You Spin Me Right Round

Getting the obvious out of the way...



I've always said that there's an 80's pop song for every blog post.

On Saturday, there was a music sale at the comic shop.  They had a room full of albums, singles, CD's, tapes, music mags and sheet music for 25 cents each.  That's a price too good to resist, so i had to go.

I don't carry a lot of records in my booths.  Most of what I do have is stuff I have found or that has been given to me.  I sell a few from time to time, and they do serve as a draw to get some people into the booth to check them out.  There are three or four serious music vendors in our mall with booths full of records.  I don't have the knowledge base to really compete with them, so I don't even try.  instead, I look out for freebies and bargains. And the weird stuff that fits in with my overall booth vibe.

So I set off Saturday on a quest for the fun stuff.  Here are some highlights.

How cruel is it that the pattern on your argyles will always clash with the plaid of your tartan?

I have a CD of JP II praying the Rosary set to electronic beats.  He was one happening Pope.

Would you let this man repair your marriage?  I think the cover would be much cooler if he was holding a roll of duct tape.

I want to draw your attention to this line on the cover:

 I'm torn between searching for a Polka Toddlers album and the fear that it might have a tag line on it that says "Formerly the Polka Infants." 

Speaking of show biz families.

My husband had a HUGE crush on David Cassidy when he was younger.

From Popes to Presidents.  It was a well-rounded day.

We close with sweaty mice.  And whatever Goofy is.

 This one actually still has the booklet with it.  Yay!

I got a few other things, but this is the cream of the crop.  Boxed record sets--opera, classical, Christmas, and country--do sell well for me, so I scoop them up whenever I can.  I also got some Christmas albums.

But wait!

There's more!

Tune in tomorrow.

Monday Rambles

FALL IS COMING!

Yesterday the high here was 80.  Yes. 80!  I did some alley exploring for junk for the first time in ages.  So nice.  Temps this week are not supposed to get above 90 here.  I believe Fall may be on the way.  Woo hoo!

To celebrate, I put up a fall wreath in my booth.  It's my only fall decor item right now, but I'm rooting around looking for the hay bales and gourds.

The wreath itself was a freebie find from in the neighborhood.  I had a little trouble getting it off the front door it was nailed to,  but a good determined yank finally brought it right off.

Okay, I'm kidding with that little bit.  It actually came out of a renovation dumpster a couple doors down.  I saw workers filling up a new one last week, when I was on the way to the bus stop, but I was running late.  I checked it later that evening, and the wreath was all I could get out because they had piled a mound of icky old mattresses on top of everything else.  The wreath came out in great shape, though.  Sometimes, you gotta take what you can get and be happy.

The guy who took down our water heater closet told me that all the reno in the area is due to one guy, who is buying up all the old shotguns, gutting them, rehabbing them, and flipping them.  If that's the case, there will be dumpsters for a while yet.  There are a lot of shotguns in this neighborhood.

SPEAKING OF THE BOOTH

I didn't get sales emails for the first three days last week, so I was freaking out.  No gravy!  No potatoes!  No plate!  ACK!

Turned out to be a glitch in the system.  Last week was a pretty strong one, all week long.  Still not all the way where I want it, but the gravy ladle is coming out more and more.  The weekend was especially good. Best one in a while in fact.  I was afraid the nice weather might pull people away, but I did pretty good both days.  It was the first weekend of the state fair to boot!

I'm planning a complete booth overhaul and massive restock that will probably take me two weeks or so to complete.  I'm ready for a new look and I want to connect most of my spaces into one long continuous booth.  I'm still working on the ideas, but I intend to start next week.  I have treatment tomorrow, so this is my rest week.

CHIQUITO TO THE RESCUE

I had a really bad case of the "I don't give a's" last week.  It got progressively worse too.  I started out not giving a shit, and then went downhill from there.  I didn't leave the house.  I didn't blog.  I didn't do nothing.

Then the cat started bringing me mice.  The first two were still alive.  The third one was dead.  At that point, I decided that I'd rather face the world than the building carnage at home.

My sweet little boy is a killer.  (I think he was getting tired of me hanging out at home and bitching.)

