Tales from the Comic shop

[HotJuicyBurgers]

Hey all, I was reading through the thread on Comic book men, (My opinion is that it isn't terrible, but by no means a good show if you ask me) and I got to thinking that with the gigantic community here, there must be cooler comic shop stories from the people right here!

 

If anyone would care to share i'd love to hear any horror stories, things that happened that made you feel good, just about anything interesting. I know just from hanging around here a little bit that there are multiple shop keeps around, so I'm figuring there might be some really cool stuff.

 

If you all think this is a good idea, tell your stories. If not don't

 

Either way, I look forward to hearing some good tales.

[Monster's Lair Comics]

My childhood shops were all Moondog's stores. I've been buying comics from Gary for about 25 years or so. Just search his posts, he's got a bunch of great tales, and a great guy to buy from.

[ChiSoxFan]

One of my favorite stories from when I owned a shop back in the middle/late 1990's:

 

ASM is the primary title I'm trying to finish, as it was then. I needed (and still need) a #1. I get a call one afternoon from a guy who wants to know if we buy comics. When I inquired as to what he was selling, he tells me "A Spider-Man #1".

 

Of course, I figured that he had the recent McFarlane Spider-Man series and not the SA one, so I asked him what the cover price was. When he tells me it's 12 cents ... well, then I started to get a lot more interested. I asked him what condition it was was -- his answer was the classic "It's in really good shape", telling me, of course, absolutely nothing. I told him to bring it in, and that I might be interested in making an offer on the book.

 

As soon as I hung up the phone, I got an angry look from my then shop partner/current wife, who immediately begins to tell me that I'm not going to use shop funds to buy a book that she knows will never see light of day in the store and will only end up vanishing into my collection. I assured her that I wouldn't be doing that, fully knowing that I'd probably be doing JUST that if I could reach an arrangement with the guy that didn't put us one foot into a financial grave.

 

About an half hour later, the guy shows up carrying a backpack -- he looked like he was in his early twenties, clean-cut, and someone I'd never seen in the store before. I asked him about the book, and he tells me that it had been passed onto him from his dad. When I asked him to see the book, he reaches into the backpack and pulls out a plastic grocery bag. In it, is an ASM #1 all right, sans bag and board.

 

When I saw the book, I almost wanted to cry. Anything you can think of that could have happened to the book, it happened: A torn, almost completely detached cover that was missing chunks and pieces, creases, stains, and waves that only could have come from a book being submerged in a couple of feet of water for a lengthy time. There was dirt and dried mud ground into the pages, and something that was either mildew or mold that appeared to be growing on the book -- maybe even while the guy and I were talking. If you left a book outside for a month, then had a tornado touch down directly on it, you still might not have a copy that looked this bad. If it seems like I'm exaggerating -- trust me, I'm not.

 

My wife took a look at the book and walked away, smirking, knowing I wasn't buying anything that day. I was so flabbergasted, that the guy and I stood there in silence for a few minutes while I tried to come up with the least insulting way I could tell the guy that, no matter how badly I wanted to own an ASM #1, even I wouldn't want this book anywhere near my collection (and I do have a few really low-grade copies in my stuff). I finally asked the guy what he was looking to get for the book. His answer?

 

"I know the book is worth about twenty thousand or so ... but I'm only looking to get eight."

 

I pulled out the Overstreet and started to go over grading conditions with him, as nicely as I could. I ended with telling him that his book would grade a "poor" at best -- and that I might be generous in calling it that. I added that whatever offer I could give him that was actually a fair offer -- which was obviously nothing even close to the eight grand he wanted -- was something I still wouldn't do. I didn't even want to make him an offer on the book. The adage that an ASM #1 is a book that sells in any condition? This was a copy that would have sorely tested that theory.

 

The guy looked stunned, like a kid who'd just been told the truth about Santa.

 

He doesn't exist -- have to be careful who's reading this, you know

 

He asked me, "You sure you don't want to buy it?" I politely said thanks but no thanks, and to assure him that I wasn't trying some negotiation tactic to rip him off of some super-valuable comic, I referred him to a couple of the other trustworthy dealers in the area. I explained that they would verify the grade and the value of the book, and with that, he went on his way. I never heard from him again (and I'm not sure if we visited another store or not).

