Tell us a C-R-A-Z-Y comic story 4 4

[THE_BEYONDER]

@VintageComics

Edited December 15, 2023 by THE_BEYONDER

[Timmay]

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 12/15/2023 at 6:41 PM, Timmay said:

[VintageComics]

On 12/15/2023 at 7:12 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

I have plenty of crazy stories, but I don't want to go first. I'm shy. 

[piper]

In before the lock… 

[zuulioso]

One of my favorites (sorry so long)...

A Craigslist find out in West Virginia. This was maybe 2012ish. I saw the ad for a large collection split maybe 50/30/20 silver/bronze/copper located deep in West Virginia. I'm in the Baltimore/DC metro area and loved loved loved traveling around looking at collections. This was pre-movie hype and after requesting a list, talking on the phone, and debating on whether or not it was worth the two and a half hour trek out west into the mountains of WVA, to take a look at this collection.

From what I remember, I think the ad said maybe 5k-6k books. I was in the position as a collector looking to complete runs. At the time, I was looking for early Avengers and FF books and he had a bunch. We spoke on the phone and I had hoped for a whole collection purchase, but after talking, I knew going into it he had an unrealistic expectation on prices as he was pricing at NM using some online resource. After some discussion, I had thought we came to an understanding that I was to come to look at some books and not the entire collection.

So, I took a beautiful drive out into the middle of nowhere. The place was a small house on a lonely several acres of land with no houses around it. It ended up being a very small house in a beautiful area in the mountains. When I arrived, I met an older man, maybe late 60s early 70s. He seemed friendly and greeted me kindly if not a bit overly enthusiastically at the door. His energy had me a bit off guard from the beginning. I entered the small house and it was littered with comic boxes in every room. I didn't make it through all of his boxes, but he had already gone through it all and priced it and knew where specific runs were.

Almost immediately, as I was scanning the first box, he told me was that he was selling his collection to fund travel expenses so that he could bring his bride in from an Asian country (I admit forgetting which). He then showed me a picture of someone that appeared to be in their early 20s. I looked at him, then at the picture, and formed some opinions of the situation, but smiled and wished him luck as I continued sifting through books.

As I pulled titles of interest into a pile, I began trying to set the expectation that I would not be interested in the entire collection and thought maybe we could come to a deal for specific books. He seemed open to that. Again, at the time he wanted a number that I thought was far more than reasonable for what I found. There were no keys, but there were some nice upper VFish books that I was looking for.

I think I came up with a preliminary pile and he took it and led me to his computer where he proceeded to look each book up on whatever overpriced website he was using and quoted me the NM price for each. Ugh. I quibbled that the condition was important and the books I chose where not NM. I removed some books and asked to keep sifting. As I was going through a box, he said "I have some chili I made, would you like some?"

Without thinking about it, I thought to myself, "I like chili and I don't want to offend this nice gentleman" so I accepted. After all I was hungry and someone offered me food. He brings me a bowl of his homemade chili while I continue to sift through his collection as he is telling me about the deep love he and his soon to be bride have for each other. The chili was tasty, but not great. I'll cut to the chase. I didn't wake up in a tub with a missing kidney or anything, but in retrospect, it probably wasn't the smartest move.

As I was eating the chili, he came out with a shotgun. Yep. Just out of the blue, he came out and was holding a shotgun. He showed it to me and I was so surprised by this unwelcome turn of events that I don't recall why he was so proud of this weapon or why he was showing it to me, but he handed it to me to admire. So, I went from "Oh , I'm dead" to "He is handing me his gun". So, like a gentleman, I took it, inspected it, and being the non-firearm educated person that I am admired it, turned it over in my hands, and handed it back to him.

Okay. So, here is my pile of books. Now, at this point I wanted to get out of there. I had brought maybe $1500 cash with me and had maybe $350 worth of books that I wanted. I was willing to go up to $500 and $500 is what we ended up settling on, but I started at $300. Pretty gutsy for a guy that just showed me his shotgun because he was not happy about my offer in any way. He wanted $1000 and we ended up in the middle.

