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

[lizards2]

21 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

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

I would've sprinted right out of there.

Brains and I might need some help on the grave robbing detail...,

[dem1138]

It is ironic how many of us have these stories of travelling distances great and small to total strangers houses that our parents and we as parents have been strongly advised and in turn strongly advise our progeny to stay away from.  And we're completely and willfully ignorant in all of these stories.  We know better and we know we know better, and yet in the car we go, butterflies in our stomach, racing to see what's in the box.  I'm guilty of this myself and, like many of these stories, every time save for one (where I was sold raw restored books as unrestored) has turned out postitively.  

What is actually insane, is how frequently it seems that these "adventures" turn out well for everyone involved.  Common sense would dictate that a few of us would report being robbed, seriously injured, or some combination of both.  Does anyone have any of these stories or are we self selectively not sharing those?

I remember reading one story where I believe a fairly well known comic dealer went to someones house after connecting with a potential seller on Craig's List.  If I recall correctly, they went to the person's house at night and were led to their backyard where the seller attempted to rob him at gunpoint and he jumped a fence to escape. 

 

Edited July 13, 2017 by dem1138

[CW]

8 minutes ago, dem1138 said:

It is ironic how many of us have these stories of travelling distances great and small to total strangers houses that our parents and we as parents have been strongly advised and in turn strongly advise our progeny to stay away from.  And we're completely and willfully ignorant in all of these stories.  We know better and we know we know better, and yet in the car we go, butterflies in our stomach, racing to see what's in the box.  I'm guilty of this myself and, like many of these stories, every time save for one (where I was sold raw restored books as unrestored) has turned out postitively.  

What is actually insane, is how infrequently it seems that these "adventures" turn out well for everyone involved.  Common sense would dictate that a few of us would report being robbed, seriously injured, or some combination of both.  Does anyone have any of these stories or are we self selectively not sharing those?

I remember reading one story where I believe a fairly well known comic dealer went to someones house after connecting with a potential seller on Craig's List.  If I recall correctly, they went to the person's house at night and was led to their backyard where the seller attempted to rob him at gunpoint and he jumped a fence to escape. 

 

I totally agree with the parenting aspect of this. We are very literally meeting a stranger on the internet and offering to show up on their turf with a pocket full of money! After reading this I'm now insisting my kid only collects sea shells.

[revat]

1 hour ago, CW said:

1 hour ago, dem1138 said:

It is ironic how many of us have these stories of travelling distances great and small to total strangers houses that our parents and we as parents have been strongly advised and in turn strongly advise our progeny to stay away from.  And we're completely and willfully ignorant in all of these stories.  We know better and we know we know better, and yet in the car we go, butterflies in our stomach, racing to see what's in the box.  I'm guilty of this myself and, like many of these stories, every time save for one (where I was sold raw restored books as unrestored) has turned out postitively.  

What is actually insane, is how infrequently it seems that these "adventures" turn out well for everyone involved.  Common sense would dictate that a few of us would report being robbed, seriously injured, or some combination of both.  Does anyone have any of these stories or are we self selectively not sharing those?

I remember reading one story where I believe a fairly well known comic dealer went to someones house after connecting with a potential seller on Craig's List.  If I recall correctly, they went to the person's house at night and was led to their backyard where the seller attempted to rob him at gunpoint and he jumped a fence to escape. 

 

I totally agree with the parenting aspect of this. We are very literally meeting a stranger on the internet and offering to show up on their turf with a pocket full of money! After reading this I'm now insisting my kid only collects sea shells.

I've always thought the 'stranger danger' thing was largely for the protection of kids, who might not otherwise know better or be capable of protecting themselves.  I think if you're raised properly, it applies much less to adults, though obviously there are still some situations it would be wiser to avoid (or require more preparation for), but I think those other conditions are a bigger deal than just the 'stranger' factor.  As adults, most people meet a ton of strangers.  Hell, ironically a lot of people date strangers.  Tell your kids to avoid strangers, but try to raise adults who can judge situations wisely. 

