bulk _Magic_ cards into the recycling just to try and free up space. “I couldn’t get the value out of it at an economical rate because it would cost too much to pay someone to go through it all,” Mike lamented. Luckily for Mike (and for me), I had spent the last couple of years developing a _Magic_ card sorting machine to help with just such a scenario, and Mike was excited to try it out. “I saw potential right away,” said Mike, “I was all-in pretty much immediately.” Between 2018 and 2020, Mike sent more than one million _Magic_ cards through the alpha prototype _PhyzBatch-9000_ card sorting machine. When a beta prototype machine became available in mid-2020, Mike put another million cards through that. Finally, by mid-2022, Mike had rid himself of the literal tons of unprocessed bulk (2 tons, to be exact) he had been accumulating throughout his career. Mike’s test trials of the machine were also instrumental in helping me launch my own business, so thank you very much, good sir!
![Mike-with-PhyzBatch-2020.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Mike_with_Phyz_Batch_2020_9c4cdd2101.webp) Mike Bower’s hands, a beta prototype PhyzBatch-9000, and a whole bunch of Magic cards, 2020. Source: TCG Machines/Graeme Gordon
# Act V: A Graceful Exit Mike didn’t always have an exit plan, apart from a general notion of retiring someday. That said, on the advice of _The Wealthy Barber_ (which you’ll recall from Act III), he had started investing as soon as he had the money to do so. “The building was the first investment. Instead of paying rent, I’ll put my money into this building,” said Mike. Around 2005, Mike had paid for the building in full and was looking for his next investment. “That’s how I ended up in stocks and comics,” Mike recalled. Wait, stocks? What stocks? Well, back around 2006, a customer of Mike’s had offered him a ‘hot tip’ on some stock market investments. Mike decided to bite and invested $20,000 [CAD] into the recommended stock picks. At the same time, Mike bought a _Batman_ #1 for $10,500 [CAD]. “Five years later, I sold these ‘awesome’ stock tips for about $14,000. So, a nice $6,000 loss over five years,” said Mike. Over that same period, Mike’s copy of _Batman_ #1 had increased in value by five-fold, to about $50,000 [CAD].
![Batman 1 PGX 3.5.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Batman_1_PGX_3_5_437b9c3a1f.webp) Mike’s copy of _Batman_ issue #1. Photo supplied
“I quickly decided that golden age comics and _Magic_ were a much better investment for me, ‘cause I knew [more] about these markets than stocks.” So, Mike started buying vintage comic books, followed later by investments into early printings of rare _Magic_ cards. “I didn’t get hardcore into _Magic_ stuff until about 2014-ish, I think is when I started buying _Alpha_ (the very first set of Magic cards) stuff and really putting money into high-end _Magic_ as an investment vehicle.” Even with his collectibles and real estate investments, succession planning was not at the forefront of Mike’s mind. But then, as luck – there it is again! – would have it, Brian (a keen intellect and savvy businessman in his own right) was aspiring to something greater than his role as store manager. In 2017 Brian approached Mike about starting up his own shop and asked if Mike would help to finance the venture. Mike declined to fund Brian’s endeavour and instead told Brian that if he held out for a few more years, Mike would sell Phoenix Comics to him. Thus, the seed was planted, and the stage was set! Yet another, and perhaps the final, of Mike’s run-ins with Lady Luck over the course of his career was the global COVID-19 pandemic. “Prices shot through the roof on collectibles. My comics nearly tripled [in value] between 2019 to 2021.” In the face of such unprecedented price spikes, it was clear to Mike that an opportunity for an early exit had arrived. In 2021, Mike began the intensive process of preparing to transfer ownership of his business, while also bolstering his retirement fund by selling off his golden age comic books. Much like the first two years after opening Phoenix Comics, Mike also worked nearly every day of the final two years of his career. In 2022, Mike cashed in the comics he had been collecting for nearly three decades with the ComicLink online auction house. Notable among these collectibles was a copy of _Iron Man_ #1, which he bought for $200 [CAD] when he was 13, and sold for $3,125.00 [USD], and an _Iron Man and Sub-Mariner_ which he purchased for $1.50 [CAD] and sold for $1,826.00 [USD] (Mike noted that he accidentally stepped on the _Sub-Mariner_ when he was sorting through his collection as a kid, putting a single crease in it and reducing its quality from an estimated ~9.8 down to a 9.4. Though it may sound trivial, that 0.4 difference in rating has an enormous effect on price).