Looking back, it was an innocent exchange but certainly one I remember well to this day.

[littledoom]

On 12/15/2023 at 10:25 PM, zuulioso said:

One of my favorites (sorry so long)...

A Craigslist find out in West Virginia. This was maybe 2012ish. I saw the ad for a large collection split maybe 50/30/20 silver/bronze/copper located deep in West Virginia. I'm in the Baltimore/DC metro area and loved loved loved traveling around looking at collections. This was pre-movie hype and after requesting a list, talking on the phone, and debating on whether or not it was worth the two and a half hour trek out west into the mountains of WVA, to take a look at this collection.

From what I remember, I think the ad said maybe 5k-6k books. I was in the position as a collector looking to complete runs. At the time, I was looking for early Avengers and FF books and he had a bunch. We spoke on the phone and I had hoped for a whole collection purchase, but after talking, I knew going into it he had an unrealistic expectation on prices as he was pricing at NM using some online resource. After some discussion, I had thought we came to an understanding that I was to come to look at some books and not the entire collection.

So, I took a beautiful drive out into the middle of nowhere. The place was a small house on a lonely several acres of land with no houses around it. It ended up being a very small house in a beautiful area in the mountains. When I arrived, I met an older man, maybe late 60s early 70s. He seemed friendly and greeted me kindly if not a bit overly enthusiastically at the door. His energy had me a bit off guard from the beginning. I entered the small house and it was littered with comic boxes in every room. I didn't make it through all of his boxes, but he had already gone through it all and priced it and knew where specific runs were.

Almost immediately, as I was scanning the first box, he told me was that he was selling his collection to fund travel expenses so that he could bring his bride in from an Asian country (I admit forgetting which). He then showed me a picture of someone that appeared to be in their early 20s. I looked at him, then at the picture, and formed some opinions of the situation, but smiled and wished him luck as I continued sifting through books.

As I pulled titles of interest into a pile, I began trying to set the expectation that I would not be interested in the entire collection and thought maybe we could come to a deal for specific books. He seemed open to that. Again, at the time he wanted a number that I thought was far more than reasonable for what I found. There were no keys, but there were some nice upper VFish books that I was looking for.

I think I came up with a preliminary pile and he took it and led me to his computer where he proceeded to look each book up on whatever overpriced website he was using and quoted me the NM price for each. Ugh. I quibbled that the condition was important and the books I chose where not NM. I removed some books and asked to keep sifting. As I was going through a box, he said "I have some chili I made, would you like some?"

Without thinking about it, I thought to myself, "I like chili and I don't want to offend this nice gentleman" so I accepted. After all I was hungry and someone offered me food. He brings me a bowl of his homemade chili while I continue to sift through his collection as he is telling me about the deep love he and his soon to be bride have for each other. The chili was tasty, but not great. I'll cut to the chase. I didn't wake up in a tub with a missing kidney or anything, but in retrospect, it probably wasn't the smartest move.

As I was eating the chili, he came out with a shotgun. Yep. Just out of the blue, he came out and was holding a shotgun. He showed it to me and I was so surprised by this unwelcome turn of events that I don't recall why he was so proud of this weapon or why he was showing it to me, but he handed it to me to admire. So, I went from "Oh , I'm dead" to "He is handing me his gun". So, like a gentleman, I took it, inspected it, and being the non-firearm educated person that I am admired it, turned it over in my hands, and handed it back to him.

Okay. So, here is my pile of books. Now, at this point I wanted to get out of there. I had brought maybe $1500 cash with me and had maybe $350 worth of books that I wanted. I was willing to go up to $500 and $500 is what we ended up settling on, but I started at $300. Pretty gutsy for a guy that just showed me his shotgun because he was not happy about my offer in any way. He wanted $1000 and we ended up in the middle.

Looking back, it was an innocent exchange but certainly one I remember well to this day.

wow

[mrwoogieman]

Why couldn't you just keep the lotion down there with you, didn't he have a spare? Did he think you could escape if you kept it?