RECORD BUYS

Like I said yesterday, there was a music sale at the comic shop yesterday.  Everything was a quarter.  I went looking for oddball and fun and I found it.  More on that tomorrow.  But, for today, a little preview.

I give you Cesar Romero. In all his glory.  Complete with the mustache he refused to shave off to play the Joker on Batman. In TRUE HIGH FIDELITY!

I picked up several albums, but only one CD, which was actually for me.

This is the only Anonymous 4 CD I didn't have. (Except for the newest one.) Well, I used to have it, but it was tossed when our much missed and beloved Himalayan Brianna peed on it.  She expressed her displeasure with the management that way.  This particular bout of ire aimed at me cost me the CD and three comics, one of which I still have to replace.  Believe it or not, she was a total sweetheart, except for this one issue.

SPEAKING OF THE JOKER

Since the topic of Batman just came up, I have to share the most wonderful news!  There's going to be an animated feature based on the show, with Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar reprising their roles.  Do I even have to tell you that I am pumped for this?

Here's the trailer:



Adam West sounds a little rough, but I don't care.  It's still gotta be him.

DOUBLE FEATURE FINALE

It's a special day here at the Ramble.  I'm combining the regular music for Monday with the DVD of the Week. 

I spent some time Saturday night watching several Atomic Betty DVD's I picked up at the Peddlers Mall.  From time to time I like to try and make up for my misspent adulthood of employment and responsibilities by catching up on more recent cartoons that I had to miss the first time around, like Betty.

Quite frankly, it was a lot of fun.  Pop culture always seems to be lacking in heroes for younger girls, and Atomic Betty fits the bill nicely.  The first few episodes are a little rushed and don't quite work, but it evens out over time.  Betty is an every day school girl, who is secretly a Galactic Guardian, protecting the universe from all kind of menaces.  Quite enjoyable.  And kick-ass.  Very kick-ass.

Here's the long version of the theme.  Try getting this out of your head today.



Even better, try this mash-up with Betty and Sailor Moon.  Fun!

Rusties, Crusties, and Dusties! Oh My!

Since I'm on low to no buying right now, there's still no Mazda shot.  I did go to a music sale at the comic shop yesterday, but the oddball goodness I found there would not have made a very interesting shot.  You'll see it later in the week.

In the meantime, here's something for you to marvel at:

I just borrowed the shelf for staging.

Even if I'm not really on the hunt right now, there are still a few booths at the Peddlers Mall that I simply have to check out every time I'm in.  A few of them belong to friends, and I just like to see what treasures they've found lately.  A couple are good sources of good stuff from time to time, usually at great prices.  These goodies came from one of my regular spots.  The whole stash cost less than fifteen bucks!

From top to bottom:  metal gas can, tin picnic basket, rusty metal card drawer, rusty plant older, seriously heavy old handmade wooden tool box.

Retro Y'all!

Julie Andrews is so often praised for her lovely voice, which is much in evidence here.  However, I think this clip also shows off her comedic talents as well.  Watch her facial expressions.  I love the effects in this clip to pieces.  I honestly get bored with the endless onslaught of CGI effects in films and long for the days when something actually had to be physically created to make things happen.  Also, I could use a little of that snap! action around here.  For sure.


PS Dig that awesome doll house!

Please Pass the Gravy!

Booth sales are still in summer slump mode, but it's starting to pick up a bit.  I'm only running 1/3 to 1/2 less than what my daily totals should be, as opposed to last month's 1/2 to 2/3 less.  I'm trying to hang in there right now and not give anything up.  I really don't want to drop a space with fall right around the corner.  I don't think that slump times you know are going to be slump times are the time to make decisions like that.

Truth is my sales are almost exactly what they were this time last year.  I just have two more spaces, which makes a difference.  I had a huge growth spurt in March and April, so I'm expecting that to some back when fall hits into the holidays.

Right now, though, the mix just isn't right.

I look at my sales kind of like a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy.  You want to have the right amount of both so you can have a tasty meal.  I've always made most of my sales from small, lower-priced items, like five bucks and under.  It's the kind of thing that people come to a flea market to find.  Those are my potatoes, if you will.  I need a good-sized mound of them, white and fluffy.

