An Uncanny Find

I collect X-Men comics. It started when I was young and I liked the tv show. My mom started buying me comics for my birthday and Christmas. I had a picture of Rogue on my bedroom wall. And an old school poster of the whole X-Team. I enjoyed reading them, but I was a kid and I didn't have a lot of money to be spending so while I treasure my collection, I didn't have many a huge amount.

I got back into collecting during high school, but it was never a huge thing.

Fast forward several years. Graduate from college, get a real job, have actual money to spend.



So I've been trying to complete my collections. My biggest goal had been completing the second series, the "adjective-less" X-Men that started in 1991. I had a lot of the early issues and was only missing an issue here and there. I quickly was able to complete that run until X-Men (and New X-Men) became X-Men Legacy.

I moved onto Uncanny where I had more holes and shorter runs. I've been trying to score on ebay for lots of Uncanny X-Men but there are lots of us trying to complete collections and it can be difficult getting what you want for what you want to pay.

My boyfriend collects boyscout patches and often puts ads on Craigslist. He's had a decent about of luck. So a few weeks ago I put an ad on Craigslist for X-Men Comics.

I had a few early bites of people trying to sell me comics at book value. I can buy them off ebay for cheaper than that so I passed. I had others trying to sell me other comics they collected and I wasn't interested in that either.

Time went by.

Then I had a guy e-mail me. He told me he had a ton of stuff and asked if I was interested. I e-mailed him back asking what he had and what he wanted for it. He didn't know what he had, other than it was 2 long boxes of X-Men titles. He wanted $1.50 each or $.50 if I took the whole lot.

I had things going on at work so I didn't respond right away so the guy e-mailed me again. Said he'd sell them to me for $.25 each but I needed to take them all.

I called him up and said I'd come take a look. Honestly, I was a little leary about it because I'm only looking for Uncanny and a few from the second series. On the phone however he sounded dissapointed because he'd contacted a comic shop in town and they'd told him they would only give him $.05 a title, and told me that he might be willing to sell the comics to me for $.10-$.15 each.

I bribed the boyfriend with the promise of dinner to come with me and we went to this guy's house.

As it turns out he cleans out foreclosed houses and stumbled on a HUGE amount of comics. He had 11 long boxes (2 of which were X-Men). He had found them in a home and thought he'd try to sell them instead of throwing them out. It turns out Goodwill didn't really want the comics and the comic book stores didn't want to pay him much for the comics.


I briefly looked through the boxes. It looked promising, but there were a lot of the "other" titles as well.

So I asked the guy- how much?

I snagged the pair for $50. There are about 175 Uncanny, 150 X-Men (2nd Series) aka New X-Men and X-Men Legacy, and tons of others.

I spent the better part of my night sorting through.

The original owner would read them and put them in a box. No bags, no boards, no order.

The guy I bought them from said that Marvel was mixed with DC, Dark Horse, Image... etc, etc...

Sooo many needs have been satisfied from this. I have 10 years of Uncanny X-Men. The run starts at about 320 and goes up to 500. A few issues missing here and there, but not many...

My own rule is not to pay more than $1 for the newer X-Men, and it came down to about $.08 a comic. I think I did pretty well. :)

Where have I been?

I'm a terrible blogger. Oh well.

I've been busy moving and dealing with the old rental company. At the beginning of this month the ceiling started leaking sewer water. I came home one Saturday morning and it was dripping. I cleared out the bathroom and threw all of my towels in the wash because they were very EW.

So I called the emergency pager to let my rental company know what was going on at 11:30. I called at 11:50, 12:30, 12:50, 1:50, 2:50, and finally at 3:50. Nothing. I even went across the hall to ask my neighbor to call in case the rental company had put me on the blacklist and was ignoring me. But they didn't respond to him either.

Finally, at 5:30 I get a call. Turns out the EMERGENCY PAGER wasn't working, so they were "checking messages throughout the day". First- let me say this. If they had been checking messages they would have gotten my message at 11:30 and not waited 6 hours to get back to me.

So I explain the situation and they say they need to call their guy "Ed" and they'll get back to me. I wait. I get a call about 45 minutes later saying Ed doesn't want to come out today to take care of it but he'll be there first thing on Sunday. I calmly explain that sewage water is leaking into my bathroom and I think its an emergency that needs to be addressed right away. They tell me if the ceiling collapses to call them back. Seriously. I'm only an emergency if the ceiling collapses. This is the type of rental company I have.

So I can't stay in my apartment without a bathroom so I went and stayed with the boyfriend. I come back on Sunday and the ceiling is still wet although not dripping, and sewage water is still covering my bathroom. I call and ask when they'll be by to clean up. Nothing. I've called several times, sent lots of e-mails, and still no response.

This rental company is awful. They are slum lords.

They won't respond to me. About anything.

But I've moved and I love the new place! :) More on that later!

Evil Rental Company

A letter to my evil rental company:

Yesterday on my way home from work I received a call from an employee of XXXX named Sarah. Sarah was kind enough to let me know that XXXX was going to be working in my apartment taking care of a maintenance issue and was asked to remove any of my personal belongings that I didn’t want to be bothered or damaged. I was pleasantly surprised that XXXX was notifying me before entering my apartment and giving me an opportunity to move things out of their way. On several previous occasions maintenance has entered without notifying me and they have left a mess.

When I arrived home my bathroom was a disaster. Maintenance had already been there. Many of my personal things had been removed from the shelf that they are stored on and were left on my floor. The floor was covered in grease, dirt and debris. The maintenance men that were in the apartment tracked mud and dirt through my apartment and my rugs.

