Part 50 - 59

Part Fifty

In 1987, I was publishing a comic book series created by Mark Marderosian titled "Delta Tenn" when we received an inquiry from Gene Simmons, the lead singer of the rock band KISS. He was interested in buying an "option" to produce a feature film or television movie about Delta Tenn. Gene's girlfriend was actress-model Shannon Tweed and he thought this would be a perfect role for her to play. An "option" is purchased to acquire the exclusive right to use the character and ideas in a movie or television show for a specific period of time. The amount of money is negotiated between the owner of the property and the interested buyer. In the case of Delta Tenn I was merely the publisher. Mark was the creator and our agreement was that he would own the film rights and merchandising rights to his character. Mark negotiated a reasonable six-month option fee with Gene Simmons and had an attorney draw up the legal documents. Through some smart negotiating, Mark was able to keep the merchandising rights for himself so that if this Delta Tenn project ever got made he'd be able to market trading cards, t-shirts, posters, toys and action figures and keep the money for himself. Initially, Gene wasn't too happy with this but he finally agreed. I was eager to continue publishing the comic book series because I knew that sales would jump if there was a movie or television show of Delta Tenn.

Gene approached some of the networks with the Delta Tenn concept and although there was some interest, none of them seemed eager to offer the substantial amount of money necessary to produce a film or TV show. Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed continued to search for an interested network and when their option on Delta Tenn expired they paid to renew it for another six months. Shannon had recently been a guest star on "L.A. Law", "Hooperman", and "Cagney and Lacey", and was a more recognizable actress. She believed that they would eventually find someone to produce this film. She even made an appearance on "The Late Show" starring Ross Schaeffer to promote the idea.

During this second option period, Mark was approached by Sybill Danning's "people" expressing an interest in Delta Tenn. Sybill Danning was a beautiful actress who worked in numerous science fiction films in the 1970's and 1980's including one of the Conan The Barbarian movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Her agent was sure that Delta Tenn would be a great movie for Sybill to star in. Mark explained that the option was now owned by Gene Simmons. Sybill's people contacted Gene to see if the option could be bought out, but Gene declined their offer.

Mark also received a call from the management of Brigitte Neilson, the wife of Sylvester Stallone. They had written a short "treatment" for their version of a Delta Tenn movie and it was typical Hollywood! Mark's version of Delta Tenn was set ten years in the future in New York City. Delta was a tough, leather-clad policewoman. Hollywood's version changed the whole character. They wanted it to be set in current time and she'd be a jeep-driving, bikini-wearing Malibu beach cop! All they really wanted to keep was the name, "Delta Tenn!" They were willing to pay thousands of dollars to buy out Gene Simmons option and then spend millions of dollars on the feature film but they wanted to change almost everything about the character. They claimed that they could be ready to begin filming within a few months if Gene would accept their offer. Before a deal could be arranged, Brigitte was diagnosed with cancer and the project was off.

Gene paid for a third option period. He assured us that a deal was being considered by a major network. It wasn't long before we got the good news. The project was going to be a joint production of Touchstone Pictures and NBC-TV. Touchstone was a highly respected film company and NBC-TV was the number one network at the time. The script was being written as a two hour TV movie by the author of the hit movie, "Two Men and a Baby". If the TV movie did well in the ratings it would become a weekly television series. Mark would be a wealthy man when this project was finished.

NBC-TV was preparing to send a production crew to Canada to begin scouting for a filming location. Filming could begin within a few weeks.

Next chapter: More Hollywood craziness!

Part Fifty One

We got the word from Gene Simmons (of the rock band KISS) that NBC-TV was sending a pre-production crew to Canada to scout for locations to begin filming the two-hour TV movie based on the "Delta Tenn" comic book series that we were publishing. Filming would begin within a few weeks. If this TV movie got good ratings it could possibly become a weekly television series and the creator of "Delta Tenn" would make a fortune in option fees and merchandising. The creator, Mark Marderosian, was one of the nicest guys I'd ever worked with and he deserved all of this success. I was happy to be publishing the comic book series because I knew that we'd sell more comic books once the TV show was broadcast. Then we heard the bad news. A few days before the pre-production crew was scheduled to leave, NBC-TV had a visitor to their offices. Steven Bochco, creator, writer, and producer of popular TV shows including "Hill Street Blues", "Doogie Howser MD", and "L.A.Law" pitched a strange idea for a new television show to the network called "Cop Rock". The idea for the show was that it would be a serious police drama that had many of the characters spontaneously break into song! It sure was a different idea for a show! The network certainly didn't want to upset Steven Bochco so they agreed to do his show. They dropped "Delta Tenn" and produced "Cop Rock". "Cop Rock" turned out to be the biggest flop of the season.

Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed decided not to renew their option on "Delta Tenn". Sales of the comic book series weren't high enough for me to justify continuation, so Mark Marderosian "self-published" a few issues. The "Delta Tenn" series ended with issue #11.

With my comic book publishing ended, I knew I'd need to come up with some other way to earn extra money so that my goal of early retirement could be achieved. My father had just recently been experimenting with investments in the stock market, primarily in "index options". He had read some books about this type of investment and although there were risks involved it seemed interesting. It was basically "betting" that the stock market S+P Index would rise or fall. I really don't understand how this worked, but at the time it seemed to make some sense. I thought it would be fun (and probably profitable) to try this type of investment with my father. I always enjoyed spending time with him and this would be something we'd have in common. My uncle Jim (my Dad's brother) also decided to invest in these index options. We met with Gary Cohen, a broker at a local office of Merrill Lynch and we opened our investment accounts. He assured us that we could limit our potential losses by placing a "stop-loss" order with his firm. If our losses ever reached $2500.00 he would "automatically" get us out of that particular option. At that time my wife and I had saved $100,000.00. I didn't want to risk all of that so we opened the account with $50,000.00 and began the index option trading.

In the first few weeks I profited about $12,000.00! My Uncle Jim and my Dad were also making money. This seemed pretty easy. Certainly easier than working at my comic book store.

Next chapter: The big stock market crash of October 1987.

Part Fifty Two

In October of 1987 I was "investing" in index options. Gary Cohen, of Merrill Lynch, assured me that he would personally monitor my account so that I wouldn't lose any more than $2500.00 on any option position. If he saw that one of my options had lost $2500.00 he'd sell it to prevent further loss. He was the senior broker in a major national firm so we trusted him.

Early one morning in October of 1987, Gary Cohen called me to explain that the stock market opened substantially lower. In fact, the market was now so low that I had already "lost" $4500.00 on my index option. He couldn't have gotten me out of this with only a $2500.00 loss because by the time the stock market had opened, I had already lost more than that. He assured me that it was just a momentary drop in the market and he was confident that the stock market would rebound in a few hours. I asked him to keep me informed of the situation. Gary called me about an hour later and explained that the market was still dropping. He thought it was just nervous sellers. I had now lost almost $17,000.00. By noon he told me that I had lost almost $30,000.00. I decided to drive to his office to formulate a new plan. By the time I arrived I had lost $49,000.00. I was expecting to see his office full of depressed brokers but I was stunned by what I saw. Many of the brokers were joking and laughing! I overheard Gary calling a client and saying, "Hey, do you have your seat belt on? Well, you're going on a wild ride!" When he got off of the telephone I saw him laughing. The brokerage was going to make a fortune in commissions for selling the stocks and options while their customers lost a fortune and the brokers were laughing. I called my wife to tell her about this huge loss. She asked if this was going to "change" our lifestyle in any way and I told her I'd do my best to see that this loss wouldn't adversely affect us. She knew there was nothing I could have done to prevent this loss, (other than not invest in the stock market at all) and she was quite understanding. In the early afternoon the stock market had a little up-turn and I was able to sell my option and "only" lose $34,000.00. At that point I was just happy to be finished with this nightmare. I would try to avoid investing in things that I have no control over. Manipulators and brokerage firms control the stock market with only their own interests at heart.

My father and my Uncle Jim also lost a lot of money in these index options. We all learned a valuable lesson and we were all able to laugh about our losses a few months later. This doesn't mean that we were happy about the lost money but the three of us now realized that we shouldn't have been risking our hard-earned money in such a phony manipulated market. Although this experience wasn't as much fun, we now had another "gambling" experience in common. I'll tell you about my previous gambling story with my Uncle Jim in the next chapter. It was much more fun!

I was now going to concentrate on my main business to earn my money. My business is selling comic books and collectibles.

