• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Tales from the Comic shop

Started by HotJuicyBurgers,

205 posts in this topic

PEP

PEP

Posted
Posted

Most of my stories come from waiting in line at the post office mailing stuff out. I'm at the post office every day, including Sundays. I'm sure that could have its own thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Transplant

Transplant

Posted
Posted
In the early 00s a couple of my employees and I had a band. We usually practiced after hours at one of our locations where the other tenants were also closed so we wouldn't bother anyone. We played obnoxiously loud (kinda like my posts) punk . Well one week we had to move practice to the Westheimer location. Our next door neighbor is a Chinese restaurant and the relationship has been pretty icy. Normally we would have waited until they closed to crank it up...but we didn't. They didn't seem to have any customers and it was close to closing. About two minutes after we started the little old Chinese guy who owns the restaurant was banging on the door. But due to the noise we missed it. So he leaves, comes back, and chunks a head of lettuce which explodes all over the front door. We saw that.

 

From the dumpling place? I suppose it's better than the guys from the tattoo shop wanting to have word with you.

The tattoo guys are all okay. It's the girls from the nail salon that I'm worried about.

:roflmao: Comedy gold, Jerry. Comedy gold.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MrBedrock

MrBedrock

Posted
Posted

We had a guy who called, saying he was from Louisiana and was looking for an X-Men #1. We had one, a pretty nice VF (this was before The CGC existed). He called a couple more times, then made an appointment to see it on a Sunday afternoon. The time arrives and sure enough a young guy, mid-twenties, clean cut, normal, shows up. So I pull the book out to show him. He looks at it then asks if we have any other books in that price range. So I show him a couple of other things. The three books are laid out on the counter. He examines them each pretty closely. At this point we have a few customers in the store, and a couple of employees. One of my co-workers is in the back room getting someone's subscription books. The guy says, "I think your buddy is calling you." I turn for a second...and the next thing I hear is "HE"S RUNNING!"

As I turn around the guy is flying through the front door, with two of my customers in hot pursuit. One of the customers gets him just as he hits the parking lot and the guy goes flying. The books go flying. He rolls and jumps up and darts across the street through traffic and is gone around the corner, leaving the books. He also left his girlfriend sitting in the car waiting for him. We call the cops, who get there pretty quickly. They question her and it turns out she knew nothing about what was going on. She just drove the up to get some comics. She is genuinely pissed off. Then the cops drive across the street looking for the dude and find him in just a few minutes hiding behind a dumpster behind the strip center across the street. They bring him back to the shop and the girlfriend (who now is obviously no longer a girlfriend) is saying, "I don't care what you do with him. Lock him up. I don't care. I'm going home."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
seanfingh

seanfingh

Posted
Posted
We had a guy who called, saying he was from Louisiana and was looking for an X-Men #1. We had one, a pretty nice VF (this was before The CGC existed). He called a couple more times, then made an appointment to see it on a Sunday afternoon. The time arrives and sure enough a young guy, mid-twenties, clean cut, normal, shows up. So I pull the book out to show him. He looks at it then asks if we have any other books in that price range. So I show him a couple of other things. The three books are laid out on the counter. He examines them each pretty closely. At this point we have a few customers in the store, and a couple of employees. One of my co-workers is in the back room getting someone's subscription books. The guy says, "I think your buddy is calling you." I turn for a second...and the next thing I hear is "HE"S RUNNING!"

As I turn around the guy is flying through the front door, with two of my customers in hot pursuit. One of the customers gets him just as he hits the parking lot and the guy goes flying. The books go flying. He rolls and jumps up and darts across the street through traffic and is gone around the corner, leaving the books. He also left his girlfriend sitting in the car waiting for him. We call the cops, who get there pretty quickly. They question her and it turns out she knew nothing about what was going on. She just drove the up to get some comics. She is genuinely pissed off. Then the cops drive across the street looking for the dude and find him in just a few minutes hiding behind a dumpster behind the strip center across the street. They bring him back to the shop and the girlfriend (who now is obviously no longer a girlfriend) is saying, "I don't care what you do with him. Lock him up. I don't care. I'm going home."

 

But what about the Comics?!?!?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MrBedrock

MrBedrock

Posted
Posted
He ripped the covers off them and gave them to little, old, Asian ladies from the nail salon next door.

 

"Hey Mistah tall comic book man, you want a french manicure for the holidays?"

:wishluck:
Link to comment
Share on other sites
mikephoen

mikephoen

Posted
Posted
We had a guy who called, saying he was from Louisiana and was looking for an X-Men #1. We had one, a pretty nice VF (this was before The CGC existed). He called a couple more times, then made an appointment to see it on a Sunday afternoon. The time arrives and sure enough a young guy, mid-twenties, clean cut, normal, shows up. So I pull the book out to show him. He looks at it then asks if we have any other books in that price range. So I show him a couple of other things. The three books are laid out on the counter. He examines them each pretty closely. At this point we have a few customers in the store, and a couple of employees. One of my co-workers is in the back room getting someone's subscription books. The guy says, "I think your buddy is calling you." I turn for a second...and the next thing I hear is "HE"S RUNNING!"

As I turn around the guy is flying through the front door, with two of my customers in hot pursuit. One of the customers gets him just as he hits the parking lot and the guy goes flying. The books go flying. He rolls and jumps up and darts across the street through traffic and is gone around the corner, leaving the books. He also left his girlfriend sitting in the car waiting for him. We call the cops, who get there pretty quickly. They question her and it turns out she knew nothing about what was going on. She just drove the up to get some comics. She is genuinely pissed off. Then the cops drive across the street looking for the dude and find him in just a few minutes hiding behind a dumpster behind the strip center across the street. They bring him back to the shop and the girlfriend (who now is obviously no longer a girlfriend) is saying, "I don't care what you do with him. Lock him up. I don't care. I'm going home."

