My comic shop in Phoenix had a flood and we lost half the back issue bins

It was a Tuesday morning about six months ago, I got a call from the owner. A pipe burst overnight in the unit above us. By the time he got there, water was dripping through the ceiling tiles right onto the long boxes. We rushed over and started pulling everything out, but the bottom two rows in three of the metal racks were soaked. We laid out maybe 300 books on every flat surface we could find, from the counter to the floor. Some of the older 80s books were stuck together, the colors bleeding. We spent the whole day just trying to separate pages with wax paper. It was a total gut punch, seeing books people had been collecting for decades just ruined in a few hours. The shop is still open, but that section is way thinner now. Has anyone else had to deal with saving a collection from water damage? What actually works?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_olivia10d agoTop Commenter

Man, that's just heartbreaking to read. All that history just gone. Makes you wonder about the stuff that wasn't even in the bins, like old posters or original art some shops have tucked away. Did you manage to save anything that was framed or in those flat file drawers, or was it all just the back issues taking the hit?

foster.jordan10d ago

Save a few framed pieces by pure luck, but the flat files got hit hard. Honestly felt like watching someone toss out a museum's storage room. Some days I miss that old clutter more than the actual shop.

christopherw3410d ago

My old local shop in Akron had this one flat file full of 70s concert posters, the real thick stock kind. When they cleared it out for a remodel, they just recycled the whole drawer, said it was "old paper." I get what you mean about it feeling like a museum dump, it's a specific kind of sad. @the_olivia is right, you always wonder about the stuff that never even made it to the sale bins, the things they didn't see as special. I kept one beat up Spider-Man poster from that day, and it's more about the memory of the rest of it being gone.