Next Chapter: Gambling with The Mob in Las Vegas.

Part Fifty Three

My Uncle Jim owned a successful convenience store and gas station with a large customer base. One of his customers knew that Uncle Jim was a spontaneous guy and he offered Jim the opportunity to go to Las Vegas as part of a chartered group tour. Uncle Jim called my wife, Mal, and I because he knew we'd probably also enjoy a quick trip to Vegas. The deal was almost too good to pass up. If we agreed to send the casino a check for $3000.00 for them to hold in the "cage" (their vault), then we'd get our hotel room, airfare, and all of our food for only $300.00 per person. Obviously, the casino hoped you'd gamble away the $3000.00 but they didn't require you to gamble any of it. We had no intention of risking that much money. I was excited to go because the Marvin Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard fight was the same weekend and I thought it would be fun to see a major fight in person. Our good friends, Allan and Debbie Traylor, took care of our two children while we were on this trip. My employee, David M. Lynch, took care of running the comic book store for the five days I was gone.

When we got on the airplane at Logan Airport in Boston we realized that everyone on the plane knew each other except for us. They all seemed to be good buddies and they were all men. After the plane took off we were introduced to a large man who had been sitting in the back of the plane. It was evident that he was the man in charge. When we were introduced it suddenly became clear. This guy was the head of the Irish Mafia of the Lowell-Lawrence area of Massachusetts. Everyone on this airplane was involved in the "mob" except for the three of us! While Mal and I were nervous about this situation, these guys were all very friendly and courteous to us. My Uncle Jim seemed a little embarrassed about this turn of events but there was nothing we could do about it now. We might as well make the best of it.

When we arrived at the hotel we were issued badges that would identify us as part of this "elite" group of people. We were treated like royalty while we were there. The "pit bosses" (the gambling supervisors) would make it a point to frequently ask, "How are you enjoying your stay?" and "Is there anything you need?" They all must have assumed that we were part of the mob.

I was disappointed to find out that all of the tickets to the big Marvin Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard fight were sold out. I could get a ticket if I wanted to buy one from a "scalper" but I wasn't willing to pay them the $700.00 that they wanted. I discovered that Frank Sinatra was performing at The Golden Nugget Hotel in downtown Las Vegas. Tickets were outrageously priced at sixty dollars each. In the mid- 1980's that was a lot of money for a concert ticket! Mal had seen Sinatra in concert a couple of times before and she didn't want to pay that much money but she knew I'd enjoy seeing him in Vegas so she convinced me to go. I called and reserved a ticket.

When I arrived at The Golden Nugget I was surprised to see that Frank Sinatra was going to be performing in a room that only held 300 people! The show was "general admission" so there were no reserved seats. I gave my ticket to the maitre-d and he sat me in the very back of the room. I thought it was strange that he gave me such a lousy seat because I was the first person in the line. Then I noticed that the people coming into the room were tipping him and getting better seats than I had. I went up to him and said, "I forgot to give you this", and I handed him ten dollars. He said, "Right this way" and brought me to a seat right down front. I had to sit through a "comedy" act with Jan Murray but it was all worthwhile when Frank Sinatra came out. In such a small, intimate setting, Frank felt comfortable telling stories of his old mafia pals and the Rat Pack days with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. His voice was in top form. It was like having Frank Sinatra in your living room. Eventually I'd see Frank perform seven times but this was the best Sinatra concert of them all for me.

We all arrived home safely and our "association" with the mafia was done.

Next chapter: An unpleasant tax surprise!

Part Fifty Four

There are hundreds of comic book stores all around the United States and I've always wanted my store to stand out as something different. Most comic book stores sell old and new comic books, trading cards, and comic book related action figures. I consider "That's Entertainment" to be a combination comic book and collectable store. The term collectable can be used to cover almost anything that someone is interested in "collecting". We sell magazines, posters, action figures, board games, strategy games, model kits, records, movies, trading cards, toys, sports memorabilia, and much more. The key to making our store stand out from most other stores is our diversity. Our inventory is constantly changing and we're always interested in buying stuff that we don't already have in stock. We strive to always have ample money available to purchase interesting collectibles from vendors and customers.