[dem1138]

1 hour ago, revat said:

I've always thought the 'stranger danger' thing was largely for the protection of kids, who might not otherwise know better or be capable of protecting themselves.  I think if you're raised properly, it applies much less to adults, though obviously there are still some situations it would be wiser to avoid (or require more preparation for), but I think those other conditions are a bigger deal than just the 'stranger' factor.  As adults, most people meet a ton of strangers.  Hell, ironically a lot of people date strangers.  Tell your kids to avoid strangers, but try to raise adults who can judge situations wisely. 

Obviously this is veering off topic but I'll play along.  C'mon revat, have you ever been in one of these situations?  There is nothing safe about meeting someone in a strange place all by yourself, most likely with cash on hand.  I will admit, there's a certain thrill in doing this, but if you find yourself in one of these situations and it goes wrong, you're in big trouble.  I'm sure a lot of us could tell these above stories very differently if the other party had nefarious intentions.  Someone else in the room locking the door behind you and you're SOL.  I don't think meeting strangers in a public place for a date is a relevant example.  And 'how you're raised' is irrelevant as well.  If that were the case, only 'poorly raised' people would get hurt in these types of situations, and that's not the case.  Bad things happen to good people all of the time.  Look at that kid in Greece that just got killed - everything from that situation indicates that he was a 'good kid' who was 'raised well.'  He was at a bar with friends - nothing about that situation tells me that he didn't judge that situation properly.  Someone bumps into him taking a selfie and he accidentally bumps the person next to him.  The next thing he knows, 9 people are beating him to death.  Apparently the entire event escalated and concluded in about 20(!) seconds.  What in the world could his parents (or he) have done previously (or 'raised him') to alter how he handled that situation?!?  He did the smartest thing he could do in that situation, he tried to fight back and then he ran away (but someone tackled him and the beat down commenced).  Truth is, we've all just been very lucky.

Edited July 13, 2017 by dem1138

[revat]

2 minutes ago, dem1138 said:

Obviously this is veering off topic but I'll play along.  C'mon revat, have you ever been in one of these situations?  There is nothing safe about meeting someone in a strange place all by yourself, most likely with cash on hand.  I will admit, there's a certain thrill in doing this, but if you find yourself in one of these situations and it goes wrong, you're in big trouble.  I'm sure a lot of us could tell these above stories very differently if the other party had nefarious intentions.  Someone else in the room locking the door behind you and you're SOL.  I don't think meeting strangers in a public place for a date is a relevant example.  And 'how you're raised' is irrelevant as well.  If that were the case, only 'poorly raised' people would get hurt in these types of situations, and that's not the case.  Bad things happen to good people all of the time.  Look at that kid in Greece that just got killed - everything from that situation indicates that he was a 'good kid' who was raised well.  He was at a bar with friends - nothing about that situation tells me that he didn't judge that situation properly.  Someone bumps into him taking a selfie and he accidentally bumps the person next to him.  The next thing he knows, 9 people are beating him to death.  Apparently the entire event escalated and concluded in about 20(!) seconds.  What in the world could his parents (or he) have done to alter how he handled that situation?!?  Truth is, we've all just been very lucky.

I'm with you on all of this, I just think it has more with being an aware adult in general, rather than the rules/lessons imposed on you as children.  To me (and I get that everyone is raised differently), as kids your told to stay away from strangers mainly because its harder (because of youth and inexperience) to judge the other factors that may or may not result in a dangerous situation, or to take reasonable steps to protect yourself or extricate yourself from the situation should the need arise.  So that while as adults we might still do stupid things, we are more likely to be able to judge the risk (even if subconsciously), and act accordingly, generally leading to results that don't end with violence/crime.  I think my main point is that the rules aught to youth  about 'total avoidance of strangers' is somewhat mitigated by an adult's ability to judge situations individually and constantly make assessments and adjustments to ensure positive outcomes.  Which is not say there isn't risk and that risks shouldn't be taken seriously, just that the rules taught to us as children apply somewhat less.

