Cleaning Up the Third Floor

[mabfan]

So gnomi is now back at home, but I'm still in my Mom's house in New York. After all, the real reason for this trip was for me to clean my stuff out of the third floor of my Mom's house.

A little history here, for those who are interested. My Mom and Dad moved into this house in 1967, and Mom has lived in continuously since then. (Dad died in 1990.) It's a big house, and we mostly used the third floor of the house for storage. There's a lot of junk up there, including a lot of books that Dad somehow acquired but never read. (He was something of a pack rat.) But there's also a lot of my stuff up there, mostly books, magazines, and comic books.


Since my brothers both decided that they didn't care about the stuff on the third floor anymore, it's up to me to extract the stuff I care about. So this week I'm cleaning up. Fortunately, although no one responded directly to my call for help, last week I managed to find two people who were willing to do so -- a freelance writer named Lois, and batyatoon. Today we began the project. The front room has already been cleaned out, and all that's left behind are books that can be carted away. So the three of us worked on the back room. We found a lot of my stuff, including most of my Asimov books (some autographed) and boxes of comic books. We also designated a lot of stuff as junk and threw it in one of the rooms designated for such.

It's an odd trip down memory lane, and I have to admit that my own priority is the comic books. So near the end of today's work session, we went to the basement, where we found all my comics from 1995 and some from 1994. I'm still looking for all my Zero Hour tie-in books and my complete runs of Firestorm, Crisis, and DC Challenge, but I know they've got to be there somewhere. After all, I found all my Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld books, including the preview in Legion, the 12-issue maxiseries, the issue of DC Comics Presents in which she teamed up with Superman, and the Annual that served as a springboard to the ongoing series (which I never bothered with.) So the others are probably in the basement, and later this week we'll look for those.


In the meantime, I'm using the "off-hours" to bag and board comics. And those six hundred bags and boards I had shipped from New England Comics? A severe underestimate...

One final thing though -- being cooped up in this house will drive me nuts. Anyone local (i.e. in the New York City area) want to hang out some night this week?

Comments

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

Sorry 'bout the cabin fever. Curious that you mentioned Amethyst. I think I have the 1st 4 issues lying about somewhere.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

First four of the original maxi-series or the follow-up?

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

Hold on... I'll have to dig it out... where is it?

So much for my memory. I only have the 1st of 4. The legend reborn. Copyright 1987. Sorry to get you excited.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

The legend reborn? From 1987?

Is it in good condition? I'll give you a buck for it.

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

It's in very good condition and I paid $1.50 when it as new. Funny that. It's listed at $1.25.

Let me reread it and then it's yours.

[pisicutsa.livejournal.com]

Where in the city are you located? I have a bored Tabby here who is looking for some temp work and worked in a comic store so he'd treat your comics with love. :)

Also if you want to meet up one evening just to hang out that would be lovely. :)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

My Mom's place is in Forest Hills, an easy trip on the F train. However, the job doesn't entail working with the comic books much; because I have a bad back, I need people who can do a lot of picking things up off the floor, packing of boxes, and heavy lifting. We're moving a lot of books from the third floor to the basement.

If he's still interested, I might be able to use his help on Thursday or Friday. Depends on how far my current people get on Wednesday. Let me know if he'd be interested.

And yeah, I'd love to meet up to hang out! Are you free tomorrow night? Email me at mab at mabfan dot com.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I assume there's somewhere there you can get more bags & boards?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

There are two comic book stores in Forest Hills, but they're each a bit of a walk from the house. And as I don't have a car, it makes it difficult, since packs of boards are very heavy.

What I'll probably end up doing is bagging the comics I care most about, and leaving the rest for another trip. Not ideal, but probably necessary.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That would work. Or you could just bag the ones you think are higher priority for now.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

That's what I've decided to do, although my definition of "higher priority" might differ from other people's. Basically, I want to make sure that the ones I personally bought, such as the comics from 1994, are bagged and boarded. The ones that my half-brother Danny left behind from the 1960s might require more protection, but I don't care about them as much.

And I'm still trying to decide if I should dump the war comics and the Richie Rich comics or save them to sell...

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I meant the ones you personally value most... you can define that however you like.

How much Richie Rich do you have?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

We used to have more Richie Rich, but a while back we sold a bunch of them and the Archies as a lot. We have one box of Richie Rich left, which I'll probably abandon to the hauler. Except for issue #100, of course, which was already bagged by me years ago. I'll re-bag and board that one.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

It's kind of sad to throw them out, though I understand that you can't keep everything... might there be a literacy program that would want them?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

It's not a question of whether or not it would be good to donate things. There's plenty of stuff that might be sold on eBay, or donated to some worthy place. But we simply don't have the time or energy to make the effort; we need to get the junk cleared out efficiently and quickly. And so much of the stuff is junk, that the few items of more value just aren't worth dealing with.

Think of it this way. Suppose I could get, say, $100 for the whole lot of Richie Rich comics. But to do that I'd have to ship them to Boston, hawk them on eBay, mail them to the winning bidder, etc. It's simply not worth my time.

And as for charities, we've contacted a few about the books and comic books we'd be throwing out. Most are in bad enough condition that no one wants them, and most charities aren't going to send out a truck to pick up one box of stuff they might want.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean... I wound up dumping several years' worth of crisp Newsweeks from my parents' attic b/c I didn't have the time or energy to find them a home. I felt bad about it, but there's a limit to how much you can do.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I decided to take your suggestion and went to a comic shop in Manhattan, where I could buy another 100 bags and boards. It may be further away then the places in Forest Hills, but the subway makes it easier to carry them home.

Of course, that's still not enough, but it'll help.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Great, glad that was helpful!

Hang out?

[rosenhaus.livejournal.com]

First of all, thanks to you and Nomi for coming down to Ariana's to hear me the other night, and I hope you enjoyed it. AND for buying the cd; I hope you like that as well!

Sorry I can't help you with the cleanup (my back is better than it used to be, but I still have to take care of it), but maybe I could "hang" with you one evening. You have my card and therefore my number. Give a call during the day; morning is most likely, as I may go somewhere a lot cooler if I find I can't concentrate on my work. (Just because I don't want air conditioning in my apartment doesn't mean I don't appreciate it....)

All the best,
Steven

Re: Hang out?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I'd invite you to work in my Mom's house, but the downstairs AC unit is not working at the moment. Repair people are coming tomorrow....

Re: Hang out?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Oh, and by the way -- listening to you perform was our pleasure!

*raises hand*

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

G says he's willing to help and hang out. Batyatoon's got our phone number, or you can reply to me here... I'd join you but I've got work this week & (early) evenings already spoken for.

Re: *raises hand*

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

When you say G is willing to help, you mean with the manual labor for the rate I'm paying? I could possibly use his help on Thursday. I'll get your number from batyatoon. (Also, if you could send me your contact info at mab at mabfan dot com that would be great.)

Re: *raises hand*

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

Home phone number sent... G should be around during the day, and yeah, he's willing to help with the manual labor.