My wife Mal and I were out shopping one day and I noticed that a hobby store had a big sign in their window advertising a "clearance sale". They had lots of classic board games like chess and checkers, dartboards and dart supplies, Othello games, Parcheesi, and a bunch of craft supplies. I talked with the owner and I could sense that he just wanted to get rid of this inventory so I made him a ridiculously low offer that he accepted! Even though this was not the kind of inventory that I'd normally sell in my store I felt pretty sure that I could sell some of it. I paid the store owner in cash, loaded the stuff into my car, and brought it to my store. I set up some display tables close to the entrance of my store and made some "cheesy" looking hand-made signs offering this new inventory at half-price. To my surprise I sold most of the items within two weeks. I realized that my customers are normal people who play darts, chess, Parcheesi, and more. It ended up a very profitable deal for me and a good deal for my customers too.

One of my strangest purchases happened in the mid-1980's. A man was hired by a local homeowner to clean out a big barn. The man was told that he could keep (or sell) anything that he found as he was cleaning the barn. He brought me a lot of old magazines and books from the 1950's that he found and he was very satisfied with my offers. I gave him a list of the types of items that I would be interested in buying from him and he continued to bring in more items as the week went by. Finally, when he was done cleaning out the barn and he had nothing left that he thought I'd be interested in buying, he thanked me for doing business with him. Almost as an afterthought, he asked, "Do you know anyone who would be interested in old milk bottles?" I knew that there were some people who collected milk related items so I told him that if the price was "right" I'd buy them from him. He explained that he had over one hundred different glass milk bottles and they all had different pictures or logos silk-screened on them and they appeared to be from the 1950's. He said he'd like to get $140.00 for the lot and since it seemed reasonable to me, I agreed to buy them from him. I didn't think I'd ever be able to sell milk bottles in my comic book store but I knew that I'd be able to sell them through Skinner's Auction Gallery that was in the small town of Bolton, Massachusetts, where I lived. It didn't make any sense for him to carry all of the milk bottles into my over-crowded store because I'd just have to carry them out at the end of the night, so I gave him the keys to my car and asked him to put the bottles into the trunk of my car. He loaded them into my car and I paid him the money. I was really busy for the next week so I didn't get a chance to go to Skinner's Auction Gallery. The milk bottles were still in the trunk of my car. A man stopped by my store and looked around but didn't seem to find anything he wanted. I asked him if I could help him and he said, "Is there any place in Worcester that sells milk-related collectables?" I laughed and handed him the key to the trunk of my car. He went outside and looked at the milk bottles that were still in my trunk. He came back into the store and asked, "How much do you want for them all?" I offered him the whole lot for $400.00 and he was thrilled to pay that. He paid me and then he went back out and loaded the boxes of milk bottles into his car. He returned my keys and left. I sold the whole collection and I had never seen or touched them at all! The "odds" of a collector coming to my comic book store looking for milk bottles was so slim but it really happened! It's one of my favorite purchases.

My store has been open for over twenty-three years now and we have always been able to buy any collection that's offered to us. Money has always been available. Except for one brief period. Normally, I try to get all of my "end of the year" tax information to my accountant early enough for her to begin calculating my tax liabilities in early January. This one year I was late with the information. I pay very large quarterly estimated tax payments to the federal government so that my full tax due will be more easily budgeted. By the time my accountant finished my tax return it was only a few days before the April 15th filing deadline. She called me with the good and bad news and said, "The good news is that you were very profitable this year. The bad news is: You know that vacation you were planning? Forget it." I owed over $60,000.00 more in taxes! This was in addition to the high quarterly estimated payments I'd already made during the year! I didn't have that much money available. Most of my money was invested in CD's and I couldn't get it out. I decided to write the IRS a check that I knew I didn't have the funds to cover, but I knew it would probably take four or five days for the check to get to them and at least another four or five days to get to my bank. I explained the situation to my employees and decided that we could not buy any new product for the next three weeks. I used my existing credit terms with Diamond Comic Distributors so that I'd have the full thirty days before I had to pay for the weekly comic book shipments. I could "catch-up" with Diamond later. With this "belt-tightening" and the money that I did have available I was able to pay the full tax bill on time. It was the only period of time in the past twenty-three years that my store wasn't actively seeking new inventory to buy.

Next chapter: Two comic book collectors fall in love at my store!