![Iron Man 1 CGC 9.0.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Iron_Man_1_CGC_9_0_ec27481f2c.webp) Mike’s copy of _Iron Man_ issue #1. Photo supplied
![Iron-Man-and-Sub-Mariner-1-CGC-9.4.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Iron_Man_and_Sub_Mariner_1_CGC_9_4_8e2c07f3bd.webp) Mike’s copy of _Iron Man and Sub-Mariner_. Photo supplied
When he was 18, Mike had purchased a copy of _Tales of Suspense_ #39 (containing the first appearance of Iron Man) from Ben Falconer for $1,350 [CAD]. It sold for $44,100 [CAD]. Not bad, Mike, not bad at all. Now for one of the really fun ones. Remember the _Batman_ #1 that Mike had bought for $10,500 [CAD] back in 2006, the one that steered him away from the stock market and into golden age comics? “I sold the _Batman_ #1 for $230,000 USD,” said Mike. To put that in perspective, and considering currency exchange rates, that’s twice the amount that Mike paid for his commercial building. Unreal. Mike made many record-setting sales in his big comic selloff, several of which are pictured below. Oh, and it gets better!
![Amazing Fantasy 15 CGC 6.0.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Amazing_Fantasy_15_CGC_6_0_0c96218497.webp) Mike’s copy of _Amazing Fantasy_ issue #15. Photo supplied
![Chamber of Chills 23 CGC 7.0.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Chamber_of_Chills_23_CGC_7_0_124cd1da6c.webp) Mike’s copy of _Chamber of Chills_ issue #23. Photo supplied
![Planet Comics 1 CGC 7.0.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Planet_Comics_1_CGC_7_0_bf2b7b5c28.webp) Mike’s copy of _Planet Comics_ issue #1. Photo supplied
![Suspense Comics 3 CGC 6.5.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Suspense_Comics_3_CGC_6_5_367c24d823.webp) Mike’s copy of _Suspense Comics_ issue #3. Photo supplied
“I’m still holding cards,” admitted Mike, “Collectibles don’t top out, they plateau and then they go up, and they plateau and they go up.” So, I had to know, what kind of gems does this mythical archive of _Magic_ cards contain? “I have over 100 pieces of Power Nine,” Mike stated cooly, adding, “I have a BGS 9.5 quad-plus _Alpha_ Lotus.” To those of you for whom these preceding sentences mean nothing, I will briefly explain; the _Magic_ aficionados among you may skip over the next paragraph.
![Mike_s-Power-Nine-Magic-Card-Collection.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Mike_s_Power_Nine_Magic_Card_Collection_58c423892e.webp) Mike’s collection of Power Nine _Magic_ cards. Photo supplied
In the first three set releases of _Magic_, there were nine cards which were considered absolutely essential for competitive players because of their powerful in-game effects, hence the “Power Nine”. Of these, by far the most infamous – and valuable – is the Black Lotus. An _Alpha_ Black Lotus (i.e. a Black Lotus from the very first set of _Magic_ cards ever released) is the crème de la crème of trading cards. While Power Nine cards are exceedingly rare (they are on the “Reserved List” of cards which Wizards of the Coast has promised never to reprint), the condition of any individual card still plays a massive role in its worth. So, when there are hundreds, or thousands, or potentially tens of thousands of dollars on the line, collectors will send in their high-value cards to get an official condition assessment. BGS, which stands for Beckett Grading Service, is one such professional card grading service provider. Typically, cards will be given a grade on a 10-point scale, with the overall grade being determined from four sub grades assigned for the quality of the card’s centering, corners, edges, and surface. A “quad plus” simply means that the four sub-grades given to a card are each at least as high as the overall grade. To understand the implications of what Mike is sitting on, a quick scan on eBay (made on January 13, 2024) revealed two instances of BGS 9.5 _Alpha_ Black Lotuses, each of which was listed for $1 million [USD] or more. Of note, neither of these other two BGS 9.5 Lotuses was a quad-plus specimen. So, there’s that. On September 1st, 2022, Phoenix Comics officially changed hands from Mike over to Brian, and Mike retired.
