Anybody know anything about a dealer named "Crazy Charlie" out of Tacoma, Washington? 0

[NoMan]

 

Curious if anybody had any contact info/knowledge about him. Trying to hunt down info on a book I now own that passed through his hands.

As always, many thanks.

Edited June 22, 2017 by NoMan

[GoBucs]

10 minutes ago, NoMan said:

 

Curious if anybody had any contact info/knowledge about him. Trying to hunt down info on a book I now own that passed through his hands.

As always, many thanks.

Is his last name Swan?

[NoMan]

16 minutes ago, GoBucs said:

Is his last name Swan?

Really the only information I have is that the sale took place in the 80s in Tacoma, Washington. The dealers name was "Crazy Charlie" and the nickname "Crazy" came about because it took a crazy amount of time to negotiate deals when buying from this particular dealer. 

I literally know nothing else. 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

[NoMan]

Thank you Blow Up The Moon. Dang….

[NoMan]

here's a post from a while ago:

 

In 1980, when I started collecting, there was a comic store, in Tacoma, that had a lot of gold, silver, and Beetles stufr, a long with a lot of old collector books and mags, and the place looked almost like this, but 6 times larger. All of his comic books were not bagged/boarded and sat stacked on a shelf. This guy had a gold mine in his shop and was a hamburger shy of a happy meal. He would keep his door locked, unlocked it to let you in, and lock you in when you shopped. He also tried to frisk people when they left.

 

Here is a quote from the people who bought them -

 

"Swan's Magazine Mart was a longtime fixture in Tacoma, Washington. It was originally located downtown in the 1930's, but moved to a small shop on 6th Avenue where it remained for many years. You could, potentially, find ANYTHING at Swan's. Incredibly rare treasures from the 1800's were side by side with the latest D&D gaming book. Before it closed in 2007, Swan's had accumulated several million items - our best estimate is somewhere between 5 and 10 million. Most of these were inaccessible, and the owner did not really know what he had or where they were. Add to that the fact that the shop was seldom open, and you know why we are calling the items "long-lost treasures!"

 

Swan's entire inventory was bought out in 2007, and J&J Collectibles was born. We are a small group of people who love books, magazines, comics and other such items, and we get as much pleasure in looking over the inventory as our customers do when they buy our items."

 

Anybody into comics in the Tacoma area, for years, knew the owner as "Crazy Charlie".

 

I used to love going into his place and perusing through his books.

 

I later ran across the person that bought the rest of his store and even they told me that there was a lot of old lost treasure in that store.

[NoMan]

I'm confused. Was "Crazy Charlie" the owner of Swan's or one of the folks of J&J?

[greggy]

22 minutes ago, BlowUpTheMoon said:

If this is the same guy, he sure didn't age well.  I started dealing with him at Seattle shows in the early 90s and he looked old then.  He was cuckoo and just drove me mad with his constant chatter.  He did have a teenage daughter at that time and at that time, she seemed well adjusted but when I saw her again at an early Emerald City convention, she looked like someone who had to grow up with Charlie, as she seemed cuckoo as well. 

[NoMan]

13 minutes ago, greggy said:

If this is the same guy, he sure didn't age well.  I started dealing with him at Seattle shows in the early 90s and he looked old then.  He was cuckoo and just drove me mad with his constant chatter.  He did have a teenage daughter at that time and at that time, she seemed well adjusted but when I saw her again at an early Emerald City convention, she looked like someone who had to grow up with Charlie, as she seemed cuckoo as well. 

[aardvark88]

The ex-Crazy Charlie copy of AF #15 slabbed 8.5 eventually sold for about $145,000 (blue). Think I had 2 long boxes of cherry-picked Crazy Charlie raw '70s comics that greggy cherry-picked decades ago from me to become the Awesome online  Legend he is today.

[GoBucs]

1 hour ago, greggy said:

If this is the same guy, he sure didn't age well.  I started dealing with him at Seattle shows in the early 90s and he looked old then.  He was cuckoo and just drove me mad with his constant chatter.  He did have a teenage daughter at that time and at that time, she seemed well adjusted but when I saw her again at an early Emerald City convention, she looked like someone who had to grow up with Charlie, as she seemed cuckoo as well. 

Exactly who I was thinking of, maybe I thought his name was Charlie Swan because of what's mentioned in that article above. I moved to Seattle in 1998 and would see him at the shows down near the Space Needle. Whackjob supreme.

Edited June 22, 2017 by GoBucs

[NoMan]

7 hours ago, GoBucs said:

Is his last name Swan?

It seems he ran a store called Swan's Magazines and Comics.

[auberion583]

[auberion583]

This is who you are looking for, "Crazy Charlie" Burris of Swan's Magazine Mart. He moved the shop to 6 ave from Downtown Tacoma. In the 80's the shop would have been downtown. Swan's Magazine Mart had been in business since the early 30"s.

[auberion583]

I can post the entire article if you wish, there was also a write up on his shop in the 90s in the Tacoma News Tribune.

[NoMan]

On 11/17/2018 at 6:59 PM, auberion583 said:

I can post the entire article if you wish, there was also a write up on his shop in the 90s in the Tacoma News Tribune.

I just dug up this post to see if there has been any activty and see your response. If you're still around, yes I'd love to see article. Thank you. 

[James J Johnson]

On ‎6‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 7:28 AM, NoMan said:

"he lived life by his own rules" is typically the politically correct way of saying   

 

[NoMan]

Seemed like in my exile of over 30 years from collecting I missed a character or two. 

I've got a special place in my heart for wackjobs. When I first moved to LA and was dead broke I used to go to Hollywood Blvd and listen to people screaming on the corner about Flying Saucers being involved with JFK's assassination. I'd think to myself, "could be." I couldn't believe the tourists who would rudely ignore our speaker and actively dodge a flyer that was thrusted in their face explaining more. If you go to the trouble of screaming on the street corner, I'll check out your literature. 

In fact, I've got tons of crack pot flyers in my collection, bagged and boarder. No, they aren't for sale.

Edited April 24, 2019 by NoMan

[exitmusicblue]

Love the nickname.  

[James J Johnson]

2 minutes ago, exitmusicblue said:

Love the nickname.  

Usually just an appropriately well chosen adjective and the subject's name make for the best nicknames. And it's usually the first thing that comes to mind.  Tony Two-Times, Frankie the Wop, Pete the Killer, Bill the Butcher, Crazy Eddie, Crazy Charlie, ChooChoo Charlie, Daft Charlie, Crackpot Charlie, et. al. 

The right nickname not only defines a person, but it reminds us that he lives life by his own rules!