Part Fifty Five

In the mid-1980's the average customer of my comic book store was a male between the ages of twelve and fifty. My store was in a rough section of the big city of Worcester so not too many women came to the area. My main product line was comic books and not too many women read comic books in those days. But occasionally we had some female collectors. Marvel Comics published a comic book of The X-Men that appealed to men and women alike and we had two teen-age female fans that shopped at my store each week. They almost always came to the store together and they'd laugh and joke with us. They were very outgoing. One of the girls, Christine, had purple hair. Paul Dinsdale, my good friend and customer, noticed her right away. Paul spent a lot of time each week visiting me and hanging around with some of the other "regulars" at the store. He loved getting beaten by me in Chess and the strategy game of Risk so we'd try to play a few days a week. He'd listen to my employees, David Lynch and Pat Donley, as they interacted with Christine. He knew she had a good sense of humor and he liked the idea that a woman was enjoying comic books. Paul wasn't dating anyone at the time and it was obvious that he was "interested" in Christine. He was just a little bit too shy to ask her out on a date.

One day, after Christine paid for her comic books and walked out of the store, Paul Dinsdale remarked that he'd like to ask her out. I said, " Watch the store for a minute!" I ran outside and caught up with Christine before she drove away. I told her that Paul was the tall thin guy in the store. I told her that he was kind of shy and explained that he'd like to take her out on a date. I also assured her that he was a "gentleman" and he's relatively harmless. She agreed to give him a try. I gave "Dins" her phone number and they began dating. Paul and Christine began dating in 1987 and got married in 1993. For some reason, they invited me to be part of their wedding.

At home, my wife and kids were busy with school for Adam and dance lessons for Cassandra. During the summer months Mal would take them to a local town pool in Clinton for swimming lessons. They'd be there four or five days each week and both of our kids loved to swim. I'd join them after work. Although Mal enjoyed taking the kids to the pool, we both agreed that it would be much nicer if she didn't have to pack up all of the stuff and drive all of the way to Clinton to cool off. We started planning to have a pool installed at our home in Bolton. We hired our friend, Paul Weatherbee, to clear about half an acre of dense trees to make room for our new pool. We also hired our friend, Allan Traylor's brother Danny, to prepare the area by leveling the ground and removing the tree stumps. We hoped that we could afford to have the actual swimming pool installed the next year.

Our friend, Debbie Traylor had been fighting cancer for quite a while now but she had reacted well to a new chemotherapy and seemed to be winning the battle. In 1988 we all decided to go on a cruise together. We were such good friends that we thought we would be comfortable enough to stay in the same cabin together. We had vacationed together for years and we always had a great time. This trip was no exception. This was the first cruise for Allan and Debbie and they had a good time but Debbie seemed exhausted. She would sleep late and frequently take a nap. We didn't mind because we were just happy that she was going to beat the cancer and we were glad to all be together.

When the trip was over Debbie went to her doctor and found out that the cancer had spread again. Eight weeks later, Debbie died. Mal lost her best friend. Allan lost his wife. Five-year-old Peter lost his Mom.

Part Fifty Six

Our lives were changed when Debbie Traylor died in October of 1988. My wife, Mal, lost her best friend. My old friend, Allan Traylor had lost his wife and he now had the difficult job of raising his five-year old son, Peter. Several people pitched in to help take care of Peter so that Allan could return to his job. Mal offered to take care of Peter after school as often as possible. Our children, Adam and Cassandra, loved Peter and they got along great.

Losing Debbie changed my life too. As she was struggling with cancer many of us were praying for her full recovery but as she got sicker it appeared as if our prayers were not being answered. I had been taught that if we prayed for things that God would "answer" our prayers. With Debbie's death I decided that God is "in control" and that my real prayer should be for the desire and ability to trust that our Creator loves us and has a plan for our lives. I no longer feel the need to pray for the same thing over and over again. I believe that my prayer is heard if I pray sincerely for something. God "gets it" the first time. The answer to our prayers just may not be the answer we were hoping for.

Allan eventually found love again and married a great woman named Pascale and they raised Peter and Pascale's two children, Monica and Frank. Pascale was part of a large, close family and we all found it difficult to schedule much social time together. We still keep in touch and we consider them as good friends but it's not the same as spending time together.

