Rollcall for all those whos parents threw their books out.

[NoImSpartacus]

How many of you had lost books when you were a kid cause Mom threw out your books.

 

How did it happen?

What was the rarest book you lost?

What books if any were you able to save?

 

Okay-----

Let me start.

I was 9 years old and inherited about 12 stacks totaling about 700 comics from all my cousins who no longer collected them. They sat in my room behind the dresser cabinet for about 5 years. Here is where the problem came in. My Dad used to buy me military tanks models. After a while I owned about 20 of these one foot long models that I had lined up all along the tops of my dressers. Mom used to like to come in and dust my room. The problem was every time she would dust, she would knock the machine guns or some other piece off the top of one of the tanks. I got mad cause she was slowly destroying all my tanks The tanks got filled with more dust as time went on because its hard to dust around all the small pieces. Moms get sick of dust after while I guess. To my great dismay, I came home from school one day and all my tanks according to my Mom where quote "Put Away". She mentioned she also took the liberty of cleaning out and "Putting Away" all the old junk paper and magazines in the bottom dresser. I realized after not finding them that putting away meant "Thrown Out". My mini mini mile high collection was Put Down at the age of 13 with Amazing Spiderman #s 1 thru 32 gone along with a pile of ECs and lower numbered Supermans, Flashes and Hulks. Have any others of you lost big in the childhood cleanout?

 

Tell us all your story and what great books were destroyed. What books by any chance were saved?

 

 

[awe4one]

Step-Mom decided that 13 was too old for me to keep reading comics. Took them to the local comic store, A&M Comics (then located in North Miami), and got a total of $7.50 for the lot of about 400+ or so.

 

In that lot (grades are approximate as it's been awhile):

 

FN Adventure Comics #247

FF #19-65 most in FN/VF, #78-160 or so most in VF/NM (I kept these and bought them in the best condition I could as I loved FF as a kid)

X-Men GS #1, 94-120 VF/NM

Various Hulks including #181 in VF/NM

Sporatic run of Avengers starting with #28 to include #57 and the Adams run in VF

Lots of Adams Batman in FN

 

There were others but you all get the point. Had my Stepmother look at an Overstreet in the early 90s and showed her how much the AC #247 was worth then. She apologized profusely....

 

 

Jim

 

 

[minutekev@50]

Not from personal experience, but I think my father had a pretty good collection of comics (Bats and Supes) as a little boy in the 40s and when he came home from the Army they were gone, tossed out by his stepfather. (I think he had the rookie Mantle card also!)

Since I started collecting as a boy and he realized the prices old comics bring, my collection has as strict hands-off policy. He even acts as a security guard, keeping away any visiting family members well away from my room and my closet...

And yet he still squirms in his seat when I purchase a relatively expensive book. I showed him the Avengers 4 (VG/F) I brought from Metropolis for $350 and he almost s**t a brick...

God, if I had purchased a NM copy, I'd probably given him a heart attack...

[jonnydouble]

My parents decided that my 3 storage boxes of long forgotten comics was taking up too much room in their 5 bedroom home in N.Y., so they called a guy who had an add in the local paper who gladly offered $150.00 for my 900 gold/silver DC's....Thank God they had the sense to call me first....I sent them a check for $150.00 and had them fed-ex them to my house in Florida....that as about 3 years ago and it was the catalyst that brought me back into the hobby.

 

J.D.

 

[minutekev@50]

My parents decided that my 3 storage boxes of long forgotten comics was taking up too much room in their 5 bedroom home in N.Y., so they called a guy who had an add in the local paper who gladly offered $150.00 for my 900 gold/silver DC's....Thank God they had the sense to call me first....I sent them a check for $150.00 and had them fed-ex them to my house in Florida....that as about 3 years ago and it was the catalyst that brought me back into the hobby.

 

J.D.

 

Five bedrooms and nowhere to store three boxes?!?

But you know it makes me want to put an ad in the local paper and hope somebody leaves the barn door open....

 

[NewtSamson]

tHIS HAPPENED LAST WEEK:

my friend had a VF copy of Fantastic Four #48 that he was going to go back home and bring back to college to show to me.

When he arrived home he found out that his folks sold all his comics at a garage sale for like a quarter each.

If that happened to me, next place you'd see me would be on the national news........if you catch my drift.

[NoImSpartacus]

so they called a guy who had an add in the local paper who gladly offered $150.00 for my 900 gold/silver DC's....Thank God they had the sense to call me first....I sent them a check for $150.00 and had them fed-ex them to my house

 

Wow, looks like Jennydouble was the only one who got a save out of all of us so far. Lets see 150 divided by 900. What is that, about 16 cents a piece. That was a real save on that lot.