Furniture and other large or higher-priced items are the gravy--that little extra treat on top that makes everything extra special.  You can have your taters without gravy and they'll be okay, but with it, they're fabulous.  You definitely want the tasty gravy.

Now, it's not hard and fast, but you need the right mix of the potatoes and gravy to have the right kind of sales totals--a nice mound of those small dollar sales, topped off with a bit of gravy.  On the really good days, I can look at my report and see the big items and the small ones complimenting each other to create a nice total.  Potatoes and gravy.  Mmmm!

On the off days, I can usually sum up the problem as not enough of one or the other.  It's treat to sell a 50 dollar piece of furniture, but if there are only a few smaller dollar items, then the total is going to be less than what it should be.  A huge ladle of gravy on a tiny dab of potatoes is still edible, but it just doesn't seem right.

On the other hand, a day with good small sales and little to no large action, can still fall short.  A big mound of potatoes with just a little dab of gravy is out of whack.  But on those days when you have super-strong small item sales, topped off with four or five good large items, you've hit the taters and gravy train!

Now, this is not to say that you can't go all the way to one extreme or the other.  I've definitely had some really high dollar sales days where the most expensive thing I sold was five bucks.  I just sold a ton of them.  It's a plate of just potatoes, but I'll take it.  You can take one look at me and pretty much tell that I've never passed up a plate of potatoes in my life.

I've not really had this sort of day, but it is totally possible to have a high dollar day of only high dollar items--a plate of gravy, as it were.  I'd certainly take it.  When I was growing up, my mother and my grandmother both would leave the gravy bowl on the table until all the other dishes were done.  They knew that someone (me) would be coming along to finish off the leftover gravy.  To this day, I love a bowl of cold, leftover gravy.  I know.  I'm weird.

For my experience, however, small items will sell every day.  You just have to get the right amount of them.  The big stuff sells in dribs and drabs.  That's why it's the gravy.  It's extra.  It's special.  There are a lot of vendors who primarily deal in furniture that I outsell all the time with nothing but smalls.

Obviously, this is my own model and thoughts, grown out of my own experiences.  Yours may very well vary.  They probably do.  Switch from a flea market mall to an antique mall, for instance, and the customer expectations change, so the experience and the mix changes.

The trick, which is always hard to pin down, is to figure out how to consistently get that mix right.  Right now, I'm eating enough taters, but way too little gravy.

Retro Y'all!

In a movie full of vibrant, catchy sing along songs, this simple little tune is my favorite.

This one's for Roger Green!

It's not often you find a comic that has a connection to someone you actually know, so when I saw this one at the Big Flea a while back, I had to pick it up.

Blogging buddy and role model Roger Green worked for the company that published Smilin' Ed  and knew the creators well.  I'd been wanting to post this for s while, but decided that today is a good time to do it for two reasons.

First, just to let him know that I'm thinking about him and to send him some cheer.  The anniversary of his father's death was this week.  It was right after my father died that Roger reached out to me and we bonded over having experienced the same type of loss.  He's a good man.

Also, this seemed like a good way to inaugurate a new feature for the blog:  Comic Book Fridays!  Whenever I can remember to do it, I'll be posting something comic book related on Friday.  I hope to talk about some aspects of comics that will be helpful to other junkers, but also to share a bit about my favorites, trivia, etc.

Hope you enjoy it!

PS Check out Roger's blog for thorough, thought-provoking, and humorous posts every day.

Tales from the Highway

Highway 127, that is.  Home of the World's Largest Yard Sale!

I have been wanting to do a little part of it for ages now, so it's about time we made it happen.  The damn road comes within a half hour of Louisville, after all,  People from around here go ever year.

I really didn't want to get out in the traffic and crowds, so we headed to a large stop in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky that boasted over 400 vendors, indoors and out.  There honestly weren't anywhere near that many sellers, but we also went on Sunday.  I could see there being a lot more folks earlier in the week.

I wanted to get to a spot where I could do a lot of shopping, but also get some last day bargains.  I think that definitely happened.  Five minutes after we got there, I was hauling stuff to Mazda.  I really wanted to get several larger pieces, and limit the smalls to either items that I don't have any (or many) of or things that were way too cheap to pass up.  I did pretty good on both fronts.

This amazing rusty old trunk had all kinds of vintage papers in the bottom of it.  I'll have a little more on them later.