 

To this day, I still don't have an ASM #1 (that hopefully to be rectified this winter ), but I have no regrets on passing on the book.

 

OTOH, at least it was complete. I wonder if CVA would have stickered THAT copy if I'd bought it?

[thehumantorch]

Neat story.

[Not*Sure*]

When I first worked at a shop my boss was not such a nice guy. He was pretty much a spoon. He basically gave me the keys and said "run it" and came in a few times a day to check the till and be a jerque.

He also made appointments to buy.

One time, this customer lugs in 27 long boxes and stacks them in the corner of the store and tells me the owner is going to buy them and he will check in for the offer later. The owner comes in flips through the boxes and declares them all carp. The customer comes in and he lowballs him the lowest of the low prices. less than a penny a book. He tells the guy that the haul is "adult comics" and since one of the other employees had been arrested for having an "adult comic" in the store he didn't want "adult comics" in his shop.

 

While they talked,I crept over to the boxes and flipped through a few. I did not see "adult" comics. But I saw several good books I would buy. The customer is at that point arguing with the owner that the books have to be worth something. I am flipping through an oversized art portfolio going "Oh man!" I get the death stare from the owner. I was like "Hey I like Bell art and it is a Bell portfolio sorry I enjoy this"

 

The customer says no way is he selling for the cheapo offer but he had been so sure the owner would buy them he hadn't driven his truck back to the store. So he would have to come pick them up later or the next day.

 

The next day he came in the store and said "Do you like any of these?" I told him I did and I thought the owner (who was stuck in 1990 comic book land) didn't know that some of the books were quite good. I wished him luck on finding a buyer and told him about some other shops. The guy asked me if the '72 newport outside was my car. I told him it was. He said "I like you, you are so cute I have never seen a comic store with a girl running around in costume everyday. So how about we make a deal? I will sell you all the boxes you can fit into your car for $1 a box."

 

So that is the story of how I came to know that you can fit 27 long boxes into a 1972 Newport ..

 

I got a lot of good comics that day (for the time) sold and traded them all over the place! Kept a few I liked etc..

[HotJuicyBurgers]

Awesome stories guys! 27 longboxes into that car must have been quite a spectacle!

[ryanmadam]

OTOH, at least it was complete. I wonder if CVA would have stickered THAT copy if I'd bought it?

 

Exceptional! Best 0.0125 copy we've ever seen!

[InvstmntComcSuply]

So that is the story of how I came to know that you can fit 27 long boxes into a 1972 Newport ..

 

I got a lot of good comics that day (for the time) sold and traded them all over the place! Kept a few I liked etc..

 

[bronzejunkie]

Back in the gold rush of comics (1991'ish) my local comic store in southern Alberta was doing really well, so well in fact-- I remember on 'new comic day' he would literally have riots in his store as people threw money at him to get their comics. It was a weird time, and a time when new comics we're looked upon in our area of the world as the investment that would send us all to a lifetime of riches beyond our greatest desire.

 

So-- Old comics, anything before 1980 we're considered pretty lame. At least by the owner, sure he had some nice silver/bronze and a touch of gold walk through the door and he had his guys that would buy it(I was one) but it wasn't even a sliver compared to the massive stacks of youngblood, spawn and spiderman that he could pawn off in seconds(some guys buying upwards to 50-100 copies of each title at the time) -- Gawd, I remember guys coming in and dropping over a thousand dollars in one swoop on new comics(a thousand dollars to a 15 year old felt like a million, insane money to me) Kids dropping their entire allowance or megar paychecks on Shadowhawks and X-Men #1's(Lee issue) -- (I feel sorry for those guys now.)

 

Anyway-- I was skipping classes one afternoon and found myself digging through long boxes in the back of the store. It was pretty dead as it was a weekday around 2PM. Anyway, the bell at the door rings and this old guy walks in with a decent stack of about fifty comics. Plops them down and says -- 'These worth anything?"

 

The owner (who never liked older books anyway) said-- I'll give you five bucks for the stack.

