A Kiss Goodbye: Wife accidentally sells husband’s autographed Kiss album at Cedar Rapids garage sale

UPDATE:

CEDAR RAPIDS — The record is back.

Susie Dale, of Cedar Rapids, said the man who purchased her husband Pat's 1977 'Kiss Alive II' album, autographed by Gene Simmons, showed up before 8 a.m. today to her garage sale and returned the album in exchange for the $2 he paid for it on Friday.

'He brought it back, so that was very nice,' said Dale. 'And, he would not take the $50.'

Dale had offered to buy the record back for that amount and also joked she'd throw in her old treadmill, which also is for sale.

'He would not take the treadmill,' Dale said, noting she's slashing prices at her sale today.

'Valuable stuff is $2, everything else is free,' she joked. 'The treadmill is 'I give you $2.''

Dale said the man who returned the album wished to remain anonymous and she has no idea where it is now.

'Pat took it and went in the house,' she said.

By Rob Clark, The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS — What started as a harmless garage sale to clear out unwanted items from her home, has turned into a bit of a rock-n-roll nightmare for Susie Dale.

Dale, who lives at 280 Thunderbird Rd. SE, is hoping the man who paid $2 for her husband's 1977 'Kiss Alive II' album turns out to be a good Samaritan and offers to return the album.

She said she's willing to pay him $50 for its safe return and refund him the $10 he paid for five other albums on Thursday.

Why go to so much trouble?

The album was autographed and given to her husband Pat Dale by Kiss frontman Gene Simmons.

'Mister, please be a Christian,' Susie Deal pleaded on Friday as her sale continued. 'I will pay you back for all the stuff you bought and I'll give you all our other records and any records I find in the future.

'And that treadmill.'

Susie Dale explained that when she and her husband moved into the house nine years ago they discovered a stack of records left behind inside an old Nutone record player cabinet that remains built into one of the walls.

Among the albums was 'Frampton Comes Alive' Jim Croce's 'Photographs & Memories,' 'At Folsom Prison' by Johnny Cash, the Beach Boys' 'Endless Summer' and recordings by Elvis, Blood Sweat & Tears, Earth, Wind & Fire, Nazareth, Cole Porter and Little Feat.

The Kiss album, given to Pat Dale by Simmons at a trade show in Las Vegas some years ago, had found its way into the pile.

Susie Dale said she grabbed the records and set them out in the sale among the dishes, clothes, chairs, baskets, an old microwave and a green love seat, along with other items.

A photo of the records — showing a sliver of the Kiss album — was posted on Craigslist.

'A man showed up here Thursday morning and wanted to buy the records and I couldn't find them,' Dale said. 'I think my husband had put them back in the cabinet, so we went inside and he bought six of them for $12.'

She said the man mentioned he works for Rockwell Collins and likely had no idea the album was extra special because Simmons signed the record label on the inside.

Rockwell Collins spokesman Josh Baynes said the story was making the rounds Friday and that someone posted the story about the album on the company's internal chat board. No one had replied to the post by Friday afternoon, Baynes said. But, he noted, 8,000 people work at the plant.

Pat Dale could not be reached by The Gazette for comment.

As of Friday night, the album had not resurfaced, but Susie Dale said she did have a special visitor to her home — Mayor Ron Corbett, who stopped by and autographed the Dale's 'Corbett for Governor' yard sign and suggested they try to sell it on Saturday at the garage sale. She said she's going to do just that.

Susie Dale said this isn't the first time she has screwed up.

She once used her husband's money to tip the pizza delivery man.

'I might have sneaked into my husband's closet to get some money to tip the pizza guy,' she said. 'I ended up grabbing a $5 bill that was special — it was a bill that was being passed around my husband's work.'

Dale said she had to track down the delivery man and pay him $10 to get her $5 bill back.

'Every time I screw up my kitchen remodel gets put on hold,' she said. 'It seems like my kitchen remodel has been on hold for nine years.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8260; rob.clark@thegazette.com