It also had four different price tags on it--one on top of the other--reflecting price changes throughout the sale.  The one of the bottom was for ten dollars.  On top of that was an eight dollar sticker.  Then a five dollar sticker.  Then a seven dollar sticker.  Yes, they went back up on the price again!  I don't know what that's about.  I offered five and they took it.

This chair and plant stand came from a woman who said that they had just put her mother-in-law in long term care and were selling her things.  She was distressed that she still had so many large items left, so I tried to help.

My school desk inventory has dwindled down to two, so I let myself get this puppy for five bucks.  It's one of the biggest and sturdiest I have ever found.  My big ole butt can fit in it!

And finally, the smalls.  There were dollar tables and quarter tables and free tables galore, and I was right there in the middle of them.

You know me and the Fisher Price toys.  Can't pass 'em by.  The tall one is called a "Tumble Tower."  You move the marbles from level to level by pulling and pushing on the levers.  My brother had one of these when he was very young.  I enjoyed playing with it too.

This was the only book I bought, believe it or not.

The bridle and bit were in the rusty trunk, along with the black ledger book.  Some of the pages are a little water damaged, but it's still cool.  That trunk yielded some of the best finds.  The small things are printer's blocks for photos.

I really don't need any bottles right now, but these were only a quarter each.  I know everyone likes to go for the older bottles that may have held medicine or liquor, but I have a real soft spot for every day consumer containers of useful products, particularly when they still have the labels.  I remember my mother using Dippity Do in a jar like that.  I was most tickled to get both a glss Bayer aspirin bottle and a glass St Joseph's aspirin bottle, with caps.  The stopper in the larger One-A-Day bottle is glass.  The white bottle with the pump is for Jergen's lotion.  My grandmother always had a bottle of that on her dresser.  I also got some smaller jars that I am keeping to put buttons and such in. 

I really liked wandering around and looking at all the goods for sale.  It reminded me of the roadside country flea markets I grew up with.  I've spent time at those kind of places with both my parents, my grandparents, and even my great grandparents.  Good memories.

The heat was just awful, as it has been most days here, with stifling humidity.  I'm glad we didn't plan on doing any more stops.  I'm not sure I could have taken it.  I was worn out by the time we got home from dealing with the heat.

I don't know that I'll ever be expanding my 127 shopping beyond that one stop.  I prefer my highway sales happen in cooler months, like the Highway 60 in October.  Nevertheless, a good time was had by all.

By the Power of Grayskull!

This is another edition of "Stuff I Haven't Shown You Yet."  This time, I'm finally going to reveal the much-hinted at coolest find from our last junk set out.  Hold on to your hats folks!

There is a vintage store not far from the house that always yields a few good pieces of furniture during set outs.  When I was a vendor there, I used to raid the trash cans all the time. I still go by there every so often on trash night and check things out.

The alley that runs behind the store dead-ends abruptly.  It's also very narrow, making it hard to turn Mazda around.  A couple of doors down from the store, I saw some scattered pieces of a what looked like a castle lying in a heap.  Jokingly, I asked Keith:  "Is that Castle Grayskull?"

I got out of the van to guide Keith, so he could back up and turn Mazda around.  At this point, I looked at that pile again and saw the figures!  I ran to the van and said:  "It is!  It is Castle Grayskull!" and proceeded to scoop it all up.

This is a decent set of figures. There are sixteen all together, along with one guy who is not in the picture because he's missing both his legs. Orko is missing, along with Skeletor and Battle Cat, it's still a great set.  He-Man himself is here, along with Prince Adam, his other identity.  

Sadly, the playset itself is incomplete, so no Castle Grayskull pics, since some really major parts are missing.  Sniff!  I only have part of it, so I am totally not sure what to do with it.

On the other hand, there are also several vehicles.

I also found one of the mini-comics which came with the toys.  I already have several of these, but nowhere near the full set.

This is hands down the most exciting thing that I have ever found while doing the junk hunt on the curbs of our neighborhood.  Sheer awesomeness.

If you will excuse me, I have to go dig out my He-Man DVD sets.  I feel an afternoon of cartoons coming on. Believe it or not, Keith didn't get the Castle Grayskull reference.  These mixed nerd-normal marriages are rough some times.  I feel like making him watch the cartoons with me, to further his education.