 

The Old Man thinks about it and says-- "F this" he picks up the stack and walks out. But, that is where I saw on the top of the stack-- issue 101 of the Incredible Hulk. This was my fave comic as a little kid and I always dreamed of owning a run of Hulks but had a hard time finding nice high grade copies in my area for reasonable prices(not that they we're expensive, but I was a kid in school still)

 

Long story short-- I follow the guy out and ask to see the stack. It's issue 101 through 150 of Hulk, all in NM and up. Seriously high grade and odd considering they we're probably just sitting in a stack in some barn collecting dust before they came out that day. Anyway-- I ask if he has anymore. 'Sure' he says "in my truck". he takes me to his pick up truck and the entire flatbed is lined with double stacks of 'bankers boxes' full of comics.

 

I flipped through some and it was mainly bronze titles-- But, all the Hulks we're there, including 181. The other titles that blew me away we're complete runs of House Of Mystery and House Of Secrets from about 1965 onward. Tons of other books. All in all a shockingly solid collection sat in this guys pick up. I asked how much for the Hulks and he says 'I don't know-- fifty bucks?

 

-- Sold! We made a deal for me to buy the rest over time(again, I was a kid with a part time job at a gas station) but he was super cool and he let me take all the books if I gave him fifty bucks every two weeks for four months.

 

So-- I ended up with quite the collection for a 15 year old. I still remember the excitement of bringing those books home and putting them in bags. I was able to put some more cash together and buy some mylars(my first) and put the key issues in them. The excitement of finding another bronze or silver key was pretty amazing.(Nothing huge like AF 15, or any Marvel 1's or anything-- More like VF copies of Fantastic Four 48 etc) Man'O man they looked slick too! Since then that collection helped finance a good part of the crazy stuff I did after I left high school. I still have the Hulks and a few of horror titles, but most are gone. That stings a little.

 

Years later-- I went back to my hometown and saw that the owner had moved the shop to a pretty dumpy location. The days of 'fat stacks of cash' we're over. He barely even had back issue stock, had maybe 10 titles coming in a month and even those we're a couple issues of each. Makes his living now selling 'magic' and holding tournements. We struck up a conversation and I told him about that collection he passed on, I could see a lot of regret in his eyes about that and about many things he probably could have done differently back then. He then told me a story of passing on tons of old books back in his heyday, he honestly thought the gravy train would last forever and never understood why anyone would want old titles. Passing on runs of ASM. Batman etc...

 

It wasn't my intention to make him feel bad.

 

Anyway-- it was a great memory for me as a kid. You just never know when your going to be in the right place at the right time.

 

[HotJuicyBurgers]

I never seem to be around during all those super finds . Awesome story man. I always hope to find a great thing like this on craigslist or something (which is a joke unfortunately )

[The-Collector]

Back in the gold rush of comics (1991'ish) my local comic store in southern Alberta was doing really well, so well in fact-- I remember on 'new comic day' he would literally have riots in his store as people threw money at him to get their comics. It was a weird time, and a time when new comics we're looked upon in our area of the world as the investment that would send us all to a lifetime of riches beyond our greatest desire.

 

So-- Old comics, anything before 1980 we're considered pretty lame. At least by the owner, sure he had some nice silver/bronze and a touch of gold walk through the door and he had his guys that would buy it(I was one) but it wasn't even a sliver compared to the massive stacks of youngblood, spawn and spiderman that he could pawn off in seconds(some guys buying upwards to 50-100 copies of each title at the time) -- Gawd, I remember guys coming in and dropping over a thousand dollars in one swoop on new comics(a thousand dollars to a 15 year old felt like a million, insane money to me) Kids dropping their entire allowance or megar paychecks on Shadowhawks and X-Men #1's(Lee issue) -- (I feel sorry for those guys now.)

 

Anyway-- I was skipping classes one afternoon and found myself digging through long boxes in the back of the store. It was pretty dead as it was a weekday around 2PM. Anyway, the bell at the door rings and this old guy walks in with a decent stack of about fifty comics. Plops them down and says -- 'These worth anything?"

