The Official "Thrift finds" Thread

[Atariman]

Well, it has been awhile since I found any really good scores worth telling, but after a trip to a Goodwill in Indy, I figure I had a decent find...

 

So there's this new Goodwill in Indy - it's a Goodwill outlet actually. I think it is probably where all of the unbought stuff goes from other Goodwills as the merchandise is sold by the pound. That's right - by the pound. (crazy) My sister brought home an Atari 2600 and a Genesis that wound up being $1.00 per pound, so she got quite a deal (especially considering that they both worked just fine).

 

I decided that I really needed to see this Goodwill myself, so here's what I concluded after my trip - it is everything that a Goodwill store should be and more.

 

Good thing #1. Don't want to buy something by the pound? Found a computer that you want to be priced out? Get one of the guys on the sales floor to come over and slap a price tag on it. Here's what I got from this 'good thing': A Dell 4300s (has a 1.6Ghz P4 in it along with a USB 2.0 card and DVD drive) with its keyboard, speakers, and mouse - all for $9.99. I also got a 24x external CD burner for $1.99. Both of these items work. The computer was only missing its hard drive (easily replaced, but getting ahold of a copy of XP home to use with the serial number might be a bit of a trial - I only have XP Pro on my machines at home)

 

Good thing #2. Hate going through a Goodwill store where everything is picked over? This one consists primarily of large blue bins on wheels that just have stuff dumped in them. The reason for this? After they are picked through and have been on the floor for so long, the employees roll them into the back room and replace them with more merchandise. Here's what I got from this 'good thing': A working JVC X'Eye for $2.00.

 

Good thing #3. At least you don't have to dig around for monitors. This place has a relatively large rack of them and they are all priced for $2.00. I picked an Applecolor Composite Monitor and a 19 inch trinitron (mfg 1999) for $2.00 each.

 

I also picked up a pretty beat up SNES and an almost brand-new Lava lamp. Needless to say, I will be returning to that Goodwill as often as I can.

 

Overall, I would say I didn't go over $30 with the whole purchase and I easily got my Christmas shopping done for my girlfriend (the recipient of the computer, monitor, and lava lamp).

Edited November 27, 2005 by atariman

[MichaelJMcKernan]

We used to have one like that in Albuquerque where the stock changed everyday, and what didn't sell they pitched. I picked up everything I could ever want in video games at that place, and then they changed it and started marketing it, so you have all these ebay guys there now. But I definitely had my fun there at one time.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Well, it has been awhile since I found any really good scores worth telling, but after a trip to a Goodwill in Indy, I figure I had a decent find...

 

So there's this new Goodwill in Indy - it's a Goodwill outlet actually.  I think it is probably where all of the unbought stuff goes from other Goodwills as the merchandise is sold by the pound.  That's right - by the pound.  (crazy)  My sister brought home an Atari 2600 and a Genesis that wound up being $1.00 per pound, so she got quite a deal (especially considering that they both worked just fine).

 

I decided that I really needed to see this Goodwill myself, so here's what I concluded after my trip - it is everything that a Goodwill store should be and more.

Yep, I love 'em. First one I found was on the south side of San Antonio. Hard to get to, but lots o' stuff, especially for a guy like me who got into collecting BECAUSE of thrifting. I had been thrifting for like three years when I finally got tired of nearly tripping over 2600 carts. Good thing I started when I did, because I had a about a year or so all to myself before everything suddenly dried up.

 

They're variously named as either a "salvage store", a "clearance store", or here in Austin, the yuppified name of "blue hanger". I'm really annoyed to find that there was one just around the corner from where I work, though not the way I normally go. I saw the "GOODWILL OPEN" sign once and wondered, but forgot about it until someone at the nearby regular goodwill store mentioned it to me a couple of weeks ago.

 

Normally I just get "bottom feeder" stuff, like assorted Lego bricks, but every now and then I find something good, like the time I found FIVE Astrocade carts in a bin, one of which I didn't already have.