And yes, sometimes it doesn't make any difference, and there is some amount of luck involved in surviving day-to-day, as nearly anything can happen at any time.  You take a chance everytime you get in a car or a plane, or step into a bar.  And that of course has very little to do with what you're taught, on average. 

My point (if I have one), is not so much that we haven't been lucky, just saying that adhering to 'stranger danger' rules taught to children would not have been a reasonable alternative course of action, as they don't really apply to adults in the same ways for the same reasons.

[dem1138]

32 minutes ago, revat said:

I'm with you on all of this, I just think it has more with being an aware adult in general, rather than the rules/lessons imposed on you as children.  To me (and I get that everyone is raised differently), as kids your told to stay away from strangers mainly because its harder (because of youth and inexperience) to judge the other factors that may or may not result in a dangerous situation, or to take reasonable steps to protect yourself or extricate yourself from the situation should the need arise.  So that while as adults we might still do stupid things, we are more likely to be able to judge the risk (even if subconsciously), and act accordingly, generally leading to results that don't end with violence/crime.  I think my main point is that the rules aught to youth  about 'total avoidance of strangers' is somewhat mitigated by an adult's ability to judge situations individually and constantly make assessments and adjustments to ensure positive outcomes.  Which is not say there isn't risk and that risks shouldn't be taken seriously, just that the rules taught to us as children apply somewhat less.

And yes, sometimes it doesn't make any difference, and there is some amount of luck involved in surviving day-to-day, as nearly anything can happen at any time.  You take a chance everytime you get in a car or a plane, or step into a bar.  And that of course has very little to do with what you're taught, on average. 

My point (if I have one), is not so much that we haven't been lucky, just saying that adhering to 'stranger danger' rules taught to children would not have been a reasonable alternative course of action, as they don't really apply to adults in the same ways for the same reasons.

Awesome, appreciate the back and forth.  As the title of this thread suggests, we're all a little insane to go down these 'dark deal alleyways.'  And I'm very happy to read so many positive experiences.

[CW]

We are also forgetting about the 'ecstasy of gold' factor. People tend to reduce their judgment in the pursuit of treasure.  No matter how smart or careful they are in normal daily situations. I mean look at the Goonies... would they have gone into that fireplace if they hadn't thought One Eyed Willie's treasure was down there? Probably not!

[lizards2]

1 hour ago, dem1138 said:

He was at a bar with friends - nothing about that situation tells me that he didn't judge that situation properly. 

Bars are terrible places - a bunch of drunks/alcoholics looking for fights.

Not to belittle the situation, but they are not safe places with safe clientele at all.

Add in the Greek Island party situation with a bunch of drunk tourists - it just sounds like a great place to stay away from.

[Robot Man]

Here's my scariest story. About 15 years ago I bought some books from a guy on ebay. Turns out he was a local guy so I contacted him. Turns out he found about 200 Atomic Age books stored in an un-plugged refrigerator in a garage. He didn't know much about them and didn't want to list them all on ebay. I got his number and we agreed to meet at his place.

We agreed at 8:00 pm on a Tuesday night since we both worked. He gave me the address and it sounded a little sketchy. I went anyway (alone). Turned out it was about 2 blocks away from where the Rodney King riot was in LA. As a rule, a place that a middle aged white guy should just stay away from. But the lure of sweet GA books pulled me there.

I pulled up to the address. The neighbor hood had lots of graphitti on the walls, funky lowrider cars on the lawns, houses with bars on the windows ect. All signs that would tell a sane person to get out of the area. But all I could imagine was that smell of vintage comics.

I got out of the car and spied a group of lets just say... "minority" kids staring at my car. Now I grew up in an area with a lot of mostly latin and black kids of low income families. It was fine to me and we were all friends. The '60's were a great time but this was 25 years later and this area was recently burned and looted. 

