shadroch Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 (edited) Last night, I was running water for a bath when my phone rang. It was in the kitchen so I walked away from the tub to answer it. It turned out to be a classmate from a class we are sharing and she was stuck on a homework problem. I sit at my computer and try to walk her through it. Suddenly my dog starts barking and acting crazy. I think he must have to "go" so I grab his leash and we walk over to the dog walking plaza. He doesn't do anything so I try to walk back home. As we get to the front door, he starts pulling backwards, not wanting to enter. I take him back to the dog walking area but again nothing. We go back to my apartment and enter. I see a comic on my living room floor where it wasn't before. Except it isn't sitting on it, more like its floating. Walk in and get a squishly feeling. Look down the hall and there is about two inches of standing water in it. Long story short, about 15 boxes of comics that are on the floor are soaked. Good news is, my valuable stuff is elsewhere. I rate comics A thru G and all my As and most of my Bs are secured elsewhere. Better news, most of the books appear undamaged. the Mylars and mylite protected books have a very high survival rate. Preliminary results show about 80-85% of the books are fine. Lost most of a box of 60s Indys, including a nice run of Solar and a good chunk of Thunder Agents. Had a box set up vertical of stuff I was getting ready to consign , and only the bottom ten or so books got damaged. A Ragman #1 and a first run Firestorm, along with a couple 1960s JLA. I'm still sorting stuff out but most stuff seems okay. Did lose a couple of nice lithos that were leaning against the wall in the hall. One in particular hurts. Its a Blue Angels tem photo-23 X17, signed by the team and inscribed to Connie Stevens. Then on the back was a paragraph ,handwritten explaining how she got it, signed and dated by her. All told, I'm looking at about 500-700 comic books damaged, along with a box of unprotected TPBs and hardcovers, and maybe 20 boxes that will need to be replaced. Called CIA this morning and was told an Adjuster would be in touch today. I'm pretty sure the loss will be in the 5K-10K area. A nasty bite ,if not for insurance. Photos of the boxes. 98% of the comics in the Drawer boxes were A-OK https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/cGqi2Y1HiFZLgF89wRtEaEbbfBOYv1MUsqPhiWsLiZH Edited October 28, 2017 by shadroch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revat Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 5 minutes ago, shadroch said: Last night, I was running water for a bath when my phone rang. It was in the kitchen so I walked away from the tub to answer it. It turned out to be a classmate from a class we are sharing and she was stuck on a homework problem. I sit at my computer and try to walk her through it. Suddenly my dog starts barking and acting crazy. I think he must have to "go" so I grab his leash and we walk over to the dog walking plaza. He doesn't do anything so I try to walk back home. As we get to the front door, he starts pulling backwards, not wanting to enter. I take him back to the dog walking area but again nothing. We go back to my apartment and enter. I see a comic on my living room floor where it wasn't before. Except it isn't sitting on it, more like its floating. Walk in and get a squishly feeling. Look down the hall and there is about two inches of standing water in it. Long story short, about 15 boxes of comics that are on the floor are soaked. Good news is, my valuable stuff is elsewhere. I rate comics A thru G and all my As and most of my Bs are secured elsewhere. Better news, most of the books appear undamaged. the Mylars and mylite protected books have a very high survival rate. Preliminary results show about 80-85% of the books are fine. Lost most of a box of 60s Indys, including a nice run of Solar and a good chunk of Thunder Agents. Had a box set up vertical of stuff I was getting ready to consign , and only the bottom ten or so books got damaged. A Ragman #1 and a first run Firestorm, along with a couple 1960s JLA. I'm still sorting stuff out but most stuff seems okay. Did lose a couple of nice lithos that were leaning against the wall in the hall. One in particular hurts. Its a Blue Angels tem photo-23 X17, signed by the team and inscribed to Connie Stevens. Then on the back was a paragraph ,handwritten explaining how she got it, signed and dated by her. All told, I'm looking at about 500-700 comic books damaged, along with a box of unprotected TPBs and hardcovers, and maybe 20 boxes that will need to be replaced. Called CIA this morning and was told an Adjuster would be in touch today. I'm pretty sure the loss will be in the 5K-10K area. A nasty bite ,if not for insurance. sorry to hear about the comics, glad you have insurance. So for this type of stuff, do you give the comics to the insurance company for the full insured value? Or just the value of the comics before vs value after (and you keep the comics)? Do they have a comic 'expert' come look? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 Shad, that sucks. Please let us know about the process with CIA. Got my renewal notice a couple of days ago. Never had a claim but would like to hear your experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakman29 Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 I love having CIA. Never had anything go wrong ( knock on wood), but at least I know I'm covered if anything does happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlowUpTheMoon Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 (edited) Service dog to the rescue! Edited October 24, 2017 by BlowUpTheMoon SteppinRazor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadroch Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 A member, who wishes not to be known, told me that in a similar circumstance, he wrote up a list of damaged books, priced them using mycomic shop and CIA offered him about 75% of the total, letting him keep the books. So far, pretty painless. My renters insurance is sending over a pod and a crew to empty everything out, then servepro comes in extracts the water and looks for potential mold problems. Nothing out of pocket. People at CIA were friendly and I was told to expect to hear from an adjustor within 24 hours. It's the little things that suck. My deceased Sisters 7Th grade sketch book is ruined. A book of JFK quotes I received for my birthday in 1967, gone. A Cap portrait a dead friend drew for me for $25 when he didn't have twenty five cents to his name is water stained and ran a bit. Can't imagine what others are experiencing, losing everything. As they say- I felt sorry that I had no shoes, until I met a man with no feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W16227 Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 ugh - sorry to hear - glad you are protected, though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadroch Posted October 25, 2017 Author Share Posted October 25, 2017 Update. All State told me to have my landlord hire a company to come in and take care of the carpeting and any potential mold problems. Landlord said three companies would stop by and put in a bid for the job. One guy showed up ,looked at the various storage racks filled with comics and passed on the job. The leading nationwide company came by, wanted to bring in a storage pod and quoted north of $3,000. Third guy showed up and quoted $923. He spent the afternoon moving everything out of the master bedroom, removed the padding, installed these huge fans and vacuumed the rest of the place. Very friendly guy, pleasure to have in my house. I got a real scare as the bottom row of Comic Drawers looked terrible. Much more damage than I had expected. However, moisture didn't penetrate six of the eight outer shells and even the two that had inner damage only had a few books ruined- all unbagged moderns. I dodged a bullet here. Lots of books ruined but it could have been so much worse. Lost about 100 HG Marvel BA books, but no keys or semi-keys., and another 70-80 Modern books. Also lost a full case of Legends of The Dark Knight #2. I have no ides how to price that one. Got to give a big hand to Comic Drawers as they really did their job- protecting the books within. Still haven't heard from CIA Adjustor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaard Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 Can't remember the last time I took a bath ... always showers. Sorry about your books. Glad it wasn't worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadroch Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 My apartment has a Roman tub. It's akin to a mini- Jacuzzi. I think I've taken one shower since I moved in. Nothing like a good soak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Action252Kid Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 Really sorry to hear about this! I am paranoid of this sort of thing and can't recommend enough trying out these little flood alarms in the future. I keep them under sinks/toilets/fridges.. anything that could potentially leak. They drive me nuts with the batteries dying/beeping every few months, but they've caught leaks and small floods for me on multiple occasions that would've been disasters if not for the alarms. Tried looking on Amazon and the ones I have (Rialco 84010 Flood Alarm) are unavailable right now, but I think Home Depot has them or something similar. Something to consider at least! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreton Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Any update from the insurance company/adjuster? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pirate Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Sorry, Shadroch is in the bath right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirbyJack Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Sorry, man - that sucks. I have always elevated my boxes 3-4 inches with pallets or wine crates because I fear this exact scenario. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patriot6 Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Are your walls drywalled or? If drywalled, I am surprised they didn't cut off the bottoms of the drywall in the affected areas and replace them since drywall will soak up standing water, even if it was only there for a short time, and start to mould rather hastily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFifthHorseman Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 On 10/24/2017 at 1:21 PM, revat said: So for this type of stuff, do you give the comics to the insurance company for the full insured value? Or just the value of the comics before vs value after (and you keep the comics)? Do they have a comic 'expert' come look? Good question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizards2 Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Oh - and the other reason we have insurance is so that insurance agents can golf and live high-on-the-hog lifestyles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
