Why does this kind of thing keep happening at flea markets and not just with comics? I see the same play at gun shows with "original" military rifles that turn out to be rebuilt mixmasters, and at estate sales with "antique" furniture that's actually from a catalog in the 90s. The setup is always the same, a guy with a sob story about gas money or a sick kid, a price that's just low enough to feel like a steal but high enough that you don't walk away. It works because we want to believe we found something rare, and once that hope kicks in we stop checking the small stuff like price fonts and barcodes. The quickest tell without your phone is the paper itself, old newsprint feels dry and turns yellow brown, while reprints feel slick and white, plus real silver age books almost never sit flat because the staples have pulled after 60 years. If a "1962" book has a glossy cover and lays perfectly flat, walk away.

Wait, she just stood there in silence until he answered?? That is wild and also kind of genius. Twelve pages of charts getting skimmed in 90 seconds while a hallway chat gets her 8 percent is painful to read though.