I left my money in the trunk, crossed the street and rang the door bell. It was answered by a large latin guy in a wife beater shirt and baggy shorts a little buzzed with a beer in his hand. We shook hands and he took me around back to the garage where there were several other similar gentlemen working on a beautiful 1964 Impala lowrider. I smiled and complemented them on their beautiful car. He talked horsepower and I realized they were probably OK. The guy asked me if I wanted a beer and I said sure not wanting to offend him. We went to back of the garage and he opened the refrigerator. Inside, packed top to bottom were piles of comics from about 1946-1957 (my favorite stuff). There were pre=code horror, superhero, crime, jungle, sci fi. Titles like Phantom Lady, Batman, Tales from the Crypt, Jungle ect. all in pretty nice condition. The best was a beautiful Capt. America #74 in beautiful shape. I was rather floored. He said they were there when he moved in and wasn't a collector. 

We worked out a very nice price and they packed them in boxes and helped me out to the car with them. We loaded them up, I paid him and I thanked him and drove off into the night with my heart pounding...

[lizards2]

Awesome story!

[thehumantorch]

20 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).

 

While a corpse on top of the books is a turn off that wouldn't stop me from buying.

[CW]

3 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

While a corpse on top of the books is a turn off that wouldn't stop me from buying.

Great minds think alike.

[dem1138]

On 7/13/2017 at 4:05 PM, Robot Man said:

Here's my scariest story. About 15 years ago I bought some books from a guy on ebay. Turns out he was a local guy so I contacted him. Turns out he found about 200 Atomic Age books stored in an un-plugged refrigerator in a garage. He didn't know much about them and didn't want to list them all on ebay. I got his number and we agreed to meet at his place.

We agreed at 8:00 pm on a Tuesday night since we both worked. He gave me the address and it sounded a little sketchy. I went anyway (alone). Turned out it was about 2 blocks away from where the Rodney King riot was in LA. As a rule, a place that a middle aged white guy should just stay away from. But the lure of sweet GA books pulled me there.

I pulled up to the address. The neighbor hood had lots of graphitti on the walls, funky lowrider cars on the lawns, houses with bars on the windows ect. All signs that would tell a sane person to get out of the area. But all I could imagine was that smell of vintage comics.

I got out of the car and spied a group of lets just say... "minority" kids staring at my car. Now I grew up in an area with a lot of mostly latin and black kids of low income families. It was fine to me and we were all friends. The '60's were a great time but this was 25 years later and this area was recently burned and looted. 

I left my money in the trunk, crossed the street and rang the door bell. It was answered by a large latin guy in a wife beater shirt and baggy shorts a little buzzed with a beer in his hand. We shook hands and he took me around back to the garage where there were several other similar gentlemen working on a beautiful 1964 Impala lowrider. I smiled and complemented them on their beautiful car. He talked horsepower and I realized they were probably OK. The guy asked me if I wanted a beer and I said sure not wanting to offend him. We went to back of the garage and he opened the refrigerator. Inside, packed top to bottom were piles of comics from about 1946-1957 (my favorite stuff). There were pre=code horror, superhero, crime, jungle, sci fi. Titles like Phantom Lady, Batman, Tales from the Crypt, Jungle ect. all in pretty nice condition. The best was a beautiful Capt. America #74 in beautiful shape. I was rather floored. He said they were there when he moved in and wasn't a collector. 

We worked out a very nice price and they packed them in boxes and helped me out to the car with them. We loaded them up, I paid him and I thanked him and drove off into the night with my heart pounding...

Sounds like a situation that could have gone either way. Happy everything turned out well for you.

Edited July 15, 2017 by dem1138

[comicalgems]

I've done the usual show up to someone's house I don't know routine so many times now that it doesn't even seem abnormal to me anymore.  I never bring cash in or with me when I go to meet someone for the first time if we're talking more than like $200.  I just don't do it.  Never have, probably never will.  There's always been a sense of nervousness when I walk up to someone's house.  I'm by no means a small guy, and some have even referred to me as intimidating, and yes if you start something with me, even if you manage to get the better of me, you're going to remember the fight for a long time.  I only mention this as it may be the reason I'm so cavalier about meeting strangers from the internet for comic book commerce.  Plus, you'd have to be fairly creative to use comic books as a ploy to rob someone.  The buying power of most collectors that are going to stumble across an ad on Craigslist just isn't high enough to really  merit the time and effort to put into setting up such a scam (at least that's what I tell myself). 

