BRIC-A-BRAC-A-BROKEN-RECORD!!

I was at the flea market rummaging through a box of old records when I could feel the merchant coming up behind me and I knew exactly what he was going to say -

"I'll sell you the whole box for five dollars".

This is the reason I have hundreds of old records stored in boxes. Yep, I said. There was about 150 mostly sleeveless 45rpm records, and the first one I looked at, a mint condition first pressing of Lou Christie's "How Many Teardrops" (Roulette R-4504), a 49 year old record, suggested there were more nuggets in the box.

I've since gone through the boxes and although an interesting lot, I shan't be retiring tomorrow.

Picture me on American Pickers -

"I bought the records for five dollars. I think I can get $10,000 for them."             $5.00
                                                                                                                            +$10,000
                                                                                                                             + $9,995
                                                                                                                                 
So with Record Store Day behind me, and now a few boxes of orphaned records to add to my collection, I attended the twice annual Record Show at the local VFW post.

... and managed to get out of there with merely 4 picture sleeve 45rpm. This pic was taken when the doors just opened up at 10 AM. A few minutes later the place was swarming and crawling with record fans.

I was drifting through a thrift store and came across an Iron Man action figure, and casually pressed a button on its chest and nearly jumped out of my socks when the thing lit up and a voice announced, "I AM IRON MAN!".

He also says, "REPULSOR BLAST!", and "AUXILLARY POWER ON!". And the sound of a super-gun blasting as his hand lights up. He's a 2007 Hasbro-Marvel toy that cost me a whopping 99 cents.

Not as much luck with The Thing action figure that I also bought for 99 cents. New batteries didn't do a THING for him. It's a circa 2005 Marvel toy tie-in with the "Fantastic Four" film of that year.
Although he doesn't talk and is supposed to, he has great detail and looks cool and, well, I love him.

As you can see in this pic, he just knocked out Iron Man.

POSTSCRIPT 5/4: The Thing DOES TALK! Apparently my new batteries weren't so new. He says, "Back off, Buttercup!", "I'm just the Thing!", "Watch it, Punk!", "Thank you, I'm one of the good guys!", and groans, burps, and then says... "Excuse me!".