What is your personal story about buying or selling comics that PROVES you're insane? 4 4

[fmaz]

8 minutes ago, 999ghosts said:

Proof Nr 1 that I am insane: I own about 13.000 comics, 95% drek, and I want to keep them all... Bagged and boarded... Even those ones you would find in the 50 cents bin. Love them all.

Proof nr 2 I am insane: had my own comic book store for about 4 years... 

Yeah the problem with your list is that  A) everyone here knows that owning a comic book store is, at  BEST a razor-thin margin of profit where one small issue could drive you out of business and B) everyone here also thinks, "yeah, that sounds AWESOME"

[1950's war comics]

12 minutes ago, 999ghosts said:

Proof Nr 1 that I am insane: I own about 13.000 comics, 95% drek, and I want to keep them all... Bagged and boarded... Even those ones you would find in the 50 cents bin. Love them all.

Proof nr 2 I am insane: had my own comic book store for about 4 years... 

you win ! that is the most INSANE post so far  

[namisgr]

1 hour ago, revat said:

Is that where you were born and raised? Was it near a playground where you spent most of your days?

[namisgr]

1 hour ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

Is your avatar the guy from Monty Python  looks familiar

Michael Palin.

[ADAMANTIUM]

3 minutes ago, namisgr said:

Michael Palin.

AH! The guy who likes to dress in women's clothing and hang around in bars... oh I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK

[Ken Aldred]

4 hours ago, 1Cool said:

Sadly not for awhile.

 

2 hours ago, fmaz said:

That picture looks like one that could be used from a craigslist ad entitled : "NEAR MINT COMIC COLLECTION FOR SALE"

Part of the NM-graded section at the Mile High mail order warehouse.

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[kav]

I once answered an ad for some old books-pulled up to this old decrepit place-when I went in this creepy dude answered the door.  He showed me to the 'master'.  This guy said I see you've met my faithful handyman.  he's just a little brought down cause when you knocked he thought you were the-candyman.

 

[SteppinRazor]

21 hours ago, Moondog said:

In the early 90s I got a call from a guy near Indianapolis.  He said his father-in-law left his wife some GA comics and asked me if I was interested.  He wasn't sure what he had.  I had an old friend in the area so I thought I'd drive down, take a look at the comics, and if they were trash at least I'd have a nice meal with an old buddy. 

When I pull into the "compound" (about a two miles off the main road) where the house was located, I noticed large cages placed throughout the property.  These were similar to cages you'd see at the circus for lion and tiger tamers.  I was instructed not to leave my car when I pulled up to the house - that the seller would come out to get me.  So I pulled up and waited.  After 5 minutes I honked once.  The door opened and the seller stepped out and made a loud call - suddenly 2 of the largest, meanest Doberman's charged my car and were jumping and growling and slobbering over my windows - think Cujo.  After 10 or 15 seconds he calls them off and they crouch down next to him on the porch.  He beckons me to come out of the car.  I roll down the window and ask if he sure it's okay with the dogs.  He assures me they will do nothing to me as long as I don't attack him or approach him in any menacing way.  The lure of GA books is intoxicating so I open the door and step out and walk up the steps.  The dogs are eyeing me like I'm a ham bone or piece of juicy steak.  The seller offers me his hand and my first thought is that the dogs will think I'm attacking him.  He assures me again I have nothing to fear.  So we shake hands and walk inside. 

The house is full of mounted and stuffed animals.  He explains that the cages are pens for exotic animals that he raises and sells to wealthy people who want "pets" they can't find at a pet store.  Lions, tigers, and panthers.  Cheetahs and ocelots.  Even then I knew this was illegal, but of course I said nothing.  He had the largest knife on his belt I ever saw since Crocodile Dundee. It was more a machete than a knife. There were guns and rifles mounted on racks and in cases.  It was a crazy deadly place.

Yet the lure of GA comics confounded my good sense...

He then brought me to a room where there were stacks of GA DCs!  Star Spangled 1 was on the top of the stack.  All Star 3, 4, 5.  WW 1, 2 and hundreds of others.  I told him I was interested in buying them all.  After an hour of negotiating we hammer out a deal for $44,000.  Then he says he wants cash.  I explain that I don't have any cash on me, but if we go to his bank I can wire funds directly into his account.

He then looks at me with his deep dark eyes (kinda like Sam Elliot) and says matter-of-factly, "If you F**K me I will kill you."

I assure him that all will be to his liking and that wiring money is a common occurrence.  We go to his bank and walk in and we go to a teller.  I explain the situation and within 30 minutes the money is in his account.  He asks the teller, "Are you absolutely sure the money is in my account?"  She replies yes, and he slaps me on the back and says, "I like you!  You're an honest man!"

He drove me back to my car, loaded up the comics and I drove off.  Until last month this was the strangest buy I ever made...
 

