Comic Book ads - Ever get ripped-off as a kid buying this stuff?

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Some examples...

http://www.steveconley.com/comicads.htm

http://www.tomheroes.com/Comic%20Ads/comicads.htm

I really had my heart set on buying the "Darling Pet Monkey"...



I could have posted that even as a naive 10 year old, I somehow knew that upon arrival that I'd open the hastily wrapped box and discover a malnourished, foul smelling, bad tempered, worm infested simian that would cause nothing but grief in our small apartment so I decided against the idea. But, in reality... I didn't have the $18.95

However...

I did send for the "Ant Farm" (without my mothers knowledge of course :smoke:)...



But never did send off the coupon for the ants.
I managed to capture some 'wild' ants, but they refused to cooperate and
build any tunnels (I figured either they were too lazy or just the wrong kind of ants). :shrug:

In another poorly thought out decision and dreams of untold fortune, I got suckered in to selling Burpee Seeds door-to-door (also without my mothers knowledge).

It was kind'a like a combination of the temp agency/Amway/record club scam of the day; they'd front you the seeds and from whatever you sold, they'd get the money and you'd earn points towards earning an ant farm or diseased monkey.

Other than a few begrudging relatives, I don't think I sold more than 5 packages of seeds (it didn't help that I lived in the city and that I lost interest in it after about 1 day). I never sent the remaining seed packages back (or any money for that matter).

The good news is that the collection agencies gave up on me about 5 years ago.

[Aristus]

1. I was really cheesed off to discover that sea-monkeys weren't those

cute, smiling creatures with the crowns and flippers, but just little boring brine-shrimp. The set didn't even come with the undersea castle shown in the ad. :grr:

[RushIsRot]

2. I actually met the guy who created the ad for Sea Monkeys.

I visited his studio in NYC. He also created the Crooked Deck, a deck of playing cards shaped roughly like a "Z."

[ironflange]

3. I sent for the X-Ray Specs

I had a dirty little mind even when I was nine. Not surprisingly, I couldn't see much through them. Maybe I didn't have enough faith!

I also sent for that ventriloquist device. A strange gizmo arrived, with instructions in pidgin English, and I never could figure out how to work the thing.