 

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

I actually, truly, spend money purchasing and having CGC grade some of my comic books.

 

 

[LowGradeBronze]

I can't top that tale in any way so be prepared for a story at the other end of the adrenalin scale. A more homely tale from the mid 70s. I was maybe 13 and answered an advert for marvel comics in a free local newspaper that used to come out every week. The guy said his son worked in print distribution and had these spares on offer. I had exactly one English pound in my pocket. For which in those days you could buy maybe 20 new comics. Well there was a pile of British Marvels (Mighty World of Marvel 1 - 10 and Spider Man Comics Weekly 1 - 10) and an assortment of American comics. Jim Starlin's Capt Marvel run and a very nice Batman 237 among others. Feeling I would only get some of these with my meagre pound, and not knowing which to choose he surprised me when he said, you can have the lot for a pound. Must been feeling generous. How I got them all home on my bicycle I can't remember, I was probably too dazed. 

Apologies my tale doesn't live up to the title of CRAZY, but hopefully I've made it easy for someone to better my tale for thrills. 

[Artboy99]

Met @thehumantorch at a local McDonald's parking lot in the city we live in to transfer some recently received books back from CGC. Going over the books with the back of my suv open a guy approached us and asked what we doing. "Oh - Looking at comics" he says, and he happens to have some in the interior coat pocket of the trench coat he was wearing: beat and folded Classics Illustrated and some low grade books of little interest, and when he asked what they were worth I told him the truth - very little. He demanded I buy them and for a very high amount of money and I told him I wasn't interested. 

That is when it turns C - R - A - Z - Y!

He tells us he is going to take our comics. @thehumantorch tells him to eff-off and then the guy threatens us and tells us he has a gun. We told him off and then ignored him and he eventually wandered off towards the busy south side street we were near.

And you thought this was a friendly and safe hobby!

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 12/16/2023 at 10:59 AM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Keep ‘em coming 

[fmaz]

I’ve told this story here before, so for those who’ve read it previously… my apologies.  But when someone says “crazy comics story” this is kind of like Bettejuice, it just automatically gets told.  In fact, my wife seems to encourage me to tell it to people in order to prove how crazy I am (whereas I always assume meeting me should be sufficient — go figure).

Anyhoo….

About 15 years ago I responded to a Craigslist ad about a comic collection for sale. It was a neighboring town to ours. Slightly more rural, but still mostly a suburban, affluent Massachusetts town. Connected with the seller and he seemed nice enough. He said he had like 1,000 books or so, he had no idea what he had but he just wanted to move them. Sounded pretty good so I took the address and we agreed I’d come over as soon as I could.

Well as luck would have it, the next day (I believe) I just happened to have had some meetings out of the office after lunch and didn’t have a game that night (I worked in college athletics) so I worked from home the rest of the day… so since I was home I just figured the sooner the better and headed over.

I had his directions (pre GPS) and found his street with ease. Big, beautiful homes as I expected. But I drove down the street and couldn’t find his house. So I got to the end, turned back and drove it again more slowly, and noticed that tucked among all the mini-mansions, set back on a hill was this Adams Family looking rundown “every horror movie house you’ve ever seen in your life” looking place. With no number, of course.  Which absolutely was the house.

And it then started to rain.

So I drive up this steep driveway and park at the top. The house does NOT get better looking up close, and as I sit in my car for 30 seconds deciding what to do, this man emerges FROM BEHIND THE HOUSE and comes running towards the car.

”Hi, hi!” He says. “You here for the comics?”

I nodded (still in my car)

”Great, come on!” He then waved, and disappeared BACK BEHIND THE HOUSE

So yes, I got out of the car, in the rain, and walked behind the Adams Family house…

Where, there was this beautiful veranda, and his wonderful wife and two kids. And he had 10 long boxes of high grade SA books and we sat and had tea and cookies and laughed and laughed….

Yeah, no. 

I walked behind the house to see him vanish down a storm cellar.