 

seems entirely inadequate, but it's what we got

[HouseofComics.Com]

16 hours ago, lizards2 said:

And I am an avid Baby Huey collector. 

You mean those Baby Hueys I got from you were your under copies??!!!??

[HouseofComics.Com]

16 hours ago, lizards2 said:

 

The winter of 1989 when I was laid off from my seasonal fire job, I told my wife that I would be crazy not to take $500 out of savings and purchase every NM SA comic I could from my regular comic dealer.  She agreed and the purchases were made.

That's a great story! Love it.

[lizards2]

2 hours ago, HouseofComics.Com said:

18 hours ago, lizards2 said:

And I am an avid Baby Huey collector. 

You mean those Baby Hueys I got from you were your under copies??!!!??

Yes.

[namisgr]

10 hours ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

AH! The guy who likes to dress in women's clothing and hang around in bars... oh I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK

If you haven't seen them yet, I highly recommend Palin's travel documentaries.  He's made quite a few memorable ones:

• Around the World in 80 Days
• Pole to Pole
• Full Circle
• Hemingway Adventure 
• Sahara with Michael Palin
• Himalaya
• New Europe
• 80 Days Revisited
• Brazil

[Ken Aldred]

12 hours ago, kav said:

I once answered an ad for some old books-pulled up to this old decrepit place-when I went in this creepy dude answered the door.  He showed me to the 'master'.  This guy said I see you've met my faithful handyman.  he's just a little brought down cause when you knocked he thought you were the-candyman.

 

Didn't happen.  That's an episode of The Neal Addams Family.

[lizards2]

6 hours ago, HouseofComics.Com said:

22 hours ago, lizards2 said:

 

The winter of 1989 when I was laid off from my seasonal fire job, I told my wife that I would be crazy not to take $500 out of savings and purchase every NM SA comic I could from my regular comic dealer.  She agreed and the purchases were made.

That's a great story! Love it.

To put some context to the situation, I had worked in Boise, Idaho in 1988 and my wife had stayed in Corvallis, Oregon to finish up her teaching degree.  We house-hunted and moved to Boise in the Winter of 1989.  It was one of those cold, snow years, and if I remember correctly, the city was punishing the citizenry for not passing a bond or budget measure by not plowing the roads.  Whenever you got off any kind of main drive, you would bounce around on two feet of frozen ice.  Boise was a lot smaller then than it is now, but there were only something like 12 rentals available in the town at that time of year (college was in session), and we were driving all around town to look at dismal rentals.   One in particular that I recall was close to airport, and the windows would all rattle with every takeoff, and the basement was totally carpeted in those rug samples - a giant quilt.  Luckily, we passed on that place.

We ended up getting a duplex in what was then the SW edge of town, on Wlld Phlox Way.  We looked at the place apparently on a quiet day, because after we moved in we realized we were a corner house on a huge cul de sac, and every kid around short-cut by our front door and dumped trash on our walkway as they went to school in the mornings.  And since it was a duplex, it was like living with five "caspers" that you never saw, as they traipsed up and down the stairs and banged on the walls.  And cold, oh so cold.  We were in the place for several weeks, and it was so cold that my wife and I would lay in the bed in the middle of the day trying to get warm.  Then we finally realized that the previous tenants had left the fire place flue open - after we closed that, it got a bit warmer inside.

Anyway, we only stayed at that duplex for about 2-3 months, and I remember making trips to the comic shop, and my wife and I examining the hauls up in the bed while we shivered.  I can't remember all the books, but there were short runs of Adventure, Superboy, Detective, etc., - about five each from the same time period, but the crowning jewel was Amazing Spider-Man #s 50 through about 64, all in about 9.0-9.4 condition. To that time, (I had not seen these issues in such high grade, even though I did have a 14, 16, 19, 21 from prior conventions in the 70's, with the last three of those books sold to me as what was then "pristine mint" - which they pretty much still are.) 

The owner who had sold books to the comic store in 1989 had kept them in a cedar chest of drawers, so all the books smelled extremely good.  Makes me want to get some of them out and take a whiff, but I know cedar is not supposed to impart permanent smells to books.  The purchase of these DCs in 1989 pretty much got me hooked on DC after pretty much being a Marvel zombie since 1972 - the stories were done in one, or two done in one.  I particularly enjoyed the Detectives, as Batman (and I think Elongated Man) would actually use detective skills to solve crimes and help people out.  This collection is where I picked up my copy of the Detective with Batgirl worrying about the run in her tights - such a classic cover!

[HouseofComics.Com]

Cool, the story gets even better. the five Caspers comment is really evocative too.

You wouldn't think it, but the coldest I've been is living at a few places in Berkeley. Such a lack of insulation and furnaces that people just suffer for a few months. The housing stock is sub par.

[letsgrumble]

On 7/5/2017 at 2:41 PM, 1Cool said:

Sadly not for awhile.

[CW]

I feel like Moondog is winning at this point.

