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.