![Business Transfer from Mike to Brian - 2022.webp](https://tcgmachinesstaging.azureedge.net/strapi/assets/Business_Transfer_from_Mike_to_Brian_2022_1b72740cb4.webp) Mike and Brian shake hands out front of Phoenix Comics NW, 2022. Photo supplied
I think retirement scares a lot of people. Some wonder what they will do or how they will keep busy, because they have associated themselves (and their self-worth) with their work for their entire adult life. Some people are not Mike. When I met up with Mike over lunch to conduct this interview, he was the picture of contentment. In good humour, and laughing easily, Mike let me know he is as busy as ever in his retirement. Mike had always been interested in woodworking, and he actually built all the fixtures (cabinets, shelves, etc.) for Phoenix himself. “Custom stuff is expensive, unless you learn to do it yourself, so I did it myself,” he said, “I’m pretty proud of them.” Now that he’s retired, Mike has taken an interest in making fine furniture. “I am not going to try to turn this into a business,” Mike promised, “I have turned all of my other hobbies into businesses. There’s no chance this is becoming a business.” To ensure this, Mike limits himself to a maximum of two or three hours of woodworking per day. Aside from woodworking, Mike was always big into video games. “I get into a game pretty hardcore. I had 2,400 hours in _Fallout 4_. I did every challenge possible,” said Mike, “I’m beyond completionist. Any YouTube channel that has challenges, I would watch them do it and try and do it better.” And _Fallout 4_ wasn’t Mike’s only gaming outlet. “I have almost 2,000 hours in _Civilization 6_.” Gaming continues to play a role in Mike’s life and forms a part of his retirement vision. And, of course, _Magic_ remains a staple. “I still play _Magic_ once a week. I play Legacy at the store.” Mike has no plans to travel or play at a high level anymore, though. Mike and his partner Jody are happily retired in Calgary with their cat, Molly, and their three dogs, Buffy, Cooper, and Sammy.
# Epilogue I had originally put forth the idea of conducting an interview with Mike immediately following his retirement, back in September 2022. Embarrassingly, by the time the two of us finally sat down over lunch, it was the end of November 2023. More embarrassingly still, here I am still writing this article, and it’s now mid-January 2024! This is why business owners shouldn’t interview each other. But, I have long had a great respect for Mike and what he was doing at Phoenix, and I figured he would have a pretty unique story to tell. Holy moly, I was not disappointed! At the end of our interview, I asked Mike if he could speak to the role of luck versus what he had control over. With respect to luck, Mike had the following things to say: “So many lucky things happened. The weird thing about owning a comic store in 1994 is comic stores were all collapsing. It was the big crash of the comic market. Between Ben and I, we bought up distributors, not just stores, we bought out a distributor and took all their stuff at pennies on the dollar. An opportunity like that… There was one time for that, and that was ’94, ’95, ’96 – that era. If you were buying, you were the only one, and you weren’t competing with anyone. Things like that are pure luck. That big collection, I couldn’t have done it without that. I got the building at exactly the right time.” With respect to the things he chose, Mike said: “I did pick an industry that I felt, even at a young age, people were doing it wrong. Investing in collectibles instead of other stuff…. I’m sure most people still think it’s a stupid idea. I didn’t think it was a stupid idea, but maybe it was, and I just got lucky.” When asked if there was any great wisdom he could pass on to other current or prospective business owners, Mike gave this advice, “Whatever you’re thinking of getting into, you need to have an idea other people don’t have. You have to innovate somehow. Just trying to repeat what other people have already done is not good enough. You need to either outsmart them or outwork them, and preferably both.” Distilling Mike’s story down to some key takeaways and pieces of good advice which should remain relevant for entrepreneurs into the foreseeable future, I would offer the following highlight reel: 1. If you have children, teach them about the value of money as early as possible. 2. Use your customer base to find good employees. 3. Keep an eye out for new product lines or opportunities that relate to your current business, but add a new dimension to it. 4. Even in a digital age, make sure you have good and highly visible signage! 5. Invest in collectibles (but only if you know what you’re doing). Finally, I questioned Mike on the future of the trading card industry. “No matter how digital the world goes, physical collectibles are always going to be something people care about,” said Mike, “It’s too ingrained in our monkey brains. We’re gonna like shiny things until the end of time.”

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