Warning: Don't lend out your long boxes at a con

Last weekend at the Pittsburgh Comicon I let a guy borrow three of my long boxes to carry his haul and he disappeared for like two hours. Came back with all my issues shuffled up and two of my #1s missing, didn't even apologize. Anyone else had stuff walk off when you were trying to be nice?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevin_williams9d ago

Wow, that's seriously messed up? I feel for you man, that's the kind of thing that just sticks with you every time you go to a show after. I had a similar thing happen at a small con a few years back where I let a guy use my short box for an hour and he came back with three of my issues creased and bent on the corners like he used them for coasters or something. It's not even about the money, it's about the trust you put in someone and them just trampling all over it like it's nothing. I still get a little paranoid lending out any of my stuff now, I pretty much just tell people to find a bag or a stack at the dealers tables instead. Honestly, if he didn't even apologize that guy was probably scouting your stuff from the jump, which makes it even worse.

milesbarnes9d ago

Damn, @kevin_williams, the part about "scouting your stuff from the jump" really hit me. I read an article online once about how some people at cons will purposely mess up a book so they can lowball you for it later, like they're testing your standards or something. It's that calculated move that makes it extra ugly, not just a clumsy accident. Sorry that happened to you, man, it's a real trust killer.

wadejenkins8d ago

I gotta tell you about this one time at a convention in Cleveland back in 2018. I was helping a buddy sell at his booth and this guy comes up asking to "borrow" a chair for like ten minutes so he could sit and sort his pulls. I said sure, whatever. Two hours later I find him using my chair as a footrest while he was digging through a dollar bin at some other booth, completely ignoring me. He didn't even remember who I was when I walked up to him. I just grabbed the chair back without saying a word. People at cons get so tunnel visioned on their own hunt they forget basic human decency.