 

So one story sticks out in my head as one that seems a little crazy.  I found a Craigslist ad a few years ago for comic books and super hero figurines...no pictures.  I emailed and said I was interested in taking a look.  The guy gives me an address and says to come at like 8pm on a Tuesday.  It's in downtown.  Downtown isn't really a bad area, but there's not really a lot of residences down there.  I  mapped it online, and figured out he gave me the address of a little strip of commercial shops.  I was like "hmm okay, if we're meeting at a store, why not tell me the store name?"  I get down to where the place is supposed to be, and I don't see any lights on in any of the stores.  They all look closed in fact.  So I call the guy as I'm circling the block and he assures me that's the place and that he'll go out front to flag me down.  I circle the block, and when I get back, sure enough there's a guy standing out front waving me down.  He doesn't look shady, but it's not like he's standing around wearing a suit and tie either.  I pull up, and say "Oh okay, so it's one of the stores" he's like "Yeah, go up to the end of the center and circle the building, they're in back"  I'm like "okay" but as soon as I roll up the window I'm like "Well, here comes me getting mugged or murdered right here" and as he walks away from the car, he walks to the end of the block instead of inside the building.  He looks back and motions me to follow, so I do as I'm muttering to myself "yep, murdered" and we go to this alley way and as I pulled into it, I noticed there's no obstructions for driving right through it.  I actually took a moment to think about what my escape plan was going to be as I crept my vehicle behind this guy into an alley.  He points for me to park, and as I do, he walks towards the building and opens a bay door.  As the bay door opens I see long boxes and start to feel relieved.  Turns out, the shop owner somehow acquired this collection of TPBs and Omnibus books as well as over sixty super hero statues and had asked his friend (the guy I was now following) to unload them on the internet for him.  He also had a bunch of baseball cards that he wanted to sell me, but I didn't then nor now know enough about baseball cards to care.  I ended up loading up my vehicle with all this stuff, the guy follows me to an ATM (remember, I don't carry cash) and I paid him.  Within 24 hours I doubled my investment.  I sold most of the stuff on the boards years ago.  I still have a Batman statue and a Nightwing statue.  Recently sold an Elric Stormbringer and Preacher on eBay.  That was a great lot, seller sold low, but it's what he asked for.  I didn't haggle, I said "How much?"  He said a price, and off we went to the ATM.  This stuff of course was all acquired for resale, I don't really have a wild story about buying something for my own collection because I don't meet people off Craig's List typically when shopping for myself.

 

How'd I do?

[ADAMANTIUM]

@comicalgems

You did just fine  I still don't see me doing ANY of this stuff  I suppose if it was a friend of a friend of a friend...... hahaha I'd still think twice.

I've never been one for craigslist, but I DO live close to a police station, firehouse etc. that I could meet at, but I still don't want to take a chance, even if that is where the money is at  

[jharvey]

My 30 year old step-son set up a time to meet some guy who supposedly has an Amazing Spider-Man #129, 1st appearance of Punisher, and a bunch of other comics for sale. I believe he found the lead via a phone app of some sort. I then agreed to drive my step-son there to meet this guy. It was about a 30 minute trip. While this isn't the best area in town, it didn't look too terrible either. These were older homes, many of which were not maintained all that well. We find the house and knock on the door, but nobody answers. My step-son calls this guy again, and apparently he's working late and will be home soon So, we park on the side of the street, turn on some music, and start playing phone games to pass the time. About an hour goes by, and the guy with the comics still hasn't gotten home. Bored, my step-son calls the guy again and finds out he's on his way home now from his job of mowing lawns and he should arrive in about 30 minutes. He finally arrives home after an hour, just as we were about to give up and leave. At this point, between driving and waiting, it's been two and a half hours.

