Three truly bizarre finds today

[anarky]

I was going to post this under "Comics" at first. Then I found the second thing. And I decided the actual first thing I'd seen wasn't exactly bizarre, but enough of bizarreness to include.

We went into "town" today, to take advantage of a one-day sale at Cost Plus World Market and to eat at John's Incredible (one of the best fucking pizza places anywhere, but, sadly, not nationwide yet). We hit Kohl's, then one Target, then Costco (for gas and John's gift cards, since it's basically saving 20% to buy them there and then eat), then ate. Then we stopped by TRU.

Find #1: Walking through the store, I find a copy of The Princess & The Frog for Wii. I do a double-take and nearly shit my pants. I wanted to get that for Anarky Jr for Christmas. I couldn't find the fucking game new anywhere. One TRU an hour away had it, according to the website, but, when I drove down to get it and looked through every game they had, I was told it had been out of print for over a year, and this had to be some sort of error, and the manager would contact the webmaster to get it corrected. I ended up not getting it for her; Santa couldn't bring an opened gift, because she's really observant.

I figure maybe it was a return. Then I notice a second copy of it. Were these there when I was looking for it months ago? I get back home, and, lo and behold, Amazon has it in stock new. But, when checking TRU's site, it's supposedly still not in that store. No one else has it; it's apparently not back in print.

That's not a huge deal, but it's a minor piss-off. This girl's a huge Tiana fan, and I like that she's one of the few princesses with balls, so to speak.

We leave TRU and go to Cost Plus, then I take A. Jr down to Marshall's to hunt for toys. It's a fucking wreck. This Marshall's always is, to the point that I only go there when in the shopping center already. She stops to show me some book by Eric Carle. That's when I notice something that fucking blows my mind.

Find #2: On the rack of kids' books, I see a Valiant Comics logo peeking out. A fucking Valiant logo. I do another double-take, think back to see if I dropped acid earlier in the day and forgot about it, and pull the comic out from behind a coloring book. It's Archer & Armstrong #15. Holy shit. I tell her this is weird, that this comic must be twenty years old or more. Turns out it's from 1993, according to the copyright date. And, aside from a couple of bent pages, in remarkable condition considering where it is and the state of the store.

There's no price tag on it at all. So it's not something they were selling individually. Thing is, I've never seen any sort of comic multipack there. That's some good shit there. Valiant kicked some ass, and A&A was one of their best. Of course, this was way post-Unity, so I wasn't following it.

We leave there, and A. Jr and I hit another Target. I get two Renegades Ripcords on clearance, since he's a nice generic African-American Joe and has good custom potential for that reason. But that's not the find.

On the clearance endcap in the entertainment section, they tend to have "Online Item"s for less than 1/4 the original price. For some reason I've never been able to figure, it's always multiples of whatever it is, and it's items that still go for full price on their site. Not sure how that happens. I could see someone buying something, changing their mind, and taking advantage of the "return in store" dealio, then Target deciding it's cheaper to sell it at a loss than ship it back, but always multiples of two or more at the same store, with different items at different stores? No idea. Needless to say, they have two copies each of two CDs and a book I have no interest in, even at their heavily-discounted price. But they also have something weird.

Find #3: There are two romance novels. At first, I push them aside, then I realize I recognize the author of one as one of Mrs. A's favorites. And the same author's name on the other. They're both marked as "Online Item," and both about a dollar. So I call her to see if she's interested. As I'm reading the titles, I notice the pages are a bit yellowed, and the spines are worn. So I tell her, "These look like someone read them before returning them, but they're dirt cheap if you want them." She tells me to get one because it's impossible to find at a good price, and asks me to check the copyright date.

And when I open the book, I notice both are stamped with the name and address of a used bookstore in the next town over. She decides not to get either. (I probably would've; used would've cost half cover price, not less-than-quarter cover price.)

So I can't help but wonder: how the hell did someone return obviously used books, bought at a used bookstore, to Target, a store notorious for its strict return policies, for an item they don't even sell in the store? Did someone want nicer copies, order them, and return the old ones with the receipt from the website, and, if so, how the hell did they get them past the returns counter? (Maybe I should find out who processed the returns, and maybe try to return an empty box of Pop Tarts or something.)

Almost as weird as a 20-year-old comic that was never there before materializing at a store that doesn't sell them. At least I can figure the Wii games were in a stockroom or something, and the two copies is too low to register as "in stock" on the website.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

That reminds me of this time I was in a used bookstore. It was one of those 'we opened this last month and will be closed next month places' that sell remaindered shit for like a nickel. They had a bunch of comics but it was obviously somebody had dropped off their box of early 90s speculator purchases. A lot of shitty 2nd wave Image books like Shamans Tears and the like. But amongst the books was the final issue of Countdown to Mystery.

Countdown to Mystery was a miniseries Steve Gerber was writing for DC when he died. He never finished the series, so a bunch of writers and artists all came together and did the final issue as a tribute to Steve. I had had issues 1-7 for awhile, but could not find 8 anywhere. So, to find it in this shithole bookstore of all places(and in NM condition) was a bit trippy.