Monday Rambles

RUNNING LATE

It may be Tuesday when you read this, but come Hell or high water, it's going up tonight.  I was kind of tuckered out from the jaunt yesterday, so I stayed in and rested.  I've been writing a little bit at a time through the day.  I spilled coffee on my keyboard and mouse, which killed the mouse and sent me scrambling around the house to find another one, further delaying me. 

MY WHAT A CLEAN EDDIE!

I guess I'll crawl out of the shower and do this week's ramble. I've been in there ever since Friday when we finally got the new hot water heater and turned the agua back on.  I've never been more grateful for a material item in my life.  I finally feel really, truly clean again.

Also this:

The kitty's happy.  We're happy.  Everyone's happy.  And all is right with the world.

CAN YOU HANDLE IT???

Cuteness overload alert!  Pink Hello Kitty cowgirl boots!

Seen in a friend's booth at the Peddlers Mall

Also, Hello Kitty does sushi.

A VIRGIN NO MORE!

Like I said in yesterday's post, I finally made it over to part of the 127 sale. (What exactly did you think this section would be about???)  I still have to take pics of everything, so I'm holding off on the full details for another couple of days.  I will say this:  MANOMAN WAS IT HOT! 

Otherwise, I am back on my shopping moratorium, until the Labor Day Big Flea.

TREASURES

Speaking of moratoriums and such, how about a couple of things I haven't shown you?

I found this late 50's edition of a Masonic encyclopedia in a trash pile during set out.  The cover is kind of scuffed, because someone tossed it on the pavement in the alley where I found it. Interestingly, a couple of years ago, I found a late 50's edition of Morals and Dogma not too far from the spot when this one was found. 

I looked for an entry on the Illuminati, but there wasn't one, probably because this was the second of two volumes and started with the M's.

I've come to the realization that I could very easily be collecting flower frogs, if I'm not careful.  I'm kind of fascinated with them, especially the unique ones like these.

I found this wooden hashtag at a church sale.  The seller said that I had just missed the @ sign, which someone had just bought.  I'm debating tracking down some wooden letters and making a big sign that says:

#getyourbuttinthisboothandbuyallofmycrap

AGAINST ALL ODDS

Last Tuesday was treatment day, and it was full of snags, which is highly unusual.  Typically, we are in at 8 and out by 12:30, with the longest part being the wait for the lab results and the wait for the pharmacy to send the drug over.  We were kind of on a tight schedule, because we were under the (mistaken) impression that we would be getting the water heater that afternoon.

So of course, my port was clogged.  No labs out of that puppy!  They tried everything to get it to work, with no luck.  So they sent for the drug that unblocks ports, which added an extra pharmacy wait.  To keep on schedule, we all decided to try one of my raggedy-ass veins for the blood draw for the labs.  Two sticks.  No blood.  Not my day.

They injected my port with the declogger, and sent me down to the clinic to wait.  It takes 45 minutes for that stuff to work, on top of the wait I was going to have for the labs (once they got them drawn) and the drug.  By that point, we were making back up plans for Keith to leave me at the clinic and go home to meet the plumber.  We figured it was probably inevitable.

Except that it wasn't.  My labs came back so fast that I couldn't believe it, and the wait for the drug only took about half as long as normal.  We were actually walking out the door at 12:30, just like always.

Of course, we didn't get the water heater that day, but I'll still take a small victory. 

SAD NEWS

The Go-Gos are on their farewell tour.  My favorite band of all time is calling it quits.  I guess seeing them live is one item that won't get crossed off my bucket list.  I'm kinda bummed.

Admittedly, it hasn't been the same in recent years, since Kathy Valentine got let go, but I was still holding out hope for one more album.  Hopefully, they'll all come back together again, when/if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finally pulls its head out of its ass and admits them.  Hello, people!  We're only talking the first all female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the charts.

HAPPY NEWS

On the other hand, there's an awesome set coming out next month with alternate takes, remasters, out-takes, and just general treasures from the classic Trio albums recorded by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and my supremely beloved Emmylou Harris.