 

Great to hear that this one worked out!!!!

[NoImSpartacus]

Gave you all 5 stars. Its the least we all can do after losing all our books!!!!

 

 

[COI]

I was pretty lucky. My Dad was the one who pushed comics on to me, and encouraged me to buy and read as much as I could. He would even buy me some "wall books" at $10-$20 a pop, which seemed like a lot to me then. My Mom wasn't crazy about them, but she tolerated it. No one ever touched my comics. But even if they had, it was mid-80's stuff and wouldn't have been a huge loss anyway. I'm sure I would have been a furious 8 year old at the time, but they're all easily replaceable now.

[jbud73]

My father was the first person to take me to a comic store when I was 8 years old, he thought it was cool cause he read comics as a kid as well. When I was about 15 I asked my Dad what he used to collect, he said that he inherited some Detective comics from his older brother and collected those, he liked Classics Illustrated alot and was a big fan of the Flash.

 

He said that my grandparents would rip them up alot when he was a kid as well, but he managed to save a few until he moved out when they got thrown out.

 

I showed him a price guide with some pictures, of the books to see if he would remember them, when he saw the prices, and this was 10 years ago, he his hair out and got mad and didn't wanna talk about it. A few days later he showed me this old square bound legal size ledger that accountants would keep records in the 40s and 50s. It had a list of all the comics he had as a kid up until he stopped buying at the age of 12ish.

 

I literally passed out and this post has got me thinking. As I know that the ledger is still in the basement somewhere (I hope) I'll go look fo rit tonight and see if I can post what books he had, though from what I remmeber it might be too painful and I can't ask him to go digging for it as he would get upset again. Man just to have one of those old detectives, lets just say I remember the ledger having an entry that had the books his older brother had given him, they were #'s UNDER 20

[comicwiz]

The bitter irony of my story is that a copy of Zap Comix 0 was ripped in front of me becasue my mom happened to find it in my room one day. I was 12 years old, and needless to say, my mom didn't think the comic was appropriate for a kid my age. The part of this story that sucks rocks is that the book belonged to my older brother. He was not at all thrilled when I laid the news on him.

 

But the funniest/ironic part, for those who have never seen this comic, is that the rear cover actually has an ad which is a tribute to the very subject of this post:

 

 

 

[mrwoogieman]

Okay, Here's the story from my father. He was a big comic collector back in the day (late 40's-early to mid-50's). He kept his comics stacked flat on the last two shelves of a bookcase in his mom's apartment. The cat slept on the shelf just under the top of the bookcase (above the comics). They finally get a telephone, which they put on the top of the bookcase. The first time the phone rang, the cat was sleeping underneath it, it woke up with a start, bumped its head in the shelf above, and P***ED all over the comics below!! My dad begged his mom to just throw out the ones that were on top, but she refused and chucked the whole batch! My dad never recovered and never really collected again.

 

It must have really traumatized him because through all the years of my buying comics when I was living at home, he never told me that story, I only just heard it from him a couple of years ago.

 

As for my own story, I sold my entire collection when I was starting law school to an old employer of mine (10+ years ago). I just recently started to collect again, and I asked him about my collection; he told me the comics have sat untouched in the long boxes I gave to him and that I could have my collection back for what he paid for it ten years ago! ----- Sometimes They Come Back!

 

[NoImSpartacus]

The cat slept on the shelf just under the top of the bookcase (above the comics). They finally get a telephone, which they put on the top of the bookcase. The first time the phone rang, the cat was sleeping underneath it, it woke up with a start, bumped its head in the shelf above, and P***ED all over the comics below!!

 

 

This was great. !!! Its just typical of some of the things that happened back then. I got lucky in that my very young nephew got a hold of an early Astonishing Tales I had on my dresser and decided he wanted to change what the monster looked like on the cover. It was real lucky. He was drawing with the magic marker all over the monster but luckily it was on the plastic comic bag and not the comic inside.

[NoImSpartacus]

tHIS HAPPENED LAST WEEK:

my friend had a VF copy of Fantastic Four #48 that he was going to go back home and bring back to college to show to me.

When he arrived home he found out that his folks sold all his comics at a garage sale for like a quarter each.

If that happened to me, next place you'd see me would be on the national news........if you catch my drift.

 

Back when we were kids or early teens it was one thing to lose your books. Most of us didnt really realize worth back then. To lose the books now is a different matter. In all honesty. My sympathies to your friend. I know how I would feel if this happened to me now.

