Buzz interview with Goldmine

[Bigval]

Ha, this story brings back memories of frequenting my local comic book shop when I was a kid and being "friends" with the dude working the register. It gradually dawned on me the guy was a loser who realized too late that he had devoted his life to inane pursuits and so passive-aggressively turned his frustrations on his naive adolescent clientele, even as he tried to shake them down for their allowance money. Since then, I've always assumed every retail "collectible" shop is owned by or employs such bitter individuals. In the three, maybe four, times a year I go to a record shop, I limit my browsing time, and I never, ever allow myself to get drawn into chit-chatting with them.

It's funny it's a cliche at this point (see The Simpsons) but comic book store and record store guys just seem to be surly, dour, miserable people that seem to not only hate their choice of business but seemingly the fact they're alive too.

I've gotten kind of friendly with a couple of comic book store owners one was just absolutely miserable like any thing you asked him would be responded with a grunt and another who I got along with better was basically a charlatan ripping off Peter to pay Paul who funnily enough used to be an employee of the first one I mentioned who despised him for quitting, starting up his own store and helping to put him out of business.