They can't perform together any more, since Ronstadt's Parkinson's prevents her from singing, so it's wonderful to have this tribute to the beautiful harmonies the three of them made for decades.

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Mural on the wall of a bar down the street from the house.  The place is called Kaiju, which is the Japanese word for those big-ass classic monsters, like Godzilla.  The side panel used to say "The end is near, so have a beer."  I don't know why they took that off.

AND FINALLY

How about some music for Monday (night)?

What's in Mazda?

Very late in the day Mazda post, but we just got back from our little jaunt on Highway 127.  (Well, we did stop first and leave this all at the Peddlers Mall.)

I'll have more details and stories and such in a couple of days.  In the meantime, take a gander in Mazda and tell me what you think. 

Retro Y'all!

Watch Toto in this clip.  He's so intently watching off stage for his next cue that it's really endearing.  It's so cute watching him get ready to raise his paw over and over.

PS WE HAVE WATER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Little Hell on the Prairie

"I would have made a terrible pioneer."

That is the conclusion I come to every time we have to go without power due to a storm or whatever.  The reason I don't go camping with Keith any more than I do (which is very rarely) is because I do not like roughing it.  When I do go, my one rule is that the campground has to have a shower and real toilets.

In other words, I don't like going without water. So, guess what?

We still don't have water!!!!!!

It's a long story, but it's part of the perils of living in a 100 year old shotgun house that you bought from the family that had been there practically since the beginning who added the whole back end of the house on themselves some time around 1950.  Or 1970.  Or something a while ago.

The new water heater won't fit into the little closet, in part because the old one won't fit through the door to come out!  Yes, in this family there is something that is stuck in the closet.  Ironic, isn't it?  I have a theory that the closet was built around the hot water heater after it was installed.

Oh, yeah.  It's also not up to code, since there is not enough space around the water heater.  Since the family did it themselves, they never had it inspected, which is how they got away with that.  I'm still pondering how that did not get caught when the home inspection was done before we bought the place, especially since several other of their DIY jobs were identified and had to be corrected.

Keith is filling buckets of water at work so we can flush, and we're handling everything else with gallons of water from the store and no rinse cleaning products, which make my hair all stringy and itchy.

We're running through our friends now to find someone who can take the walls down for us, so the water heater can be installed.  We're trying to avoid the expense of a contractor for such a small job.  Hopefully, we'll have water by the weekend, next Monday at the latest.

In the meantime, I'm starting a club for reluctant, irate, and slightly incompetent pioneers.

Stuff I Haven't Shown You (Comicon Edition)

I've never been good at doing posts in a totally timely manner, which is why I've ended up with stuff that I haven't shown you in the first place.  In other words, it's not really that surprising that I went to the Derby City Comic Con last month, but am just now getting around to writing about it.  Of course, given that the really biggie Comic-Con just happened in San Diego, I could argue that this is kind of timely, but I won't.

When I first started attending cons, I was really into the whole fandom scene.  I'd  go to panels and showings and all that stuff.  Of course, I'd spend a lot of time on the con floor, browsing and shopping and what not.  I even went to the San Diego con and worked booths a couple of times!  Those days are long behind me.

Nowadays, I treat cons like the Big Flea--opportunities to shop.  There are lots of comics to be had and lots of bargains to be found.  Usually, my priority at a con is to fond stuff for me and my collection, or at least stuff I want to read and then sell.  Finding stuff that goes right to the booth is a bonus.

Since I went on Sunday, I didn't take any pictures.  There weren't that many folks in costume on the last day.  I didn't see him, but I know Spider-Man was there, because I saw his van parked outside.

He must have been doing some serious shopping, since he's parked in front of the bank across the street from the convention center.

Speaking of serious shopping, this was my deal of the day.

Five HARDCOVER graphic novels for 20 bucks!  The two in front retail for 35 each!  There's a dealer there who buys things on clearance from the distributor and then sells them for five bucks each at the con.  If you buy four, you get one free!  Lots of interesting reading here.

By the way, I'm limiting this post mainly to the stuff I bought for me.

I always buy the original Classics Illustrated when I can find them cheap.  I lucked into these for 50 cents each!  I have so many of these now that I often end up buying something I already have.  In those cases, the duplicates go right to the booth.  This was one of the rare cases when I actually found a bunch of issues that I did not already have.

