Well, when we last left our hero, he had been expecting the arrival of a mystery package, only to be met by the nefarious Boris Badenov and his ruffian-in-arms, Natasha Fatale, who convinced the none-too-bright moose that they were internationally renowned talent brokers.

Ahem.

I mean, I was expecting a package, as you all remember.

This has been one of the best surprises I’ve gotten in years. I don’t know who sent this, but awaiting the arrival of this mysterious present has been exciting. I’ve been playing amateur detective over the last day (without “cheating” like contacting ComicsNow to see who sent it), and I’ve narrowed it down to a few people.

The key clues are thus:
* The person knows my address, including my Zip+4. It’s possible that they can find the +4 code online, I can’t rule that out, but most likely it is someone I’ve sent mail to.
* My birthday is next Thursday. Assuming this is a birthday gift, that means the person knows my birthday.
* The item is comic-related, since it is from a comic book web site.
* It’s rather a dangerous thing to send a person a gift without referring to a wish list, especially if it’s in a line of collectibles that they collect. For instance, if someone collects David Winter cottages, you can’t just send them one unless you have reason to know what is and isn’t in their collection. Of course, my collection IS online, so that’s check-able. Even more likely, they have a good reason to know that what they’re sending me is not something I have. Maybe it’s a Metal Men Archives or Adam Strange, since I haven’t been buying Archives. Or perhaps this is some brand new product hot off the press.

PRIME SUSPECTS:
** Beau Smith‘s new “Cobb: Off The Leash” collected edition debuted days ago, and he’s a generous guy who has sent goodies before. He could also just be wanting a review of the TPB. Nobody ever said that Beau was a failure at self-promotion, right? So maybe this isn’t birthday-related. Still, why send it from ComicsNow? He probably has comps at his home address. (Though I’ve heard enough incidents of creators still waiting for their comps when the reviewers already have them. Could be Beau put me on a list and the company sent them out via ComicsNow.)
** Erik Burnham. I organized a big Christmas present for him a few months ago, though really the generosity came from many other people. And if he bought me anything for my birthday I’d be mad at him, because I hear he may be moving and that’s going to require money. And he knows that. So it better not be from him. BUT…he would have my full mailing address, having gotten it off my packages to him.
** Scott Beatty. He sends me stuff, though never from a dealer. Still, maybe it’s a new book of his, similar to what I suspected above for Beau.
** Dozens of other possibilities. Really, the detective work is moot, because it could be anyone who reads the site, or has worked with me, or knows me.

My wife walks in with the mail, including a large, thin envelope from ComicsNow. It’s Priority! Dang, that was fast. I thought this mystery would play out for another three days.

I grab the tab and pull the zip strip off the top. Inside is some padding material, a thin item and a packing slip.

I turn the packing slip over to see who the buyer was. It was…

Oh for pete’s sake!

It’s me.

It’s the Midnight Syndicate “Dungeons and Dragons Soundtrack” CD I ordered from Amazon last week. I saved $5 by purchasing it new from a reseller instead of Amazon directly, and I didn’t pay any attention to the name of the reseller. Turns out ComicsNow, in addition to selling comic books through their own merchant site, also sells other merchandise via Amazon.

The most awesome mystery present I ever got turns out to be my own purchase arriving from an unexpected vendor.

Here I thought someone out there was really cool. Turns out no one’s cool.