Here's my proof of insanity:

When I first started dealing in the early 2000's I started telling people in my neighborhood I was buying comics and if they came up with anything to give me a call (you know, the usual song and dance). After a few weeks, the guy down the street calls me over. He owns a bunch of rental property and one of his property managers has a load of books to sell me. I'm excited. I get the address and set up a meeting.

On the day we arrange, I drive for a half an hour to the address he gave me. Knowing the owner, I'm thinking apartment complex, nicely kept, gonna be some cool stuff. I drive up and down the street a few times but the only thing on the block is the trailer park from David Lynch's heroin induced nightmares. I call my guy and he says "Yeah that's the place, drive up to the office they're expecting you." So I pull in now expecting to see the old man from Pet Sematary (yes I spelled that correctly) muttering "the person you put up there ain't the person that comes back."

I get out, walk up to the door of the office, and drag open the screen door that's hanging on by one of its 3 hinges. From behind me I hear what 10,000 Marlboro miles sounds like and it says "I'm in the garden". I turn around to see the flesh and blood embodiment of the Baby Sitter Bandit from the Simpsons standing in the middle of 3 little rows of dust with a couple of stalks of corn growing out of them. I introduce myself and we walk back to a large workshop the manager uses for maintenance. The whole time we're talking this lady has a lit cigarette in her mouth. She doesn't touch it once and talks through it like its glued to her bottom lip. 

I spend 40 mins (that's about 5 more cigarettes if you are counting) looking through everything in the shop. The books end up being a couple thousand copper and modern books with a little slug of silver. Nothing great but there are a few keys and I'm excited. I get ready to pay and then I ask "How did you get these?" She proceeds to tell me that "The guy in spot 50 was a big collector. Loved comics". I ask her where he is. She tells me "Oh we smelled something coming from his trailer so we called the Sheriff. He died." I pass along my condolences and pull out the money. She says "Yeah, we found him laying on the floor on top of the comics..."

Here's the part that certifies my insanity...

I stopped for a minute... thought about it... thought about it...thought about it again...and then bought the books anyway.  

As I recall I made a decent profit. (Also, If you are a current or future customer I can honestly say that I no longer knowingly buy or sell corpse adjacent books).

 

[MustEatBrains]

7 hours ago, CW said:

I feel like Moondog is winning at this point.

Here's my proof of insanity:

When I first started dealing in the early 2000's I started telling people in my neighborhood I was buying comics and if they came up with anything to give me a call (you know, the usual song and dance). After a few weeks, the guy down the street calls me over. He owns a bunch of rental property and one of his property managers has a load of books to sell me. I'm excited. I get the address and set up a meeting.

On the day we arrange, I drive for a half an hour to the address he gave me. Knowing the owner, I'm thinking apartment complex, nicely kept, gonna be some cool stuff. I drive up and down the street a few times but the only thing on the block is the trailer park from David Lynch's heroin induced nightmares. I call my guy and he says "Yeah that's the place, drive up to the office they're expecting you." So I pull in now expecting to see the old man from Pet Sematary (yes I spelled that correctly) muttering "the person you put up there ain't the person that comes back."

I get out, walk up to the door of the office, and drag open the screen door that's hanging on by one of its 3 hinges. From behind me I hear what 10,000 Marlboro miles sounds like and it says "I'm in the garden". I turn around to see the flesh and blood embodiment of the Baby Sitter Bandit from the Simpsons standing in the middle of 3 little rows of dust with a couple of stalks of corn growing out of them. I introduce myself and we walk back to a large workshop the manager uses for maintenance. The whole time we're talking this lady has a lit cigarette in her mouth. She doesn't touch it once and talks through it like its glued to her bottom lip. 

I spend 40 mins (that's about 5 more cigarettes if you are counting) looking through everything in the shop. The books end up being a couple thousand copper and modern books with a little slug of silver. Nothing great but there are a few keys and I'm excited. I get ready to pay and then I ask "How did you get these?" She proceeds to tell me that "The guy in spot 50 was a big collector. Loved comics". I ask her where he is. She tells me "Oh we smelled something coming from his trailer so we called the Sheriff. He died." I pass along my condolences and pull out the money. She says "Yeah, we found him laying on the floor on top of the comics..."

Here's the part that certifies my insanity...

I stopped for a minute... thought about it... thought about it...thought about it again...and then bought the books anyway.  

As I recall I made a decent profit. (Also, If you are a current or future customer I can honestly say that I no longer knowingly buy or sell corpse adjacent books).

 

That's a funny story.  I'm sure a high percentage of us would get out the shovels and dig up a grave if we got wind that he was buried with some GA/SA.

[lizards2]

35 minutes ago, MustEatBrains said:

That's a funny story.  I'm sure a high percentage of us would get out the shovels and dig up a grave if we got wind that he was buried with some GA/SA.

[Ken Aldred]

I gave the post a like because I have to admire his dedication.

I would've sprinted right out of there.