bacigalup

From nypost.com:

What a marvel-ous home.

Vintage comic books and figurines fill an “abandoned” house discovered by urban explorer Devin Dark, who suspects the ’80s and ’90s merchandise is worth “millions.”

“You walk in and immediately you can see everything stockpiled right in front,” Dark, who hails from Chicago, told SWNS. “It’s just overwhelming. You just stand there looking at everything, not knowing what to do.”

Dark, 27, shared footage of the superhero fanatic’s lair on TikTok last week, quickly collecting over 26,000 views. He posted a longer video on YouTube, but didn’t disclose the home’s location.

“At all times throughout the entire house, there were two feet of toys on the floor going right up to my knees,” he explained. “I was shocked. It’s not like these are things that are junk.”

“Everything in the house is engulfed in toys, so whatever the home used to be is no longer there,” he added.

Graphic novels line the floors and shelves, and Dark unearthed old toys in mint condition, some still in their original packaging.

Dark claims the owner of the two-story house was a toy store manager who died 15 years ago after an illness.

“There were ‘Star Wars’ figures, Superman, Spider-Man, anything that comes to your mind when it comes to comic book superheroes or collectibles. The place had it all,” he recalled. “There were too many [items] to estimate. It would be overwhelming to even guess a number at that point, there’s just so much left behind.”

“I really wouldn’t know how much it’s worth. There’s a possibility of millions of dollars left behind,” he shared, noting that “it clearly wasn’t about the money” for the previous resident.

He said it’s “humbling,” then, “to be able to walk through someone’s life and just learn a bit about them.”

“It’s kind of a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions, because you first enter the house and you’re shocked by the number of things left behind,” he recounted. “And as you keep going around, you figure out that the person who lives here is no longer here, and it’s kind of a sad reality.”

The home is just one of the sites Dark has explored since embarking on his journey to uncover abandoned places in America nearly a decade ago. His latest find left TikTok commenters dispirited.

“Sad to [hear] he passed and also sad for the way his collection wound up, some really good stuff there,” one viewer lamented.

“Seeing a fellow collector’s collection looking like this really makes me sad,” agreed another.

“It was so hard to watch the full video, with all those unopened collectibles worth so much money now,” a third confessed.


https://nypost.com/2023/04/21/comic-...orth-millions/


Here's that You Tube video of the house (it's 40 minutes long):

Nesbit

Skipped around but enjoyed looking through it quite a bit.

rexinnih

Great story. Cringe at the hoarding.

The Spectre

There was nothing worth millions there and the problem is that now will get idiots who aren't in the business crashing estate sales or buying collection for over real price value and then try to dump them at stores and cons like if they were gold. Already saw a story yesterday of some non-comic book expert carneys buying a collection for $12K at a estate sale when the collection worth was really around $4k.

stingermck

All I see is junk.

cultshock

Me too, I mostly saw mundane 90s-era toys that are clogging up flea market booths to this day, or just crap. "Worth millions", yeah sure. I've seen videos of houses filled with interesting older toys that would be worth some bucks, this one ain't it.

Josh-da-man

I didn't watch the video (40 minutes?) but was wondering how they got "millions of dollars" out of 80s and 90s comics and toys.

Just looking at the comics in the graphic on the video, those comics aren't in "mint" condition. Everything was probably stored in less than ideal conditions, and nothing that is of great value will probably be able to get a CGC premium for ultra high grade.

Hoarders, even if they start out being worried about keeping things in pristine condition, soon abandon those concerns as the mindless accumulation of stuff takes over and space starts to run out.

PhantomStranger

Yeah, the worth looks vastly overestimated unless there are much older items hiding in the stacks. Outside of key issues, vintage comic books from the 80s and 90s aren't worth millions by any stretch.

HeIsTheZissou

Not even Secret Origins Vol. 2 #10?!