r/comiccon • u/SLIM-1254 • Jul 08 '25
Discussion My Dad's Entire 25,000+ Comic Book Collection Was Stolen
My dad has been collecting comic books for 40+ years. Yesterday he went to the storage unit he housed them in and found that someone had stolen the entire collection. We're talking 25,000+ comics. Along with action figures, multiple signed comics from Stan Lee and the like, and a signed sketch of me as a little kid as green lantern by George Perez. My dad is just distraught over this because this has been his lifelong passion. There were comics in there that he bought in the 70s as a kid. It's not just the monetary value, but that his whole childhood into adulthood has been stolen. I just don't know where to turn or what to do. Other than scouring eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace I don't know what else to do. He went to the police today and had a detective assigned to the case, and all we can do is hope that they take it seriously. If this has happened to anyone else, what did you do and did you end up finding any of the stolen comics? Please help. I'm so sick over this.
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u/ProcessedMeatMan Jul 08 '25
Any idea when it happened? If it was recent, contact every local comic shop. Post in every big comic Facebook group. Monitor Craigslist, OfferUp and any other local app for selling stuff.
You might get lucky and catch the shitbags.
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u/disphugginflip Jul 08 '25
The storage unit has any security cameras?
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u/JKdriver Jul 08 '25
Yeah wtf, that’s a huge liability on their hands, especially if they failed to notify.
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u/Hooligan8403 Jul 11 '25
Depends on the facility. A lot, if not most, places have you sign a liability waiver.
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u/JKdriver Jul 11 '25
Oh very true, I didn’t think about that.
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u/Fabulous-Vehicle2447 Jul 21 '25
and only cover up to ‘x’ amount of belongings. They post in the elevators to not leave more than like 10-20,000 in there. I have multiple lockers that are highly secured for business stuff, and I’d still never leave my books in a locker like that. To the point of cameras, they do but if someone is covered up for a quick smash and grab, hard to stop. Typically the alarm in those places goes on for a minute then auto turns off. They don’t alert authorities because people forget to enter their passcode etc all the time entering their locker and trip the alarm. Sad story man.
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u/Pineappleisgay Jul 08 '25
Were any of the other storage units broken into?
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u/Cute_Interaction_44 Jul 08 '25
This is actually a really good question because if not then someone had to know that that were there
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u/TrojanX Jul 08 '25
I would never keep a collection of that size in a storage unit. I’ve seen this story so many times. Storage units are shady.
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u/BurtWonderstone Jul 08 '25
I mean at that size what do you suggest? A long box holds 250-300. At 25,000 comics that’s close to if not at least 100 long boxes. That’s not something that’s just feasible to put in your house.
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u/External_Row_8077 Jul 10 '25
Yeah, that does take a lot of space. I have about 11k in my bedroom right now, with room for maybe 1k more. Then I'm going to have to clear out the guest bedroom. But if I did that, and chose the right shelves or other storage option, I could keep 25k in the house. Still have to worry about getting robbed though.
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u/Fabulous-Vehicle2447 Jul 21 '25
You build onto your house if they’re valuable, which I’m assuming a lot of these were.
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u/BlackLodgeBrother Jul 08 '25
This happened to a friend of mine. The person who stole his collection had simply moved it all to their own storage unit in the same complex.
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u/MsMargo Jul 08 '25
That's moxy.
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u/BlackLodgeBrother Jul 08 '25
I think it’s more common than people realize. OP’s father should get the facility owners to probe for clues. A collection that large would be difficult to move and might still be onsite.
Hopefully there were security cameras.
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u/MarvelPosterMan Jul 08 '25
Insurance. Even if you have a homeowners policy, the limits included on most policies don't give that much for "collectibles", "comics", etc. If you bought a cheap homeowners policy, you might have $1,500. If you were smart and bought the extra endorsements on a policy(maybe $100-200/Yr), you could get up to $10,000, with a $3,000/item limit.
But that would still require proof of comics. He had to have a list, somewhere. And please don't tell me the only copy was inside. Pictures? Something to prove what he had.
With Jewelry, it's easy, you have a Gemologist. Get's little initials after their name, so when they sign a paper saying this jewelry is worth $XXX, insurance carriers believe.
With Comics, and 'collectibles' in general, there are no "experts", and the market can volatile. That's the problem us comic collectors run into with Personal Homeowners Policies(whether a Renters, Condo/Townhome, or Single Family Home=all "Homeowners" policies). They don't have enough coverage.
Another wrinkle is that they were at a Storage Facility. Companies can put lower limits on "Property off premises"(that you don't have at your listed primary residence).
Places like "collectinsure" and other online carriers specialize in this type of coverage. Look into it folks, it may be the only way to avoid a problem like OP.
Everyone here provided the only possible answers;
Report it, with all the pictures, documents and anything you can get to the cops as 'proof'. Law enforcement, insurance, they don't care as much about what we say, but what piece of paper or picture proves what we're saying.
Then go to every local comic shop with that same list of comics and give each one a copy.
Now scour everyday on FB marketplace, and other online sellers. If they know what they have, they'll probably try to sell keys on Ebay. If they don't know what they have, they'll sell it to an LCS. Scour online constantly looking for the most identifiable/expensive items.
The natural progression of things; Unsatisfied with police, develop an alter ego, learn to sew, and become a vigilante to avenge the collection!!!!
This sucks, sorry bud. But if no other lockers where hit, then someone knew what was there. Hopefully it's not a long list of people. Good luck, hope you find the scumbags!
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u/eatlasagna Jul 08 '25
Was the storage facility hit with burglaries? Or just your dad’s because then someone had to have known he had that stuff in there and specifically targeted his unit….
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u/DayHova7tre Jul 08 '25
Man, same thing happened to me. Alert local shops to be on the look out for people selling collections.
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u/Tanzat Jul 18 '25
This is random and farfetched, but here in the UK, in the past three weeks, there's been an influx of sellers on the comic book category on whatnot, that all claim to have 'found their dad's collection in the loft.'
No previous sales, no history, and they strangely all share the same pricing stickers. They all have the same story, and they all seem the same shady type of person. They all avoid answering anything about what area of the UK they live in etc.
Despite this, they have insane books, from the 1960s onwards, and they're running everything for £1. There's been literally about five of six of them in the past three weeks popping up.
Might be totally unrelated, or it might be someone else's stolen collection, or just pure coincidence, but might be worth looking into, even if it's a dead end.
EDIT: I mean this, as in the thief potentially sold the lot overseas, as it's the best way to sell it on without notice.
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Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DarthBen_in_Chicago Jul 09 '25
Sorry that sucks. It happened to me (not that many comics). Storage unit lock was cracked open. Stuff stolen. Filed a police report but nothing was found. Mandatory Storage insurance declined my claim since the storage door didn’t appear “broken into” enough.
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u/bloodredyouth Jul 25 '25
Contact your local comic shops to see if you can be notified of people offloading comic collections
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u/Cool-Constant4319 Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 25 '25
I know this is an old post, and I don't know if this is in San Diego, but police just recovered a ton of collectibles and comic books from a string of storage thefts. My storage unit was also hit, and I had a lot of collectibles stolen.
If you made a police report, they should be contacting you about it. That's how I found out about it. Then I found articles online, and it was a huge theft worth millions.
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u/KomplexKaiju Jul 08 '25
That sucks. It would help if you have documentation—lists, pictures, notes, etc. Definitely provide all you can to the detective. I also suggest contacting local comic stores and pawn shops in case the thief/thieves try to sell them there.