 

 

So anyhow, on to my own little brag. As regular readers of this thread may remember, a year ago I found a bunch of Super Famicom games at a local thrift store. Two months later, I found the instructions to those and other games, along with a bunch of regular Famicom carts. Well, now I've managed to find six of the other missing Super Famicom carts!

 

Seems someone has opened a games store here which is mostly classic stuff, and I went out there to check it out. I noticed in one counter case half a dozen SF games. After talking for a while, I looked at them real close and realized what combination of games they were. Yes, they were the very games that I had the instructions from! The non-RPG games had already been sold, but all six RPGs were right there. I guess someone snagged them and traded them in for store credit. They weren't exactly cheap, but I bought them all. It was karma, you know?

 

So anyhow, I've been playing the Japanese version of FFVI for a week or so, and I'm maybe 40% through it. (I've got past the opera house bit) Sure, I'm using a walkthrough, but that's just so I don't have to bang my head against the wall for all the tricky parts.

[SteveW]

A pretty dry day for me, find wise.

 

Bought Exodus: Ultima III for the Apple II, missing one of it's books and the map, but at least the other books and floppy are there. $3.99.

 

Bought a copy of Venture for the Atari 2600 (couldn't remember if I already had one), $3.98, and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing for the Dreamcast, $1.98. It always strikes me as odd that I end up paying twice as much for classic games at that thrift than modern ones, just because they exist in cartridge form instead of CDs.

 

Since the last time I shopped there a week or so ago, the thrift I bought the Ready 2 Rumble Dreamcast game at has been swamped with copies of the Dreamcast Web Browser. I wonder where they all come from?

 

 

I ended up passing up a boxed Commodore 64 (with two power supplies in the box, oddly enough) for $24.99, and an Intellivision 1 console with the metal cover missing from the player two control disc for $9.99. While I was browsing, a sales guy put down a box for a FireWire CD-RW drive. I thought that for $20.99 I could at least reuse the external case if the drive didn't work, so I opened it up and looked inside. The box was filled with books and picture frames. They didn't even look inside before slapping a price on it. All the rattling around inside the box should have tipped them off, but apparently they don't have the most razor-sharp staff at this location. Glad I bothered checking the box first.

Edited December 1, 2005 by SteveW

[silverpoodleman]

I have a few sites on-line that I check for deals and steals - games that I know I can easily resell and make a profit. Occasionally, I come across some spelling mistakes which costs the seller dearly and help people looking for the game miss it.

 

My most recent example is MUSHA for Sega Genesis - a game that can easily sell for $25 + shipping on ebay. I found a version spelled MUSHHA with a starting bid of $0.01. I have followed many MUSHA bids on ebay and the serious bidders usually come in during the last few minutes. I bid $5 figuring I didn't have a shot. In fact, I didn't even follow the auction.

 

When I checked ebay later that night, imagine my surprise when I discovered I won the auction with a bid of $0.01 + shipping (I think $4 or so).

 

I also just landed McDonald's Treasure Adventure Game for $0.06 and Chester Cheetah for $0.01.

Edited December 2, 2005 by silverpoodleman

[shadow460]

LAnded a 7800 DK Jr for a buck the other day. That was ebay, though, not a thrift.

I did locate a couple of Gennys, but passed on them.

If I ever find that DC Web Browser, though, I'm snagging a copy of it.

 

Usually around here, the thrifts are loaded with Genny, SNES and NES carts. Some are loaded with Inty carts also.

 

CD or DVD based games aren't too common, and anything else is unheard of. You really gotta hit em just right to find anything close to 2600 carts (besides the Inty ones).

[gulag picture radio]

If you really want the DC browser, there was a guy flooding Ebay with them recently for $15. It's version 3 of the browser whilch has a lot of stuff over the version that was included with Dreamcasts, including thigns like mouse support (duh) and support of the Broadband adapter (which I'd really like to find someday for less than $100).

 

I had a really unexpected find yesterday. A new second hand bookstore opened up near me and they had a teeny tiny video game section. To my surprise they had Atari games - boxed! It was mostly the early releases, half from Atari and half from Sears. I bought all dozen they had for about $2 each. They also had Sears packaged paddle controllers, also for $2. Woo hoo!