When I called XXXX’s office and notified them of this issue I was told that the mess had been left because they were coming back. While I understand that XXXX needs to enter the apartment at times to perform maintenance it is unacceptable and inexcusable for your staff to leave a mess for me to come home to. To make matters worse the mess was left in the only bathroom I have. This is the third time that XXXX has entered my apartment and not cleaned up after they completed their maintenance activities. The previous two occasions were July 8, 2008 and once on Aug. 14, 2007. After each of those occasions XXXX was notified of this issue.

I understand that there is a maintenance issue that needs to be taken care of, however, it is frustrating to have to come home from work and clean up someone else’s mess. I do not think that you would allow a contractor into your home to perform work and not make them clean up after they completed their work. Please show me the same courtesy in the future and ensure your maintenance staff cleans up after they have finished their work in my apartment.

I sent this first thing this morning and have recieved no response. Obviously my rental company isn't XXXX.... I'll fill you in once I finally escape. 27 days and counting.

I fully expect to go home today and find they've ripped my bathroom apart and that there's more mud and grease all over the place. Seriously. I'd bet $100 on it.

Wanted to Share...

In my earlier moodiness I neglected to say how EXCITED I am about the new print I ordered from Wall Bank.



I hope it doesn't show up while I'm away at the beach.

I doubt it will.

It'll be going in my bedroom somewhere when I move.

I don't suppose I've mentioned going away to the beach, have I? Well I am. With my mom. I have uber amounts of hotel points from work. So I am cashing in and going to enjoy the beach. The sound of the ocean, the smell of the salt and sand... I leave on Sunday. Yay!

I have mentioned that I'm moving though. Less than 1 month... 28 days to be exact. But who's counting...

And even though it has been quiet at work, I'm getting a lot done. Which is what matters, right?

Rainy Day

Things are lonely in the office today. I work on the third floor of a building with 2 others (used to be 3, but one quit). The past few days have been quiet because the 2 gals I share a space with are on vacation. I didn't think I'd be lonely, after all, we're all busy doing our own work... but I am!

I decided to go out to lunch so I could get some human interaction. There's a grocery store in the Richmond area called Ukrops, and they have a salad bar/hot bar for lunch. I love their fried chicken so I walked in and they were all out. At lunch. At 12:30. Boo.

I got a microwavable pizza instead. I came back to the office and ate my pizza, and remember I'd stashed some pretzels in my desk! Yum! I opened them up and... I had bought the unsalted kind... :( Boo.

Murphy's Law I suppose.

Music

I am a huge music fan (who isn't?) and I really enjoy finding new stuff. I have my favorite bands and songs, but I still like a little variety. Besides, I like trying to fill my 120 GB iPod. Easier said then done, right?

You could feed the addiction by illegally downloading music...but let's say you can't or don't want to do that. Well- I have a couple suggestions for you.

1. If you have similar music tastes to me: Alternative Addiction. Lots of music news about your favorite alternative artists, but they also offer a great deal of free, no strings attached music. The free music is most unsigned bands trying to get their name out there. But just because they're unsigned doesn't mean that the music isn't good. I have found lots (and I mean LOTS) of awesome bands this way. Sometimes you can track down a full CD (sometimes you can't) but you still have some good music. There are also (sometimes) bands/artists you'll recognize. Right now, for example, there's a Chris Cornell track for a free download.

2. Swap a CD. This site is awesome. I've talked about it before, but its worth mentioning again. This site is great for anyone, no matter what you're musical tastes are. You send out CD's and in return you get to request CD's from others.

A few drawbacks-You pay for postage when you send out CD's, but in turn they (the other users) cover the postage on CD's sent to you. Postage (with the new rate hikes) is only $.81 so that's not to bad. Swap a CD also charges you a $.49 fee for each transaction. No one like fees BUT this covers you if the CD gets lost in the mail, gets damaged, or shows up in unusable condition. Really- the $.49 covers your butt in case something happens so you don't lose a CD credit.

SO- a CD from Swap a CD with postage and the fee will cost you $1.30. Where else will you be able to get a CD for that? And there are lost of new and hard to find CD's on Swap a CD too.

The other draw back is time. You can get an awesome selection of CD's from Swap a CD, but you have to wait for them to become available. When I first joined in January I added 100's of CD's to my wish list. Some of those wishes were granted quickly and there are others I'm still waiting on. Not all CD's have a waiting list. I got plenty when I joined that were just waiting for me. More popular CD's have a wait list. For example, I added the Killer's Day & Age to my wish list on 1/25/09 and I am only #12 of 52, but Swap a CD is telling me I'll be #10 in 2 weeks. So I'm getting closer, but I have to wait, and I'm cool with that.

My most recent Swap a CD acquisitions are:

The Matches- Decomposer
Green River Ordinance- Out of My Hands
The Afters- Never Going to be OK
Mike Doughty- Haughty Melodic

And Soul Coughing's Best of, and Spoon's Telephono are on their way to me. So I'm getting good music. It's worth it to me, but if you can't wait for your music or you don't want to pay for it, Swap a CD might not be right for you. It is still cheaper than iTunes.

Too Much Etsy

You know you've been on etsy to much when you start dreaming about it. Granted, it was a good dream, but still.

In the dream there was a mall (a real B&M mall) with all the stores being etsy stores. I had teamed up with another seller and we had opened up our own store in said mall. We were super busy and sold out, and at the end of the day we were named, "Best New Shop". It was a fun dream and then I woke up to go to the gym and my real job. Boo!

Etsy has been going well for me! I've had a lot of really big orders in the past few week or so. Pretty exciting. When I get home in the evenings I'm either making marble magnets, or photographing what I've already made. Do I expect to make tons of money? No. But I is fun, and the extra pocket money (and the excuse to buy fun paper) is nice.

Shameless self promoting:
www.sideproject.etsy.com

I promise, there is very little promoting going on here. I'm really pretty bashful about my shop.