 

Keep the stories coming Richard, I love this one! (thumbs u

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MrBedrock

MrBedrock

Posted
Posted

 

But what about the Comics?!?!?!

No major damage. Long since sold.

 

And what happened to the ? Presumably he didn't get any jail time.

He got arrested, but I really don't know what happened after that. It was around $10,000 in books, but I think there was some concern that the theft didn't actually occur in the eyes of the law since he barely made it out of the door with them. We have had a few other theft situations and in each of the others the person was convicted. In one case the person is serving some serious jail time as he was an habitual shoplifter with many priors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gatchaman

Gatchaman

Posted
Posted

 

But what about the Comics?!?!?!

No major damage. Long since sold.

 

And what happened to the ? Presumably he didn't get any jail time.

 

Comic theft is not considered a crime in the eyes of the law.

 

Steal the wrong baseball card however, and you end up in prison with Wentworth Miller.

 

From right off the dresser. Prison Break.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
thehumantorch

thehumantorch

Posted
Posted
We had a guy who called, saying he was from Louisiana and was looking for an X-Men #1. We had one, a pretty nice VF (this was before The CGC existed). He called a couple more times, then made an appointment to see it on a Sunday afternoon. The time arrives and sure enough a young guy, mid-twenties, clean cut, normal, shows up. So I pull the book out to show him. He looks at it then asks if we have any other books in that price range. So I show him a couple of other things. The three books are laid out on the counter. He examines them each pretty closely. At this point we have a few customers in the store, and a couple of employees. One of my co-workers is in the back room getting someone's subscription books. The guy says, "I think your buddy is calling you." I turn for a second...and the next thing I hear is "HE"S RUNNING!"

As I turn around the guy is flying through the front door, with two of my customers in hot pursuit. One of the customers gets him just as he hits the parking lot and the guy goes flying. The books go flying. He rolls and jumps up and darts across the street through traffic and is gone around the corner, leaving the books. He also left his girlfriend sitting in the car waiting for him. We call the cops, who get there pretty quickly. They question her and it turns out she knew nothing about what was going on. She just drove the up to get some comics. She is genuinely pissed off. Then the cops drive across the street looking for the dude and find him in just a few minutes hiding behind a dumpster behind the strip center across the street. They bring him back to the shop and the girlfriend (who now is obviously no longer a girlfriend) is saying, "I don't care what you do with him. Lock him up. I don't care. I'm going home."

 

This stuff would make suck an entertaining TV show. 'Comic Books from the Dark Side'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sarfa

Sarfa

Posted
Posted

During my Junior year of high school, I lived in Arlington TX. This was 1990-1991. The best known comic shop around was Lone Star Comics on Abram St. Many of you know Lone Star Comics as mycomicshop.com nowadays. Back then they only had the one shop and it was a little bitty compared to what they moved to across the street some years later.

 

I practically lived in that shop. I was working at either McDonald's or Six Flags that year depending on what part of the year it was. I remember this also being the first year of school that I actually skipped classes. We had open campus, which meant you could leave the school at lunch time but had to return for 5th, 6th and 7th periods. Well I always got paid on Fridays. So I would leave school, go pick up my whopping $120 paycheck (minimum wage was $3.85hr then), cash my check and head to the comic shop, skipping the last 3 classes of the day EVERY Friday that year.

 

I can't tell you how many times I would literally spend $100 out of those checks in the store after just cashing them. Of course gas was much cheaper then too. It only cost $8 to fill up my little 1971 Toyota Corolla which would last me a week. I remember the days when Robocop #1 came out, when X-Men #1 (Jim Lee) and Spider-Man #1 (McFarlane) came out. The shop would be packed like sardines back then and the comics didn't get put on the shelf until 3:00pm on Fridays. The Marvel trading cards were really hot that year. Especially the hologram cards.

 

There was this kid in my school that desperately wanted the Wolverine hologram. So I told him I had a few and what did he have to trade. I was into baseball cards at the time as well. This kid went home, broke the wrapper on his 1989 Factory Seals Upper Desk set and traded me card #1, Ken Griffey Jr's rookie card, for a $5 Wolverine hologram. Sure I kind of feel bad about it now, but back then I knew I was robbing this kid and didn't even care. Karma caught up to me about 2 months later. But that's another baseball card story.

 

But the folks that ran the old LSC shop were great. They knew everyone by name. They knew what books we each liked. They would show some of us the new buys they would do from collections they had bought. It was a great time. It was kewl to remember when there would be a line out the door and down the sidewalk of this shopping strip of people waiting to buy their weekly comics. It's only like that nowadays for FCBD generally.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MrBedrock

MrBedrock

Posted
Posted
"HE"S RUNNING!"

"I don't care what you do with him. Lock him up. I don't care. I'm going home."

Do all these stories happen at the Westheimer store?

All of the ones I've posted. There are some great drunk guy stories from the Washington Ave. store because of all the clubs and bars around there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DeliBebek

DeliBebek

Posted
Posted
"HE"S RUNNING!"

"I don't care what you do with him. Lock him up. I don't care. I'm going home."

Do all these stories happen at the Westheimer store?

All of the ones I've posted. There are some great drunk guy stories from the Washington Ave. store because of all the clubs and bars around there.

Yeah, that strikes me as more of a location where strange characters would wander in, if only you didn't close before midnight. :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing