Hidden Treasure?

[surfer99]

Heard about a comic stash...

 

So a friend of mine told me he was in downtown Phoenix a few days ago at an electronics reclamation store and he ran across several boxes of comics buried in the backroom amongst all the other stuff they had for sale there. He knew I collected comics so he gave me a heads up in case I wanted to go check em out. Today was that day. Would I find an Amazing Fantasy 15 or Fantastic Four 1 like Ronnylama and Tnerb jokingly suggested, or more likely would I find the junk I expected?

 

I arrived at the store which was in a seedy part of town (thankfully it was daylight), parked my truck in the dirt parking lot, and walked through the front door with bars on it (and the windows). I was immediately overwhelmed with the smell of what reminded me of my grandmother's house mixed with an auto repair shop garage and dust. The older man and woman who worked there were nice enough and left me to my own devices as I took a look around what turned out to be a huge warehouse full of all kinds of...well, stuff. Lots of old electronic equipment and small box after small box of various machine parts.

 

As I walked around I tried to soak in all the odd things I was seeing in this warehouse including dusty old musical instruments, old photography equipment, stuffed panda bears with real working fish tanks for stomachs, credit card machines, a dirty litter box in the corner, a wall of military patches, barber chairs, outdoor lighting, and a bunch of stuff that I had no idea what it was. Finally I came upon a row that had like 20 small boxes of comics on the top! This was it...what the heck could they have hidden here? Find out next week when I continue this journal...

 

OK, that would be pretty messed up after I got you all sucked into this story, right? So, Im looking at the first box and its got all these oddball Image and Independent titles from like the last decade or whatever, and a few DC and Marvel oddities from the same time period...not exactly what Im lookin for. The first thing I noticed about the books tipped me off to what I was really looking at...all the backing boards had a store stamp for Atomic Comics. This was a local store...actually they had 3 stores here...that closed its doors several years ago. I always wondered what happened to all their inventory. Im sure they sold all the good stuff online or to other comics shops and then all the leftovers, well they landed here. Then it hit me...this reclamation store, this is where businesses go to die once they go out of business. Hey look over there...stacks of old DVDs with Blockbuster stickers. Yep, suspicions confirmed. Kind of sad really, but interesting to see all this old stuff.

 

I still took the time to look through the rest of the boxes. You never know right? Maybe somebody missed something. Oh, here are some XFactor books...nope, issue 7 was as close as I was gonna get to issue 6. Dang. I got really excited when I saw Hulk 289, 288, 286, 281...come on this is one of those junk issues thats gotta be here, but no...there is no issue 271. Sigh. Well, I didnt find any gems, but I gotta say I did have fun on the journey. Now I feel like heading to the flea markets and looking on Craigs List in search of comic treasure. Nah, I think I will get ready for ECCC instead!

 

Til next time...

 

***

 

See more journals by surfer99

[thehumantorch]

Fun read thanks. Hope you find treasure next time.

[SW3D]

Great story! You had me gripped in suspense and anticipation! I could visualize everything you wrote... almost like a noirish detective story dripping with pulpish prose... very cool.

 

Too bad you didn't find something of value (I was rooting for you all the way)... but the true treasure is in the wonderful experience and the tale you told. It must have been exciting going into an unfamiliar locale, with seedy elements with the hopes of striking gold. I'm sure there will be gold on ECCC... or for you Silver, as in Silver Age.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

SW3D

[Brandon Shepherd]

At least you got a good story out of it, I enjoyed it. You never know if you don't check, best of luck at the show!

[Rockblazer]

Great story Surfer! Five years ago I had this happen to me. A co- worker said he saw two stacks of comics at a second hand store a mile from work. I went down dug in and found a Hulk 181 on the next to last comic in the second stack. This was when I was selling comics on Ebay and also comparing Pgx and Cgc. I graded it at 4.0 but sent it to Pgx as I planned to resell it on Ebay. I thought it would grade higher at Pgx and it did. They had it at 6.0. I then sold it on EBay. I used the money to buy other comics. I had a raw copy already so I could part with it. The process of actually buying it from this guy is a whole story itself but I got it.

[surfer99]

Great story Surfer! Five years ago I had this happen to me. A co- worker said he saw two stacks of comics at a second hand store a mile from work. I went down dug in and found a Hulk 181 on the next to last comic in the second stack. This was when I was selling comics on Ebay and also comparing Pgx and Cgc. I graded it at 4.0 but sent it to Pgx as I planned to resell it on Ebay. I thought it would grade higher at Pgx and it did. They had it at 6.0. I then sold it on EBay. I used the money to buy other comics. I had a raw copy already so I could part with it. The process of actually buying it from this guy is a whole story itself but I got it.

 

Wow, I WISH I had that kind of luck! You'll have to share the whole story, it sounds like it would be good.

 

 

[Rockblazer]

I will in the next day or two. Working both days and nights this week. Also got my grades back on my 15 book submission. Plus a con this weekend. So I will have lots to write about for once. The funny thing about buying that Hulk 181 is it showed bad human behavior and also redeeming human behavior.

[Timely]

My local books-a-million had 12 long boxes of comics for a buck a piece. I found a New Mutants #68. That's as close as I got!