Saturday Rant: Comic Books and Goodwill

Good morning everyone! I felt compelled to write today after reading THIS article on CNN and watching the corresponding video. I nearly had an anxiety attack after learning about this.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for charity. I'm more than happy to help out with a fundraiser, or collecting food, or donating where I can, or participating in different charity walks. Wherever I'm needed, I can totally help out. But as a comic book lover and collector, ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

It's obvious when I'm watching the video that whomever the books once belonged to, they took good care of them, which is even more infuriating to me. I don't think that the donor was the person who owned the books. I'm going to go ahead and say that someone passed away, and the comics were donated because whoever donated them had no idea what they were worth.

I guess this is just a good ol' Carly style rant. I'm not pissed or anything, because like I said, charity is a good thing, but in my mind, the donation would have been better served had the books gone to a professional auction, and the money was donated rather than the books themselves. Not to sound like a real shit, but I've seen the way things are taken care of at Goodwill and it's not with a whole lot of love and care. I've also known some people who have worked there, and I wouldn't be surprised of some of the books were "misplaced".

The Editor and I were at a Goodwill recently to get some articles of clothing for a party we were attending, and there were three or four boxes of comics on one of the tables. Of course, it was a big jumble of this and that, some with some worth behind it, and some so beat up and shitty that they wouldn't be fit for the quarter box. When we inquired about the price we were told that all comics were $1 regardless of condition, which tells me that they are ill equipped to deal with something like a $42k donation of books. But what do I know?

Again, charity is a good thing, by no means am I saying it's not, I just think that you should put in some effort to see what you're giving away before you do. Especially if that collection was loved by someone who passed. I just think that the collection would have been better off being auctioned off privately, and then have the money donated to a good cause. But that is just the collector in me...

If you want to see what was in the "generously donated lot" you can check out www.goodwillonline.com to bid. The bidding starts at $3.