For those not from New England, a storm cellar is a pair of gray, creaky metal doors in the back of your home that lead down into a windowless underground bunker beneath your house.

So I walked over to the open doors, and looked down into the darkness, and heard his voice call up - “I’m down here!”

I paused, again, in the rain, for what felt like an hour and then walked down.  But before I did, I remember the EXACT thought that went through my head:

”Huh. So this is how I die.”

The guy ended up being perfectly nice, albeit kinda creepy. The books were ok - I mean they were stored in a musty New England storm cellar for years. I think I ended up buying liked $50 worth of stuff. There was a nice copy of ASM #238, that is literally the only highlight I remember - other than the fact that I made it home alive and with all my organs.

Oh and it was absolutely my final Craigslist transaction ever.

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by fmaz

[VintageComics]

On 12/16/2023 at 1:25 AM, zuulioso said:

One of my favorites (sorry so long)...

A Craigslist find out in West Virginia. This was maybe 2012ish. I saw the ad for a large collection split maybe 50/30/20 silver/bronze/copper located deep in West Virginia. I'm in the Baltimore/DC metro area and loved loved loved traveling around looking at collections. This was pre-movie hype and after requesting a list, talking on the phone, and debating on whether or not it was worth the two and a half hour trek out west into the mountains of WVA, to take a look at this collection.

From what I remember, I think the ad said maybe 5k-6k books. I was in the position as a collector looking to complete runs. At the time, I was looking for early Avengers and FF books and he had a bunch. We spoke on the phone and I had hoped for a whole collection purchase, but after talking, I knew going into it he had an unrealistic expectation on prices as he was pricing at NM using some online resource. After some discussion, I had thought we came to an understanding that I was to come to look at some books and not the entire collection.

So, I took a beautiful drive out into the middle of nowhere. The place was a small house on a lonely several acres of land with no houses around it. It ended up being a very small house in a beautiful area in the mountains. When I arrived, I met an older man, maybe late 60s early 70s. He seemed friendly and greeted me kindly if not a bit overly enthusiastically at the door. His energy had me a bit off guard from the beginning. I entered the small house and it was littered with comic boxes in every room. I didn't make it through all of his boxes, but he had already gone through it all and priced it and knew where specific runs were.

Almost immediately, as I was scanning the first box, he told me was that he was selling his collection to fund travel expenses so that he could bring his bride in from an Asian country (I admit forgetting which). He then showed me a picture of someone that appeared to be in their early 20s. I looked at him, then at the picture, and formed some opinions of the situation, but smiled and wished him luck as I continued sifting through books.

As I pulled titles of interest into a pile, I began trying to set the expectation that I would not be interested in the entire collection and thought maybe we could come to a deal for specific books. He seemed open to that. Again, at the time he wanted a number that I thought was far more than reasonable for what I found. There were no keys, but there were some nice upper VFish books that I was looking for.

I think I came up with a preliminary pile and he took it and led me to his computer where he proceeded to look each book up on whatever overpriced website he was using and quoted me the NM price for each. Ugh. I quibbled that the condition was important and the books I chose where not NM. I removed some books and asked to keep sifting. As I was going through a box, he said "I have some chili I made, would you like some?"

Without thinking about it, I thought to myself, "I like chili and I don't want to offend this nice gentleman" so I accepted. After all I was hungry and someone offered me food. He brings me a bowl of his homemade chili while I continue to sift through his collection as he is telling me about the deep love he and his soon to be bride have for each other. The chili was tasty, but not great. I'll cut to the chase. I didn't wake up in a tub with a missing kidney or anything, but in retrospect, it probably wasn't the smartest move.

As I was eating the chili, he came out with a shotgun. Yep. Just out of the blue, he came out and was holding a shotgun. He showed it to me and I was so surprised by this unwelcome turn of events that I don't recall why he was so proud of this weapon or why he was showing it to me, but he handed it to me to admire. So, I went from "Oh , I'm dead" to "He is handing me his gun". So, like a gentleman, I took it, inspected it, and being the non-firearm educated person that I am admired it, turned it over in my hands, and handed it back to him.