 

The owner (who never liked older books anyway) said-- I'll give you five bucks for the stack.

 

The Old Man thinks about it and says-- "F this" he picks up the stack and walks out. But, that is where I saw on the top of the stack-- issue 101 of the Incredible Hulk. This was my fave comic as a little kid and I always dreamed of owning a run of Hulks but had a hard time finding nice high grade copies in my area for reasonable prices(not that they we're expensive, but I was a kid in school still)

 

Long story short-- I follow the guy out and ask to see the stack. It's issue 101 through 150 of Hulk, all in NM and up. Seriously high grade and odd considering they we're probably just sitting in a stack in some barn collecting dust before they came out that day. Anyway-- I ask if he has anymore. 'Sure' he says "in my truck". he takes me to his pick up truck and the entire flatbed is lined with double stacks of 'bankers boxes' full of comics.

 

I flipped through some and it was mainly bronze titles-- But, all the Hulks we're there, including 181. The other titles that blew me away we're complete runs of House Of Mystery and House Of Secrets from about 1965 onward. Tons of other books. All in all a shockingly solid collection sat in this guys pick up. I asked how much for the Hulks and he says 'I don't know-- fifty bucks?

 

-- Sold! We made a deal for me to buy the rest over time(again, I was a kid with a part time job at a gas station) but he was super cool and he let me take all the books if I gave him fifty bucks every two weeks for four months.

 

So-- I ended up with quite the collection for a 15 year old. I still remember the excitement of bringing those books home and putting them in bags. I was able to put some more cash together and buy some mylars(my first) and put the key issues in them. The excitement of finding another bronze or silver key was pretty amazing.(Nothing huge like AF 15, or any Marvel 1's or anything-- More like VF copies of Fantastic Four 48 etc) Man'O man they looked slick too! Since then that collection helped finance a good part of the crazy stuff I did after I left high school. I still have the Hulks and a few of horror titles, but most are gone. That stings a little.

 

Years later-- I went back to my hometown and saw that the owner had moved the shop to a pretty dumpy location. The days of 'fat stacks of cash' we're over. He barely even had back issue stock, had maybe 10 titles coming in a month and even those we're a couple issues of each. Makes his living now selling 'magic' and holding tournements. We struck up a conversation and I told him about that collection he passed on, I could see a lot of regret in his eyes about that and about many things he probably could have done differently back then. He then told me a story of passing on tons of old books back in his heyday, he honestly thought the gravy train would last forever and never understood why anyone would want old titles. Passing on runs of ASM. Batman etc...

 

It wasn't my intention to make him feel bad.

 

Anyway-- it was a great memory for me as a kid. You just never know when your going to be in the right place at the right time.

 

 

Your story was exciting and reminded me of how I felt about comics as a kid. The end just made me feel sad and crummy. I always feel for small business owners.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Mayor006]

I remember in the early 90's working at a little store where we sold cards and comics. No real good stories to tell about anyone bringing in awesome books or anything, but the owner had awesome back stock and if I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have spent half my paycheck on crappy football cards and would have bought TONS of comics.

 

I completely lost touch with the owner but I ran into his daughter a couple years ago and she said he sold off almost the entire inventory and was just dealing in coins now. Wish I had had a crack at some of those books before he sold!

[B3AST]

Was partners on a store in the late 80s early 90s. This happened right before I partnered in the shop. There was a short wall separating the strip mall we were in with the Post Office parking lot. If you were the slightest bit athletic it was pretty easy to get up on the wall then onto the roof of our store. This was a fairly old building and from the roof you could access the attic space and from there get into the store. The store had just gotten a mid grade run of ASM in on consignment, you see where this is going.

 

So luckily a customer over hears the stupid employee telling his buddy about how to get into the store and that he would meet him that night to get in. So my partner makes plans to just sit in the store all night and have some fun. A little after 1 AM the guy comes dropping into the store with the employee. My partner his gun turns on the lights and tells them not to move and is calling the police.

 

The guy says; "So what you going to do if we run? You wont shoot you don't want to get blood on the comics do you?"

 

My partner says "Everything behind you is covered in plastic"

 

Dude turned white and didn't say a word till the cops hauled him off.

 

 

[Dr. Balls]

I have told this story before, but it's my favorite one from when I had my

back in the 90's.

 

One day I had a guy come in, and set some comics on my counter and he says: "I want to get some new comics, and I was hoping I could sell some of my old books".

 

The guy was in his early 50s or so. This was 1996, and girly books like Shi and Dawn were the order of the day. He went on to tell me how much he liked the artwork in new comics and just the way he talked, I could tell he was one of those people who truly loved comics.

 

When we got done chatting, he started to browse around the store and I started going through his books.

 

Various ASMs from around 20-50, and then an ASM 14. An entire run of Silver Surfer, and old X-Men from 10 up to around 50 all in around Fine shape. I'm holding Silver Surfer 1 thinking "I don't have enough in the register for this, let alone the whole box.". (I was 23 years old and didn't have very deep pockets)

 

So I flat told the guy "These are great books, but I can tell you that I don't have enough cash to buy your books". To be honest, I remember thinking the guy was a plant from the other "rival" comic shop, to see if I was going to try and rip him off. I told him he had some great books worth quite a bit, and that I couldn't buy them outright.

 

And he responded with "That's okay. Can we just do a trade? I see lots of stuff on the wall I like." After I disguised my excitement with contemplative thinking, I gave him a big number in trade, and he was okay with that.

 

I spent the better part of two hours putting runs of Witchblade, Shi, Lady Death, Spawn, Angela, Cry for Dawn and whatever else he wanted together. He left with a big box of new stuff, and I had a big box of old stuff, and he seemed happy with the arrangement. I was ecstatic.

 

That was my Mile High moment where you get an unbelievable opportunity, and no one else is around to ruin it. Granted - not pedigree books, but in the days before Ebay, finding old Silver Age in a small town was difficult, so this was definitely exciting.

 

I always wondered what happened to him, because he never came back in after that - not for new books of the titles he bought, nothing.

[HotJuicyBurgers]

I have told this story before, but it's my favorite one from when I had my

back in the 90's.

 

One day I had a guy come in, and set some comics on my counter and he says: "I want to get some new comics, and I was hoping I could sell some of my old books".

 

The guy was in his early 50s or so. This was 1996, and girly books like Shi and Dawn were the order of the day. He went on to tell me how much he liked the artwork in new comics and just the way he talked, I could tell he was one of those people who truly loved comics.

 

When we got done chatting, he started to browse around the store and I started going through his books.

 

Various ASMs from around 20-50, and then an ASM 14. An entire run of Silver Surfer, and old X-Men from 10 up to around 50 all in around Fine shape. I'm holding Silver Surfer 1 thinking "I don't have enough in the register for this, let alone the whole box.". (I was 23 years old and didn't have very deep pockets)

 

So I flat told the guy "These are great books, but I can tell you that I don't have enough cash to buy your books". To be honest, I remember thinking the guy was a plant from the other "rival" comic shop, to see if I was going to try and rip him off. I told him he had some great books worth quite a bit, and that I couldn't buy them outright.

 

And he responded with "That's okay. Can we just do a trade? I see lots of stuff on the wall I like." After I disguised my excitement with contemplative thinking, I gave him a big number in trade, and he was okay with that.

 

I spent the better part of two hours putting runs of Witchblade, Shi, Lady Death, Spawn, Angela, Cry for Dawn and whatever else he wanted together. He left with a big box of new stuff, and I had a big box of old stuff, and he seemed happy with the arrangement. I was ecstatic.

 

That was my Mile High moment where you get an unbelievable opportunity, and no one else is around to ruin it. Granted - not pedigree books, but in the days before Ebay, finding old Silver Age in a small town was difficult, so this was definitely exciting.

 

I always wondered what happened to him, because he never came back in after that - not for new books of the titles he bought, nothing.

 

So he came traded for a whole bunch of new books, and never came back? Any chance he thought he was trading up for stuff he thought might be worth more one day?

[Dr. Balls]

I have told this story before, but it's my favorite one from when I had my

back in the 90's.

