Imagine my shock and horror to feel the box tear away in my hands, and to be hit my the sudden but unmistakable aroma of mildew. I don't yet know how, but it seems that somehow it got wet under the box at some point in the past several months, and the mould took over back there. Needless to say, I've just spent an hour pulling out comics and wiping everything down, hoping like Hell there wouldn't be much permanent damage.
Luckily, I'm smart enough to have most of those comics bagged, so the mildew didn't touch them...but there are a bunch of loose comics in there, unbagged for whatever reason, as well as a few graphic novels. Final count shows four comic book that are basically unsalvageable, and only two of them really meant anything to me, and even then it wasn't much, so I'm OK there. My Doom Patrol graphic collection (Crawling From The Wreckage) is pretty water damaged along the bottom inch of the pages, but I managed to rid it of any mildew, so I think it'll be OK, though it'll always be a little discoloured and smell a little funny. Couple of the Ghost Rider specials got similar treatments, though not nearly as bad.
Needless to say, the box is way history, and I need to now go clean the carpets (and end table, and wall).