Okay. So, here is my pile of books. Now, at this point I wanted to get out of there. I had brought maybe $1500 cash with me and had maybe $350 worth of books that I wanted. I was willing to go up to $500 and $500 is what we ended up settling on, but I started at $300. Pretty gutsy for a guy that just showed me his shotgun because he was not happy about my offer in any way. He wanted $1000 and we ended up in the middle.

Looking back, it was an innocent exchange but certainly one I remember well to this day.

I had an exchange similarly spooky in Toronto, also about a decade ago. It was in a very sketchy part of town and so I told my ex to call 911 if I wasn't back in the car within a few minutes or didn't hear from me. I was there to drop off a book. To make matters worse, they asked me to go around the house to the back entrance. 

When I knocked on the door a large dog was jumping up on the door, scraping it with his claws. It turned out to be a strong Pit Bull. 

I got pretty scared, pretty quickly and remember seeing a spade with a long handle on it by the door and so I made a mental note of grabbing it if I needed some backup in a hurry.

When the guy opened the door I saw claw marks from the dog on the inside of the door reaching all the way up to about 6 feet in height. The inside of the door was destroyed by the dog, who was barking from somewhere inside the house. 

Thankfully, all went smooth, but I was sweating a bit until I got out of that yard. 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by VintageComics

[lizards2]

I don't know if this is a crazy story or not, and I am pretty sure I've told this before. When I was 12-18 I would go live with my sister in Portland, Oregon for the summers and do landscaping work, painting and babysitting for the family. I would also ride the buses all over town to all the shops and conventions. It was back in the days of feral children, that ran wild in the country and the city, and I was one of them.

I don't remember a lot of how I got there, but I must have picked up this guy's work address at a convention or something. He had some Silver Surfers for sale, including 1 and 4. Anyway, I showed up at his workplace one day (this was way, way before cell phones in the 1970's) and it was a sewing sweat shop. He was floor supervisor for a sea of women at sewing machines cranking out clothes or drapes or I don't remember. I don't remember ethnicity, or whether they were actually chained down to their desks. But anyway, it is probably weirder now than it was then? I don't know, but anyway, he had a cardboard box of comics under his desk.

Well, I made it back to my sister's house safely with Silver Surfer 1, 4 and probably other SA books. I have extensive logbooks, so I could probably pin down the exact date, books, age...., if I could find that logbook from the 1970's. I was probably about 16 or 17 at the time.

[Phicks]

Back in the mid to late 80s, when Frank Miller mania was in full swing thanks to Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns, I was in a comic store in London, Ontario, and saw all 4 issues of Ronin on the wall.  I asked to examine them, they were in good shape, the price was reasonable, and I said I’ll take them.

As the middle aged woman proprietor was ringing them through and putting them in a bag, she let out a big sigh, and said “ It’s so sad.   We put together this run of all 4 issues for a local dad who knew nothing about comics, but his son who was in hospital really wanted them, so he asked us to find all 4 issues.  We just called him to say we had a complete set, and he said his son had died, so we could sell them to someone else.”

So reading every single page was haunted by the image of some teenager slowly dying in hospital.  Thanks lady, thanks.

 

[Gaard]

Some random kid kung-fu kicked me off my bike once as I was pedalling to the LCS.  That was cray-cray!

[comicginger1789]

Hmm, I guess knowing a guy with over 60K books...his basement literally has a bookcase that opens up into the walls and behind that is a room that is wall to wall shelves filled with comics. He has some amazing stuff (I have never seen the best of the best, as he keeps that locked up at the bank) but every time I visit him to buy some doubles whenever he decides to sell, I always wish I could stay just a bit longer to really dig through and peruse his collection.

[Ken Aldred]

Looks like I’ve led a sheltered life over here in England, without any of these shotguns, attack dogs, chained sweat shop workers or martial arts assailants.

Quite mundane.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Ken Aldred