 

One day I had a guy come in, and set some comics on my counter and he says: "I want to get some new comics, and I was hoping I could sell some of my old books".

 

The guy was in his early 50s or so. This was 1996, and girly books like Shi and Dawn were the order of the day. He went on to tell me how much he liked the artwork in new comics and just the way he talked, I could tell he was one of those people who truly loved comics.

 

When we got done chatting, he started to browse around the store and I started going through his books.

 

Various ASMs from around 20-50, and then an ASM 14. An entire run of Silver Surfer, and old X-Men from 10 up to around 50 all in around Fine shape. I'm holding Silver Surfer 1 thinking "I don't have enough in the register for this, let alone the whole box.". (I was 23 years old and didn't have very deep pockets)

 

So I flat told the guy "These are great books, but I can tell you that I don't have enough cash to buy your books". To be honest, I remember thinking the guy was a plant from the other "rival" comic shop, to see if I was going to try and rip him off. I told him he had some great books worth quite a bit, and that I couldn't buy them outright.

 

And he responded with "That's okay. Can we just do a trade? I see lots of stuff on the wall I like." After I disguised my excitement with contemplative thinking, I gave him a big number in trade, and he was okay with that.

 

I spent the better part of two hours putting runs of Witchblade, Shi, Lady Death, Spawn, Angela, Cry for Dawn and whatever else he wanted together. He left with a big box of new stuff, and I had a big box of old stuff, and he seemed happy with the arrangement. I was ecstatic.

 

That was my Mile High moment where you get an unbelievable opportunity, and no one else is around to ruin it. Granted - not pedigree books, but in the days before Ebay, finding old Silver Age in a small town was difficult, so this was definitely exciting.

 

I always wondered what happened to him, because he never came back in after that - not for new books of the titles he bought, nothing.

 

So he came traded for a whole bunch of new books, and never came back? Any chance he thought he was trading up for stuff he thought might be worth more one day?

 

He might have - I closed up my shop a year later, so he may have tried to come back but I wasn't there. I got the distinct impression that he wasn't wanting to "invest" in new books - he was just getting some new stuff from his old stuff. But I thought he might have liked one or two of those newer books and would have come in for new issues.

[MrBedrock]

Had a guy walk in with a large box and plop it down on the counter. "Do you buy comics?" "Let me take a look." So I open the box...and like a Penn and Teller trick...giant cockroaches come flying out. Big one. Palmetto bugs. Huge monster flying cockroaches. Tons of them. Amid my screaming like a little girl (sorry Sharon) I tried to close the box. "Get these outta here!" Never saw what was in there...other than tons of huge bugs.

[montrealfilmguy]

Had a guy walk in with a large box and plop it down on the counter. "Do you buy comics?" "Let me take a look." So I open the box...and like a Penn and Teller trick...giant cockroaches come flying out. Big one. Palmetto bugs. Huge monster flying cockroaches. Tons of them. Amid my screaming like a little girl (sorry Sharon) I tried to close the box. "Get these outta here!" Never saw what was in there...other than tons of huge bugs.

 

 

 

Maybe the bugs were 9.8.

 

Don't watch Frank Darabont's The mist.

[Shaven Kev-migration]

Had a guy walk in with a large box and plop it down on the counter. "Do you buy comics?" "Let me take a look." So I open the box...and like a Penn and Teller trick...giant cockroaches come flying out. Big one. Palmetto bugs. Huge monster flying cockroaches. Tons of them. Amid my screaming like a little girl (sorry Sharon) I tried to close the box. "Get these outta here!" Never saw what was in there...other than tons of huge bugs.

 

[HotJuicyBurgers]

Had a guy walk in with a large box and plop it down on the counter. "Do you buy comics?" "Let me take a look." So I open the box...and like a Penn and Teller trick...giant cockroaches come flying out. Big one. Palmetto bugs. Huge monster flying cockroaches. Tons of them. Amid my screaming like a little girl (sorry Sharon) I tried to close the box. "Get these outta here!" Never saw what was in there...other than tons of huge bugs.

 

That is pretty gross. I bet he had a couple copies of action comics 1 in there, a few Tec 27's, and a a dozen AF15 though.