Took me 4 hours to find a missing variant cover in a longbox

I spent last Sunday digging through 8 longboxes at my local shop looking for the foil variant of Secret Wars #1 from 2015. The guy at the counter swore they had one in the back but it took him 45 minutes just to remember which box he tossed it in. By the time we found it, the shop was closing and I nearly gave up after hour three. Anyone else have a shop owner who just throws everything in random boxes without any system?

2 comments

2 Comments

colesanchez19d ago

Man, the "threw it in the box and forgot where" thing is basically the entire comic shop experience at this point. It's like the universe is testing how badly we really want that one specific issue. Makes me wonder if the stores that do organize by series and number are secretly run by aliens with superhuman patience, because around here it's just "longbox roulette" every time. Really feels like the whole search is more about the thrill of the hunt than actually finding the book.

sage_park619d ago

The foil variant hunt is REAL and I swear these shop owners do it on purpose to test our dedication. I once went into a store where the guy had a box labeled "Stuff from 1990s" and inside was literally everything from random X-Men issues to old TV Guides he must have found in a dumpster. I spent like two hours digging through that box trying to find a specific issue of Incredible Hulk and came out with a Black Panther #1 from 2005 that I didn't even know I wanted. Now I go back every month just to see what new chaos he's thrown in there. It's genuinely turned into my Friday night ritual now and I don't even care about the original book anymore.