 

At another thrift they got in 2600 carts, which they seldom do nowadays. I got a blue label River Raid for $2, and a Midnight Magic for $2 (never been able to find Midnight Magic for some reason). Also Journey Escape and Wizard of Wor.

 

For NES I got Palamedes (a quite rare puzzle game that I sold off years ago for too much money, but sort of regretted it), Loopz, and two of those Bible Adventure Games. I think that those are kinda rare.

 

Hey Silverpoodleman, are those tie-in Genesis games rare? I'm pretty sure that I have both the ROnald MCDonald and the Chester Cheetah game. I got 'em years back for a quarter because I thought that they were pretty funny subjects for a game. Then again, didn't that NOID game actually exist on several platforms?

 

Thrift on, everybody!

[NightSprinter]

Oh man, did I make like a bandit with some scores:

 

Sega Genesis Ver. 1 with 32X expansion, controllers, all hookups, and 13 games (12 in the box!) for $10

 

Genesis Ver. 2 with hookups and Sonic1 game (game in box) for $5

 

NES "Action Set" with hookups, controllers, and 7 games for $10

 

MS Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel for $5

 

Not bad, I'd have to say.

Edited December 3, 2005 by NightSprinter

[+FujiSkunk]

While I didn't find anything spectacular, I did find a lot of little things that were worth picking up.

 

I found new-in-box, shrinkwrapped editions of RBI Baseball 3 for the Genesis and Jordan vs. Bird: One on One for the PC, and instruction manuals to Super Mario Brothers / Duck Hunt for the NES and Metroid II for the Game Boy, and a PS2 audio/S-video Monster brand cable, all for $1 or less each.

 

I also stumbled onto a label-less ColecoVision cartridge. A mystery! Would it be Root Beer Tapper? Could it be Spy Hunter? Or would I be stuck with yet another Donkey Kong?

 

Well, the good news is, it isn't Donkey Kong. The bad news is, it turned out to be Turbo. And me without a steering controller (not to mention I already have Turbo). Oh well.

[SteveW]

Aaaarrrrggghhh!!! I went out to the flea market today. Turns out, yesterday, the classic game trader at the back of the flea market came across someone selling a boxed Vectrex, along with 11 complete-in-box games! Man, I wish I could have found that. It would have been sweet. I didn't find hardly anything today.

 

Bought a black Sports Series Sega Dreamcast with a couple controllers and a whole pile of games. I'm going to clean it up and give it to my nephews, since they're still toiling away with a Sega Genesis.

 

Bought a sad ol' Frogger Atari 2600 cart out of pity, since it was being severely neglected.

 

Bought a really weird Famiclone called a Sky Eye Racing Pro. It didn't come with anything, just the console itself. But it's pretty nice looking. Here's a picture of it, shamelessly swiped off a Famiclone collector's page, which originally shamelessly swiped it off eBay.

[+FujiSkunk]

Bought a really weird Famiclone called a Sky Eye Racing Pro. It didn't come with anything, just the console itself. But it's pretty nice looking...

976421[/snapback]

 

That's a Famiclone? I've seen one around here before. Does it have a cartridge port, or just have built-in games?

[SteveW]

On the blue base, inside that slot, is a spring loaded door hiding a cartridge slot. It's a Famicom slot, not a 70-pin NES slot. It's supposed to have built-in games, leaning more toward racing games, according to the Famiclone collector's site.

 

I haven't tried it out, since I didn't get any cables or a power supply with it. Although it's only a generic 9v power supply, there needs to be a special AV cable. I think it might be a S-video connector. Which would be pretty unusual for a Famiclone, having S-video out.

 

Mine seems to have a few things rattling around inside it. Still, it's not a bad little device for the dollar I paid for it.