So anyway, the "comic guy" pulls up riding the back of a pickup truck full of lawn equipment, with an older woman driving and another guy in the front passenger seat. Apparently, the whole family does landscaping together and it's mom driving while the passenger is the brother. Mom and brother go into the house, while I follow the comic guy around to the side of the house into what looks like an extra room built onto the side of the house using, and I'm putting this nicely, very sub-optimal materials. Whoever cobbled together this home addition didn't pour a foundation first, or have a level, or have a permit, or have even basic construction knowledge. I duck when I walk in, since I'm 6'5" and the doorway is much smaller than the average doorway. We walk into this musty smelling bedroom, with a low, sloped ceiling that angles up as it meets up with the main house. The floor creaks everywhere I step. In this makeshift bedroom I see a bed taking up half the room, a TV on top of a chest of drawers, a closet, and on the floor there are 5 long boxes full of comics. I look up and see some large cracks on the ceiling and upper wall, and even some large fungus growing in some of the cracks.

While this is not an ideal situation, I still look at those boxes of comics and feel the anticipation, the impending thrill of digging through them. I start with some small talk and ask where he got the comics from, and why is he selling them. He doesn't really understand what I said and explains to me that he is hard of hearing and also that English is not his first language. I try speaking slowly, loudly, using simple words, and a lot of hand gestures, and I get agreement to start looking through the boxes. I start with the far right box, while my step-son starts looking through the nearest box.

I quickly sift through the first box and find not a single comic worth more than $1. The condition of the comics is VG on average, and most of them are from the 1980's. I start on the 2nd box, and find it's the same as the first. Out of all 5 boxes, we pull out the Amazing Spider-Man #129, and a single silver age Wonder Woman comic. I briefly considered pulling out the original Secret Wars #6 in around VF condition, maybe just because it was in better condition than most of the other comics and I really liked that mini-series as a kid. I quickly came to my senses and put it back in the box. We only found two comics that we were interested in, and he asks why we don't want more. We slowly explain to the guy that all those other comics he has aren't rare, and aren't in good condition. He nods, and then gets an excited smile on his face and says his best "keeper" comics are in the closet. He reaches into the closet and pulls out this thick plastic bag with a zipper on it that is holding around 20 of his "best" comics. He unzips the plastic bag with this goofy, yet very sincere, grin on his face, and shows me his favorite comics: Shogun Warriors #1, Micronauts #1, and, well, you get the picture.

We didn't manage to find much, but maybe this trip won't be a 100% waste. I mean, Amazing Spider-Man #129 is decent right? I examine it closer, and it's in pretty rough shape. There are stains on the cover, many large creases, some tears, a piece missing on the corner. This comic is a 3.0 grade at best, but if we can get it cheap, it's still a mega-key issue. I ask him how much he wants for it.

He wants $10,000 for it. He saw an ASM #129 listed on Ebay for $10,000. I spent maybe 5 minutes trying to explain condition, valuation, etc. This is not an easy concept to explain to a normal person, much less someone hard of hearing, with English as a second language. I quickly realized I was making no progress, shook his hand, and explained that we were going to head home. On the way out, he asked if we smoke pot because his brother sells it. I politely said no thank you, and drove home asking myself why I drive out to people's houses like this.

Edited July 16, 2017 by jharvey

[lizards2]

Great story!

[VegasJeff]

On 7/5/2017 at 11:41 AM, 1Cool said:

Sadly not for awhile.

And you lived?!?! Suprised you didn't get impaled by one of those pieces of metal. And how much does a long box weigh anyways? Surprised you didn't get crushed either. Well, it might explain a few things now. 

[ThothAmon]

When I was little I was always so excited when my Grandparent lived with us in the Summer.  You see Grandpa got my room and I got a cot in my basement surrounded by my comics!  He's the guy in the upper right circa 1916.