ttfitz

I feel like you are leaving out the most exciting part of this story.... Swingers.

When I was a young comic reader, there were no comic shops, at least not in small towns like I grew up in. My comics came from the grocery store, drugstore, and such. There was a small shop in town called the Odds and Ends Shop, which sold... well, odds and ends. On occasion, they would have a bunch of comics for sale, half of cover price, where I picked up a number of books. I quit collecting at the usual sort of time in those days - around junior high, when I discovered girls (they didn't discover me until much, much later) and other pursuits, and in those days it definitely wasn't cool to read comic books. When I was a sophomore in college, there were a couple guys on my hall in the dorm who collected comics, and I got back into it then. One day at college, I was at the corner drug store, which I believe had the very inventive name of Corner Drug. I found a comic I was interested in, and took it to the front counter. I believe the old man running the register was the owner, and after ringing up my order and taking my money, he slid the book across the counter. Since I planned on going to other stores after this, I asked him for a bag for my purchase. "A bag? For a single comic?" he said, rather dismissively. "Well, I guess at your age, I'd imagine you'd want to hide away a comic book, too," he said as he gave me the bag. "Well, at your age, I'd imagine you'd know better than to insult a paying customer." I said. Half a block down the street when it occurred to me. I decided then not to give this guy any more of my business, and I am happy to report that 10 years later when I was in town for a football game, there were "going out of business" signs on the store. Showed him.

I've got around 30,000, I'd say. Been married over 35 years.

Uphill both ways! Glad there was a road!

It was back in the prehistoric age when the real guitar gods ruled the earth… Yeah, but I'm guessing you and some guys from school had a band, and tried real hard?

Was it the summer of '69?

Yeah, I think that's how it ended up being, but my understanding of the Secret Origin of the Guinea was it started out as a gold coin worth a pound aka 20 shillings. But as the price of gold went up, the value of the coin increased. After some number of years of the value bouncing around, it was locked in at 21 shillings. Shortly thereafter, I think, they stopped making the coins (at least out of gold, anyway) and the unit continued to be used, as you said, for more "posh" applications, as well as to have a unit with a built-in "vig" or commission (as in the buyer would pay in guineas and the seller get paid in pounds, with the difference going to the middleman). I think I mostly ran into in things like Sherlock Holmes stories, which always was a bit confusing, "Why in the world would they have a kind of money that was just a little bit more than their standard money???"

Said of so many ill-advised actions of the past. You left off my personal favorite, the guinea.

Of all the weird English measurements, money is the weirdest.

I believe I've told this story here before, perhaps multiple times - but my kids have to hear my stories over and over again, why should I treat y'all any better? When I was growing up (late 60s- early 70s), Virginia had what was known as "Blue laws", under which most stores had to be closed on Sundays. We lived about 45 miles from the Tennessee state line, and TN didn't have such a law. At that 45 mile mark down Interstate 81 was the twin city of Bristol - where the state line ran right down the main street, aptly named State Street. On one side of the street it was Bristol, VA, on the other side it was Bristol, TN. And on Sunday, half the street was closed while the other half was open. So, on many occasions when I was young, we would go to Bristol after church on Sunday to shop. This particular story takes place on a Sunday approaching Christmas, and we were shopping on the TN side of the street when I saw this Superman comic on the rack. And what a cover it was to 5½ year old Timmy - burning letters floating over a prone Superman, with the obligatory question that so many comics of the times would display - "WHY do these initials mean DEATH for the Man of Steel?" Oh, man, I just had to have this comic. My mother reminded me that it was almost Christmas, we were supposed to be shopping for other people, and it wasn't a good idea to buy things for yourself. But I just HAD to have it - I was willing, in fact, to spend my own money for this book. I wouldn't give up, so she let me buy it. So, comes Christmas day, and I'm opening my stocking, and what did I find there? You guessed it, a copy of Superman #204 with the fiery "LL" on the cover! So, boys and girls, like all good stories (I hope) involving little kids, this one has a moral - When it's Christmas time, don't buy anything for yourself, you never know what Santa might bring you! Don't know what happened with one my copies of this book - probably traded it for something else over the years - but here's the one that remains in my collection. Beat but complete, as they say, and never to be replaced:

End of January count was 105. So, on to February.... Fantastic Four 232-233 Avengers 210-212 Marvel Teamup 108-110 Amazing Spider-Man 219-221 Spectacular Spider-Man 57-60 Bronze Age Marvel just keeps rollin' Invincible 14-19 There are highs and lows with this book, but overall I'm still enjoying. I mean, if both Kurt Busiek AND Mark Waid say read it, I gots ta read it! Monstress 9-15 I'm enjoying this book, even though I get a bit confused at all the players and all the stages. Y The Last Man 49-60 Still my least favorite Brian K. Vaughan series, but I gotta say, that issue 60 was perhaps one of the finest finales I've ever read. The Ones 1-4 A fun and often amusing read. If you like Bendis, I think you'll like this One. (see what I did there?) Shirtless Bear Fighter 2 #1-7 Fun at times, but not nearly as good as the original series. If you haven't read any of these, I'd highly recommend the first one (available on Hoopla if you are so inclined) but probably skip this sequel. Okay, if I've done my maths right, that's an additional 51, for a yearly total of 156. Not as far along as I had hoped to be at this point.

Funny, just had an email show up in my inbox, and this was featured in the subject: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/932845?utm_source=artbrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=event-auction-53&tzf=1

And now I've got another tear in my eye for the exact opposite reason...

I'll be back shortly, something got in my eye.

I haven't had the opportunity to yet, but I did see that PirateShip was touting the "cubic" rates as a good replacement for the old regional boxes.

My assumption is that you would pay for your purchases, and just have them held to ship later in a group, similar to what other auction houses will do. Less chances that way for a customer to be unreliable, I would think.

That was Big Lick Comics, I talked to them at Baltimore, some great guys. Standard grade country folk from that area, can't imagine what sort of thing you'd have to be doing to get them on your bad side. EDIT - Watched a little bit of another video, where he talks about having the "Kung Flu." Tells me all I need to know.

I know @theCapraAegagrus is a big Calvin & Hobbes fan.

The last shop he went to - B & D Comics in Roanoke - was my first comic book store back in the early 80s when I was in college. Nice store back then, different location (and I think this is at least the 3rd location they've been in over the years).

Because as a buyer, I’ve come across too many sellers that ship their books media rate to save a buck or the post office themselves treat the package like dog sh*t. In either case, the books arrive damaged and the doors are now open to a bigger headache where neither want to take responsibility when a complaint is lodged. Yeah, but again, (a) as has been said, some sellers already will do this, so it wouldn't really change anything for those, and (2) "shipped properly" is really different for different circumstances (many have been pointed out here), and something that should be between the buyer and the seller. As it stands, it's not sanctioned for ANYBODY, so nobody can do it. But some still do. And you really don't have any more recourse with those shippers when it's "not allowed" than you would if it was. As I said, no seller would be required to ship that way, and no buyer would be forced to accept shipping that way. But for those who would like to, either as a buyer or seller, making it officially allowed would be a good thing. I don't really see a downside.

+1 Just wondering - why not? Nobody says you must use Media Mail, only that it is an option available to you. So why wouldn't you support the added flexibility for those who had the need?

Yeah, it would be interesting to see. When I was selling stuff on eBay, it was generally low priced items, and I figured offering free shipping would be a disincentive - shipping costs would have to be baked into the price, and would be a significant percentage of the cost. Since I offered combined shipping, I figured that would encourage multiple purchases, in order to "spread around" the shipping costs.