Edited December 5, 2005 by SteveW

[Bruce Tomlin]

I did okay this weekend. I went up to Dallas for a little games/anime convention, partly just for the heck of it and to socialize with anime fandom friends, but also because it was a First Saturday weekend, and because I had to see The VFW Thrift.

 

So I leave Austin at 2PM or so, get set up with the Motel 6 three hours later, and go on to the nearby Thrift Town. I find a Donkey Kong Jr. Math for two bucks; N64 Ken Griffey MLB and San Francisco Rush, $2 for the pair; and an N64 game storage case. I move on to the VFW, only to find out that it closed at a quarter to six, and I was there at 6:15. Then I went on to Arlington, didn't find much, but found that Electronic Discount Sales closed at 7PM and it was then 7:15. And the Goodwill down there was closed, too.

 

So first thing Saturday, I hit the VFW thrift. I really didn't find anything, just a book and a slightly overpriced ($10) PC which I got for its 5 1/4" floppy drive. I've been trying to accumulate them for use with my Catweasel board. Then I went on to First Saturday where I found a bare (probably HD) 5 1/4" floppy drive for a dollar, then five more old video cards with one EPROM each, for a buck each. (The last 5 1/4" floppy I got for a buck didn't work, so I feel a lot better if I get one that's still in its original PC.)

 

Sunday I head back to Arlington to go to the places that I missed. Neither place opened before noon, so I spent two hours walking around the nearby mall killing time. I saw some wierd thing called the "REACTRIX" which was like an Eye Toy on steroids. It was mounted overhead, and there was a big white surface taped to the floor. It changed modes every minute or so, with stuff like soccer/hockey games, and a fish pond with koi fish that would run away from you. Kids went nuts for it.

 

There was still a little time before noon, so I checked the Half Price Books. Got SNES Adventures of Yogi Bear and Thomas the Tank Engine for $5 each. Goodwill had zilch. At EDS, they had a "buy two, get the second for half price" sale. I just got a few carts: GEN Miracle Piano $5, GEN Rolo to the Rescue $4 (half off), GEN Monopoly CIB $5, GEN Clue CIB $5 (half off). In case anyone cares, they have five NES Miracle Piano carts there.

 

I moved on to Ft. Worth, but all I found was a PC with 5 1/4" floppy drive, half off of $6. And apparently there's a Thrift Town near downtown Ft. Worth that I haven't been locate yet. I found that a Texas Thrift (?) in south Ft. Worth was gone, and the nearby Goodwill+computerworks had crappy hours: 9-5 every day except closed Sunday. Ugh.

[SteveW]

Aw, man. I wish I had known you were coming up to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I would have told you that the Disabled American Veterans store in Irving (I'm assuming that's the one you're talking about) has pretty much gotten rid of all their shelf space that was devoted to electronics and computers and put Christmas stuff there. And apparently someone went in and absolutely wiped out all their Genesis/NES/PS1/SMS stuff. After Christmas, they'll start expanding their computer and electronics section.

 

Next time you're in the Arlington area on a weekend, try to hit Trader's Village. It's the local (and gigantic) flea market, and there's always stuff to be had. At the farthest northern set of stalls, there's a guy who has all sorts of 'vintage' electronics, including lots of classic computers and game consoles. You need an RCA Studio II game? He's got a couple. He's got a Pioneer LaserActive with the Sega Mega LD module in it (at least he had it a few weeks ago, unless he's sold it on eBay), he's got all sorts of strange consoles and software.

[Rockin' Kat]

I really havn't been finding anything at thrift stores lately... but I did get a bunch of 99cent game gear games at Game Crazy today.

Edited December 7, 2005 by SuperPsycho

[gulag picture radio]

Hey SteveW, do you rmember how much that guy wanted for his Laser Active? I ewant to get a backup LD player for my movie collection, and a LaserActive seems like the right way to go. They're usually insanely expensive however for what they are.

[SteveW]

I don't think I ever asked him how much he wanted for it. I'll be going back next Saturday, so I can ask him then. (He's holding a couple Vectrex games for me!)