One day in 1988, an old friend, Don Phelps, came out to my store to sell me an old comic book. It was the first issue of Captain America from 1941 and it was in beautiful, near mint condition. It was valued at about $5000.00 and Don sold it to me for $4200.00. I was willing to pay that high a percentage for it because I had a good feeling that our "big-city newspaper" would be interested in writing a story about a our local comic book store paying "crazy" money for a comic book. I was right. The newspaper ran a full-page story about me, the store, and about old comic books in general. They even included a large photo of me holding the Captain America #1. Newspaper readers tend to notice and read articles that have pictures included. As I had hoped, this article generated a lot of interest in the local community. We got dozens of phone calls from people who had old comic books and other collectibles that they wanted to sell to us and we were happy to purchase them all. That's how we stay in business. We need to constantly replenish our inventory of older collectibles.

I decided to price this comic book at $7,000. I also knew that I could eventually sell the copy of Captain America #1 for at least as much as I paid for it so I knew it would all work out great. Surprisingly, it took almost six months for me to find a collector willing to buy this comic book from me for the $7,000. This exact same copy sold for an astounding $150,000 in 2003. Even though I only made $2800 on the comic book when I originally sold it, the value of the new publicity for the store is worth many thousands of dollars. I bought many collections of toys and comic books that I've sold at a profit because of the article and I've gained dozens of new regular collectors and customers who spend money at my store every month. It's hard to place an accurate value on my purchase and marketing of the Captain America #1 but I'm guessing that it far exceeds the $150,000.00 sale price of the comic book in today's market.

Next chapter: My customers heard it through the grapevine.

Part Fifty Seven

I really enjoy most of my customers. I consider many of them to be more like friends than customers but sometimes I'm amazed at the depth of these friendships. I have a customer named Bob Jean (not his real name) who used to come to my store all the way from Rhode Island every two weeks. Bob collected lots of Marvel and DC comic books and he also enjoyed Disney comics. He also loved old television shows from the 1960's so we'd always have lots of things to talk about when he came to my store. We had a lot of common interests. Bob would always bring his wife with him when he came shopping and she would patiently stand around while we would talk and laugh about comics and TV shows. Sometimes she'd wait for over an hour! I'm sure she was bored but she never seemed to complain about our visits.

Bob called me one day in 1988 and asked if I'd be interested in buying his old model kit collection. Usually I don't ask why people are selling their collectibles. It's really none of my business and it wouldn't affect my offer anyway. But this time, because of my friendship with Bob, I asked. He told me that his wife was sick and he could use the extra money that he could get by selling off some of his collection. We arranged a time for him to bring in the model kits so that I could make him an offer. As it turned out, Bob had a really nice collection of un-built, still in the box, character and monster model kits made by Aurora Plastics in the 1960's. Bob told me that he wanted $4400.00 for this collection. I didn't have much experience selling such hard-to-find model kits so I needed to rely on the listed values from a toy price guide. It became clear that Bob was hoping to get almost full price guide value for these kits. Even though I knew I had no specific customers "waiting" to buy these expensive model kits and I knew they'd probably take a long time for me to resell, I agreed to buy them for Bob's full asking price. I'd just have to price these kits higher than the current price guide values in order to justify this large purchase.

Marketing these old model kits wasn't going to be easy. Although I did maintain a large mailing list of customer's names and addresses, I had no indication if any of these customers had interest in old model kits. There were really no computers or email in those days, so a full post office mailing would be expensive and it may not have been effective. I'd need to think about this. I thought about placing an ad in the local newspaper but their advertising rates were outrageous. There were toy shows in Massachusetts that attracted hundreds of toy collectors but there were no shows coming up soon. I wanted to get these into the hands of collectors because I had invested a lot of money in these models. I wanted to begin to get some money back right away so I priced these model kits and displayed them by just putting them on top of my comic book shelves. The display looked great because these Aurora kits had beautiful paintings on the box lids. Included in this collection were Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, The Creature of the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, King Kong, The Munsters, The Addams Family, The Forgotten Prisoner, Zorro, The Land of the Giants, The Lost in Space Cyclops Monster, The Lost in Space Robot, Batman, Superman, Superboy, The Penguin, and many more. Now I had to figure out a way to let the collectors know I had these.