[Smokinghawk]

My mom trashed by run of Conan the Barbarian after she decided to review the content. What she reviewed, in fact, was the single issue of the movie adaptation, which included a mild representation of the sex scene with the Witch. She made a big display of storming through the living room where I was practicing the cello and tearing it dramatically in two. "Ths is just TRASH!" she said; "it's just evil!" (actual quote).

 

She then destroyed the rest of my Conan comics (which was all I collected at the time) and forbade me from buying comics anymore.

 

After it all died down, I returned to buying comics anyway, but I avoided Conan (or snuck it).

 

I think it dawned on her that riding my bike several miles to Tattooed Lady Comics and being obsessed with books instead of drugs and violence and video games was not a bad outcome for her son.

 

Today she's quite impressed with my collection because she knows what some of the books are worth, and because I turned out a decent human being.

 

[Mister_Comics]

I can't participate in this thread.

 

My parents made me read comics.

[blutobc]

Okay, my story goes that I had a few hundred bronze marvels that I had gotten from a cigar/book store(the only place in town to find marvels for some reason). I stored them by just throwing them in a storage closet. No bags, boards...not evening stacking them up together. Yes, this was before I ever knew the things were worth anything....I just like reading them over and over and even tracing the cover trying to learn how to draw. And of course my Mom hating having them all over the house.

 

Anyway, when I got to Jr. High School age, comics just didn't seem cool anymore, so I just stopped buying them(Mom was thrilled). A couple of years later I caught a glimpse of a interesting cover at the local Jiffy Market. Brought it home and found it enjoyable and put it in with the rest of the old comics. Of course it was Giant Size X-Men #1. When my Mom found out that I had started buying comics again she said to clean out the closet or they were all going in the trash....yeah right. Got home from school the next day and they were gone, nada, zip ....She had cleaned house. I shrugged and thought I would miss them but it was my fault. Didn't buy another comic until X-Men #120...which was also the time when I found out what all those other comics had been worth.

 

Since then I became what I felt was a serious collector and have obtained 12,000 issues....one book at a time(moderns, bronze, silver, and one lonely GA book).

[FlyingDonut]

Here's a better story.

 

I've been collecting since 1975. My parents were always saying "its just a phase, you'll grow out of it." Clearly, I didn't.

 

So FINALLY, it dawns on my mother that old comics are worth something. My mother is a flea market hound, so she starts to buy comics for me at flea markets. She of course now buys everything, which follows Sturgeons Law of 90% of everything being junk.

 

So I tell her "Mom, this is great, but you need to stop buying everything you see. Only buy comics with a COVER price of 30 cents or less." She says OK, will do.

 

Fast forward.

 

I get an envelope from my mom yesterday.

 

Open it up.

 

Pictures of my kids with Papa. Newspaper clippings from the hometown paper (Mom's big on newspaper clippings from the hometown paper). And four comics she bought at a flea market for $1 each. They were all pretty beat up, G/G+ or so.

 

Amazing Adult Fantasy 14

Tales of Suspense 10

Fantastic Four 6

Amazing Spider-Man 2

 

Mom's getting a big dinner next week after the Chicago show.

 

[icecube-migration]

I got home from school, only to see my comics out by the trashcan. I gathered them up, put them back in my room and told my mom not to go in my room again...ED

[ninanina]

Here's a better story.

 

I've been collecting since 1975. My parents were always saying "its just a phase, you'll grow out of it." Clearly, I didn't.

 

So FINALLY, it dawns on my mother that old comics are worth something. My mother is a flea market hound, so she starts to buy comics for me at flea markets. She of course now buys everything, which follows Sturgeons Law of 90% of everything being junk.

 

So I tell her "Mom, this is great, but you need to stop buying everything you see. Only buy comics with a COVER price of 30 cents or less." She says OK, will do.

 

Fast forward.

 

I get an envelope from my mom yesterday.

 

Open it up.

 

Pictures of my kids with Papa. Newspaper clippings from the hometown paper (Mom's big on newspaper clippings from the hometown paper). And four comics she bought at a flea market for $1 each. They were all pretty beat up, G/G+ or so.

 

Amazing Adult Fantasy 14

Tales of Suspense 10

Fantastic Four 6

Amazing Spider-Man 2

 

Mom's getting a big dinner next week after the Chicago show.

 

Bet when the kid finds out what his mom did with his comics, he's gonna be a bit upset.

 

And, in your case Donut, it's nice to have a mom that understands. Congratulations.