 

I've got a LaserActive with the MegaLD module, and it doesn't play movies all that well for some reason. My laserdisks seem to have some kind of vertical ghosting flutter on screen during playback, but strangely enough the two FMV games I have don't have that problem during playback. I just wonder if it has anything to do with the technology, or has my LaserActive just not aged well? Anyway, I suggest you make sure any unit you buy is tested first, to make sure it's got clear playback.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Hey SteveW, do you rmember how much that guy wanted for his Laser Active?  I ewant to get a backup LD player for my movie collection, and a LaserActive seems like the right way to go.    They're usually insanely expensive however for what they are.

They're not really such great laserdisc players. Probably the worst thing about them is that when the Sega module is inserted, you can't properly turn the LD player off such that it parks its heads, and it is likely to get out of alignment if transported that way. You have to turn it off, remove the module, THEN you have to turn it on again and turn it off using the remote.

 

And then it's only a plain old single-sided LD player without even a Dolby Digital output. (note: to use the DD from any LD player, you have to have an RF demodulator, and most modern amps do not have that input, so you need an external RF demodulator)

 

I'd even sell you one of mine if I didn't have to ship it. I will NOT ship anything that big and fragile, because it's a total pain in the ass.

[gulag picture radio]

Too bad about not wanting to ship it, Bruce. I'd love one of those devices, despite it's weakness as an LD player. You're not anywhere near Chicago, are you?

[Bruce Tomlin]

I've got a LaserActive with the MegaLD module, and it doesn't play movies all that well for some reason. My laserdisks seem to have some kind of vertical ghosting flutter on screen during playback, but strangely enough the two FMV games I have don't have that problem during playback.

I just now re-read this. You have an alignment problem of some sort, or if you see two of them, a collimation problem, and it's probably not worth the trouble of getting fixed.

 

What you are seeing is crosstalk from the sync bars of adjacent tracks being read by a out-of-alignment laser. If there are two of them, it's a collimation problem when the beam is a bit too large and it's seeing both adjacent tracks. One of my Laseractives also has this problem, and it could be because it wasn't parked properly for shipment.

 

It is important to realize, however, that some disks are more likely to show this problem than others. In particular, disks manufactured by 3M (the ones with lots of bars around the hub area, before they changed their name to Imation) are more likely to have this problem. Most LD folks know that there are CAV and CLV disks, but what most don't know is that there are two types of CLV. Most CLV disks are actually zoned CAV, which causes the nearby tracks to be in sync with each other to avoid crosstalk. 3M, however, mastered disks with true CLV, so adjacent tracks are out of sync with each other. This means that a marginally out-of-alignment player may show crosstalk when it wouldn't normally.

 

And you won't see it at all on CAV disks, including your FMV games, because every track is exactly in sync, and usually contains almost the same video as both adjacent tracks.

 

In my case, I noticed this on Animeigo disks. They used 3M because they didn't have the infamous laser rot problems of Sony.

Edited December 9, 2005 by Bruce Tomlin

[SteveW]

Wow, thanks for the info! I've been wondering what's been ailing my poor LaserActive.

[ATARIeric]

Yesterday I was driving to the store & noticed a house in my neighborhood was having a yard sale, I drove slowly & noticed a few xbox games sitting on a table that had a big poster board with a $5 dollar price tag so I ended up getting these 3 games for only $10. kid said if I bought 2 he would give me the third for free.

 

anyways the kid now knows where I live & if he decides to sell more he should stop by me first

 

 

 

 

I started playing everything or nothing & I cant put it down.

[Sonic]

the only deal i got over this weekend was that i found a PS2 multi tap at a thrift store, and i don't think the guy knew what it was so i got it for $1

[Famicoman]

I got Unreal Championship 2 for $15. It might sound like alot, but I'm trying to bulk up on XBOX.

[ATARIeric]

I got Unreal Championship 2 for $15. It might sound like alot, but I'm trying to bulk up on XBOX.

980566[/snapback]

 

 

Cool! I myself am starting to bulk up on xbox. any word on when microsoft will stop making games exclusively for their first system ?