The next day a customer came in and commented how nice these kits looked and although he didn't buy any of them, he mentioned that he had a friend who collected old Aurora model kits. Collectors are an interesting group of people. They're usually thrilled to share their enthusiasm and information with other collectors. It makes it seem as if there is a real underground "grapevine" through which information quickly travels. Word got out that I had these kits and collectors that I'd never met before came into the store. Without any advertising on my part I sold almost half of these expensive model kits within the first week! With most of my investment back, I now wasn't worried about selling the rest of the kits quickly.

A few months later I got a late-night phone call from Bob. He was calling from a hospital in Rhode Island where his wife had just died. He needed a friend to talk to and I was available. Even though I hate funerals, I knew that Bob needed me to be there so I went down there to be of any help that I could.

One of the things about being in a big retail business is that you get to know thousands more people than the average person knows. On one hand it's a nice, positive thing. But on the other hand, there's also more opportunity for sadness when some of these customers and friends suffer illness and tragedy. Sometimes it's hard for me to deal with.

Next chapter: I lose David M. Lynch.

Part Fifty Eight

My store was running great in 1988. David M. Lynch was my one full-time employee and Pat Donley was a part-time employee. Both of these guys had strong knowledge of both music and comic books although Pat's main interest was the more modern era of comics. David knew the entire history of comic books from the 1930's to the 1970's and he knew almost everything about older music. Pat's expertise with the current music scene helped when it came to buying records and tapes to sell in the store. Pat also knew a lot about sports and sports cards. Between the two of them we had a really good team of "experts". I was still working at the store about four days each week and we all got along pretty good. Pat seemed to enjoy annoying David by playing 1980's music on our in-store music system and then he'd give David a hard time when David played his 1960's music. But overall it worked out. The biggest problem was that I was not paying these guys what they were really "worth". Even though my store had grown in sales to a comfortable level I was reluctant to commit to paying them a higher salary. It's not that I was greedy. I always wanted to be conservative in my promises to my employees. I was concerned that if the business collapsed I would not be able to meet my commitments to them. In my business, after all of my employees and the bills were paid, I kept whatever was left as my paycheck. The employees came first. There were some weeks when I didn't get paid at all. But there were other weeks when I was "paid" a substantial amount. Pat Donley was a college student so he didn't require a lot of money, but David needed more and I was unwilling to pay him as much as he needed so he quit. He began selling comic books at a local weekly flea market. Looking back, I wish I had shared more with these early employees.

I had been renting the same store building since 1980 and I still had no lease. The landlord insisted that I rent it on a monthly basis. The store was located in a rough neighborhood but it was on a major road with heavy traffic. I had offered to buy this building numerous times but the landlord turned down my offers because he knew that he had a reliable tenant who would be happy to continue to pay the rent on time each month. I didn't complain much because he had not raised my rent in the eight years I'd been there. He lived in another state and he seemed to be unaware that the Worcester area had become a "hot" real estate market. I was worried that the landlord would eventually realize that he could charge two or three times as much for rent. I needed to secure the future for my business. I contacted a real estate agent and was surprised when she told me that the building right next to my store was for sale. Included in this package of property were a 1200 square foot brick retail building that was currently being used as a restaurant and a separate "three-decker" apartment building that had three decent sized apartments. All three of these apartments were already occupied but the tenants were not paying very high rents. The top two apartments were only paying $250.00 per month and the ground floor apartment was only paying $200.00 per month. The real estate broker convinced me that I could easily double the rents that the tenants were currently paying and they'd still be getting a great deal. I made an offer of $185,000.00 and it was accepted. Suddenly I was in the "landlord business". I was comforted knowing that I would always have an alternative place to move my store if my current store landlord ever decided to raise my rent.

Next chapter: My wacky tenants.

Part Fifty Nine

The owner of the building I had been renting for the past eight years was unwilling to give me a lease on the property. He was content to rent the building to me one month at a time but I was afraid that he'd eventually raise the rent to an outrageous level so I bought the commercial property that was directly next to the store. The property consisted of a brick commercial building that was currently rented as a restaurant and a separate three-story apartment building. The apartment building was fully rented but the rents were significantly below "market value". I notified the tenants that I would be raising the monthly rent and they all agreed that I was being reasonable.

A young, single man named David rented the top floor apartment. He paid his rent for the first two months that I owned the building but when he was late paying the third month's rent I became concerned. David told me that he didn't have the money to pay his rent. I asked him if he was thinking of moving out and to my surprise, he moved out that weekend.

