I (eventually) bought Sugar Ray Finhead 10 & 11!

There are a ton of indoor flea markets in our area. Most are loaded with garbage such as well-worn clothes and shoes, old DVDs/CDs/VHS tapes, broken toys, rusted tools, vehicle parts, and weathered books. (Mostly religious propaganda and Danielle Steel novels. Take a moment to reconcile that if you can...)

A couple of guys who are well-known in the local comic scene have a small section at one of the markets where they sell decent reader copies of comics for a fair price. I've seen everything from 15-centers to last month's new releases in their mix. On Sunday they posted that they had put out a ton of new books AND were having a half-off sale. Since I didn't have any work scheduled for this morning, my wife and I decided to use it as an excuse to get out of the house.

I didn't find a whole lot, but the two books in the photo stood out to me. I had never heard of Sugar Ray Finhead or the publisher and figured they were probably horrible. Maybe hilariously so. Or maybe they would be quirky hidden gems. I figured for fifty cents each I'd take a chance.

I journeyed to the register and found there to be one less person behind it than would be needed to complete my transaction. However, there were two older gentlemen in chairs sitting behind me and to the side of the exit door. Eventually one of them asked if I was "ready" (always a dangerous question to answer because it could be an employee or it could be a religious fanatic looking to share the "good news".) I confirmed I was, not bothering to point out that I would not have placed my items on the counter otherwise. He said, "She should be right back." I replied, "Okay. no problem. Thanks."

After a minute or so the other gentleman departed, at which point the one who had spoken to me got up and started ringing me up. He got to the two books pictured and yelled out "Sylvia!"

It was all I could do not to respond with. "Yes, Mickey?"

A woman who I assumed was both the "she" mentioned earlier and the Sylvia called for just seconds before entered from the parking lot. (She was certainly back, but I wouldn't label it as "right back." Especially since she had to be prompted.)

Mickey quickly informed her that he could not ring up these two items because they did not have a booth number on the price stickers. She looked at them and confirmed that, in fact, there was no booth number on the price stickers. He looked at me and said, "without a booth number we can't sell them to you, but I know that he'll most likely mark them as $3 each." Having been through every comic in the rack, I knew the rest of the comics had a different style of sticker which included both the price and the booth number. I also knew from having gone through every book on the rack, that $3 was in no way a "default" price.

I sidestepped being a 50-year-old guy haggling with a 65-year-old guy about what I couldn't be charged for a couple of comics by stating it was no big deal, that I thought they looked strange enough to give a try but I didn't want them for $3 each which they couldn't offer anyway due to the aforementioned non-existent booth numbers. Mickey then said, "I'll call him and find out what's going on."

At that point, I decided I was going to see this little adventure through to the end no matter how long it took as long as I could be at my office on time this afternoon.

Mickey ended the call, snapped a picture of the comics, and (I'm assuming) sent the image to the person. Within a few minutes his phone dinged. He looked at it, then looked at me, and with waaaaaay too much disappointment said, "well, he said they SHOULD be a dollar each."

Sylvia responded. "Okay, but he's going to have to learn to put his booth number on everything. We might have to go back and check for more." I assumed I was not included in that "we" and had no role to play in resolving the Crisis in FleaMarketville. I stated that I had not seen any others, but also clarified didn't really look at the prices until after I had looked at the comics themselves. What can I say? I'm a helper.

Sylvia rang the pair up, calculated my 50% discount, and with a smile stated the charges were $1.08. Mickey walked off in a bit of a huff. I handed her $1.10, thanked her, and let her know that she could toss the two pennies in the cup next to the register.

Even if the comics are bad I figure for a buck-ten I at least have a somewhat entertaining story.

Though I can't help but wonder if Mickey found any more comics missing the booth number...in hindsight I wish I had told him that I thought there were about seven, maybe eight, with the white label as It would have given him something to do for the rest of the day.