I picked up this series because it looked interesting.  The covers did what good comic covers are supposed to do, grabbed my attention.  You'd be surprised how rare that is these days.

Coverless comics from the sixties.  Comics without covers are not really worth that much, so they're usually pretty cheap.  I pick them up and use them as place holders in my collection, especially if they're from series--like the one of the right--that I don't have many of.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one.  On the one hand, I love, love, love the older, extra thick, 25 cent giant issues, from any company.  On the other hand, I'm not really that wild about the old MGM cartoon characters.  I'm much more of a Warner Brothers and Disney kind of guy when it comes to classic cartoons.  This one might go to the booth.

Stuff I got because it looked interesting (and it was cheap!)  A whole lot of the comics I got came from a dude that has a new shop in town that I hadn't heard of before.  It's not far from the house.  I need to get over there and check it out.  Another dealer that I got some stuff from looked so familiar that it drove me crazy trying to think of who he was.  Finally, I remembered that he's one of the guys I run into at every yard sale where they have comics.  And that he annoys the living shit out of me.

A few issues from what I consider to be the greatest era of super-hero comics--the Silver Age! (roughly late 50-s to early 70's)  I got all of these from a guy that I see all the time at the Big Flea.  I was kind of surprised that he didn't recognize me, since he always knows who I am there.

ROMANCE COMICS!!!!!  Be still my heart.  Sigh!  The cover of the one of the left is particularly striking.

One booth buy that I will show here is this lot of toys.

They were all in a box marked "Show Special!  One dollar each!"  I circled it all afternoon and plotted.  And watched.  And counted.  And calculated.  And waited.  Finally, during the last half hour of the con, as folks were starting to pack up, I went back to that booth, picked up the whole box and asked about an offer for the lot.

I was a little taken aback when the dealer kind of defensively grabbed the large Batman out of the box before answering.  He asked me what I was thinking as far as a price.  I offered 12 bucks.  I had been planning to go 10, but the way he grabbed that Batman made me think I probably shouldn't lowball.  At that, he put the Batman back in the lot (whew!) and countered with 15.  I took it, since I was figuring that was where we'd end up anyway.  There's still plenty of room in that for me to make some money.

The Fantastic Four toys are mostly from the first FF movie. The Doctor Doom has two little spots on his back. 

If you place your finger over them, you complete the electrical circuit and he lights up.

DOOM ON!

DOOM OFF!

 The current is so mild that you don't even feel it.  I used to have a Pikachu that would shout its name when you completed the circuit.  Nerd stuff is fun stuff.

I'll keep a couple of the Robin figures, for my dresser top collection.  They're all from the late 80's.

A plethora of Boy Wonders!  (Boys Wonder?)

I'm calling this dude "Fashion Plate Hulk."

Waaah!  Hulk rip Brogans!

This summer started off very slow for comics, and I was getting worried.  With the Comicon, I was finally able to lay in a good stash for the booth.  There was a sale last week at the comic shop that helped too.  I came away from that with a large lot for the booth and, of course, some for me.

My stash includes this nice batch of 1970's Superman comics.  For 50 cents each!  What a deal.  It always amazes me when I wade into a nerd herd and people are passing stuff like this up.  It seems like most of the younger collectors are only interested in the most current stuff, so a lot of the older stuff like this gets passed by, even when it's dirt cheap.  It's kind of sad, because these are some really great comics.

On the other hand, that leaves more for me! 

Day Late and a Dollar Short Non-Ramble

Apologies all, but there's no time to ramble this morning. 

We've been without water since Friday (!), when our hot water heater gave up the ghost.  Water was just pouring out of the bottom.  It's so old that the valve on top that is supposed to cut off supply to the heater wouldn't budge, so we had to cut off water to the house.

We thought the new water heater was coming on Saturday, but apparently Lowe's plumbing department doesn't know how their installation department works--or doesn't on weekends.

I'm moving booths today (more on that later), so I have to run.  I took a quick wash up using some of Keith's camping supplies.  I'll do a proper ramble later in the week.

The worst part about having no water is trying to explain to Chiquito that the bathroom faucet isn't working.  He doesn't seem to believe it.

Poor guy!