The second floor contained a three-bedroom apartment that was rented by a young, newly married couple. They continued to rent this apartment for the next two years but when they decided to have a child they moved to a safer neighborhood.

The first floor apartment had three bedrooms, a large living room, a dining room, and a large kitchen. An elderly lady, Mrs. Ducharme, had rented this apartment for over twenty years. She lived alone but she was quite active. She volunteered at a local senior center and she walked all over the city. She kept the front of the property clean and always paid her rent on time. Since my store was right next-door, she'd bring her rent of two hundred and fifty dollars in cash to me on the first day of the month. I'd write her a receipt for her payment. After I had owned the property for about six months I noticed that she seemed to be getting more forgetful. She began coming in to my store to apologize for being "late" with the rent and she'd give me another envelope with money in it. I'd explain to her that she had already paid the month's rent but she'd insist that I take this additional payment. I'd tell her that she didn't need to bring me any more money until the next month. The very next week she'd bring in another envelope with two hundred and fifty dollars in it. At one point I explained to her that she had now paid her rent six months in advance. I told her I couldn't accept any more money from her. I was worried about her so I located the phone number of her son who lived in Arizona. I called him and introduced myself and explained that I thought his mother was losing her mental ability and I wondered whether she should be living alone. At first, he got angry with me and said it was none of my business. He later calmed down and thanked me for my concern but he offered no solution. Two weeks later he showed up with a moving van and he loaded up all of his mother's things and was moving her out to Arizona. Mrs. Ducharme came into my store crying. She asked me why this man was making her move out. I had to convince her that her son would take care of her and that this was for the best. Her son didn't say a single word to me and I never heard from Mrs. Ducharme again.

I rented the second floor apartment to three guys. Rick, Ray, and Bernie were "gamers" and they were primarily customers of my main competitor but they began shopping at my store after they rented the apartment, probably because we were so nearby. Rick was a serious guy but he was friendly to me. Ray was a great guy. He was friendly and soft-spoken and he had a generous, easy-going spirit. Bernie was much older than the other two and although he was friendly to me, he was also kind of "gruff" on the outside. These three guys rented this apartment for a few years until they decided to move out of state to North Carolina. Ray got a job doing social work. I just recently learned that Bernie killed himself.

I rented the first floor apartment to a family consisting of a mother, a father, and two children. This family always paid their rent on time but they were disgustingly sloppy. There was trash and garbage all over their apartment. The basement began to fill up with their junk. The grass in the front yard was destroyed and littered with broken bottles and trash. The apartment building ended up infested with cockroaches after this family was there for six months. We had never had any of these problems before this family moved in. I knew I had to do something about this but I quickly learned that the liberal Democrats of Massachusetts had essentially removed the rights of the property owner. As long as these people paid the rent on time, I couldn't force them to move out. The next two years were full of constant repairs to the building, pest exterminators, and mediating conflicts with the other tenants. This family would actually call me at home to complain that some other tenant had parked in "their" parking space. I'd explain that there were no reserved parking spaces but it usually required a trip into the city to smooth it out with everyone.

One day I received a notice from the Board of Health stating that I had three days to clean up the mess in the yard before they'd fine me five hundred dollars per day! I called the Board of Health and explained that I couldn't possibly get it all cleaned up over the weekend because the trash companies were now closed until Monday. They gave me a twenty-four hour extension and I spent most of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, cleaning it up. I hired a trash company to pick up all of the junk first thing on Tuesday morning so the city inspector could examine the property on Tuesday afternoon. In typical city government fashion, the inspector didn't come to the property as we had arranged. He came ten days later. By that time, the gross tenants threw more trash in the front yard so all of my work was in vain and I was summoned to court. I was furious and I tried to explain the situation to the judge. He was not sympathetic. He said it was my responsibility to keep this property clean. I asked him if he'd feel the same way if I threw old tires and trash on his front lawn for him to clean up. He was clearly agitated by my attitude. I then told him that I was tired of the "Nazi Gestapo tactics" of his court and he threatened me with contempt of court. My wife didn't really want me to be thrown in jail so I didn't tell him that I did indeed have contempt for his court. I had no choice so I paid the fine. It was clear that the landlord business was not for me.