phaxda's Blog - My Crazy Flea Market Day

RSS Bot · March 9, 2008

I started writing this in the "Thrift Finds" thread, but it kinda got out of control--I guess like that THREAD is --but then thought I would just post here and throw a link in that forum.

My friend Randy took me to an incredible flea market today. It was a little bit of a drive, but we made it safe and sound and man what a great sunny day to spend in a parking lot. On the way down I told him about this podcast I'd listened to last night, from Kevin Smith, all about going to a flea market:

http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2007...28/smodcast-13/

I laughed pretty hard at it (does take them awhile to get going, but once they do it's funny) because it was ALL TRUE. Highly recommend a listen, as it may put the rest of this post in proper context. So we pulled in at about 8 AM and went to work! Lucky for me, Randy does not collect video games but he is an ace at spotting them. Right off the bat I picked up:

5 2600 carts

2 5200 carts

some game called Decap Attack for genesis all for $3

He wanted $5, but I was inspired by Kevin Smith, so I talked him down.

At the next booth (aka parking space) I picked up a cheap RF modulator and a Mattel Classic Baseball re-release (2001) for $8. A bit much, but I need the RF modulator and this was one guy who was not going to be talked down. Some guys, you just know.

So we press on and there's a guy with just a few things outside his van. Doesn't really look like your typical seller, kind of a yuppie/programmer vibe going and he has some programming manuals and assorted older computer equipment. We're browsing and Randy elbows me hard in the ribs and points down and there's a box of at least a dozen 8-bit carts under the table. I can see a Big Five game and Astrochase and that's about it, so I reach down and the guy goes "AHA! Someone is interested in my Atari Games!" He was so HAPPY about it.

I am cool in these situations, so first words out of my mouth are "how much?"

"Two bucks."

That dude had 2 dollars in his hand so fast...and I got myself an awesome box of games. He turned out to be really nice and I even told him about AA! He was amazed someone would want these old things. I ALMOST offered him more money, but, well, when I get one of these deals I chalk it up to karma and factor in all the time I have spent "studying" Atari stuff. It's not a bad thing to profit from that knowledge. Plus, those games must have been there awhile--we got there pretty late!

Anyway, the highlights (stuff I didn't have):

Miner 2049er

Astro Chase

Jumpman Junior

Kaboom

Pole Position

ET Phone Home!

Pilot Programming

Assembler Editor (2 copies!)

Dupes:

Star Raiders

Basic x 2

Frogger (this one had a better label than mine though so that was good)

If you are still reading this, man, you must be bored. The next thing I bought was a...

Socrates Educational Video System with Hodge-Podge cartridge ($1)

So... I noticed this one because it had a cart in it. And also a "mouse system." It looks kinda like a Wacom tablet for kids. In all my years of thrifting I've never seen one and was obviously curious. No power supply. The guy selling it says "$2 and it's all yours."

I just started laughing. "My wife will kill me if I bring that home! There's no power supply!" And on and on like this, with they guy saying, no, no, you WANT this. You NEED this. And me walking away and saying I don't even have kids! and then he goes "why you got all those video games, then?!" because I had the stack of carts in my hand. It was just a total flea market moment. So I turn around and say "ok, will you take a dollar for it?" And we laughed and laughed and he took my dollar and now I have this monstrosity sitting in my game room. With no power supply or batteries. Why??!! I don't even know. Yikes.

After about 3 hours, we make our final lap and I notice a nice FM tuner that had somehow escaped my attention the first time around. As some loyal readers know, I have started to collect some vintage audio stuff in addition to video games and my audio find of the day was a beautiful Heathkit FM tuner for $10. A definite score in my book.

Also on the last lap, Randy bought a keyboard tray that weighs about 10 pounds. I've never seen anything quite like it and it cost him $5 in a closeout rate. As the seller (pictured pocketing his cash) said, "it's better than IKEA."

//

I was tempted by a nice tube radio for $25 but passed because the audio stuff is accumulating. While I checked it out, Randy went to look at some computer stuff spread out and when I joined him, he pointed out an EPROM burner. Hmmm. We were joking about burning some homebrews and general nonsense (even though neither of us have the faintest idea how to use it) and the seller came up and said "if you carry that piece of crap away, you can have it." So we carried it away.

It is a System General TURPRO-1/FX. I am kinda sure we might have just saved the guy some disposal fees, but if anyone knows what to do with it...

The end of the story should be that we drove back home and that was it. But nooooo...

We stopped at some crazy place called Weird Stuff Warehouse that had tons of discarded computer memory and stuff. I didn't buy anything, but apparently the very building we went to was where shipping and receiving for Atari was headquartered at one time! Cool. In homage, they had an Atari playing Pac-Man set up right inside the door. Awesome!