The Official "Thrift finds" Thread

[SteveW]

Found a base unit only Dreamcast, $4.95 (with an NFL game inside), an oddball device called a Computron (it looks like a late 70's to early 80's kid's toy) for $.99.

[rogueleader]

If my girlfriend finds that honkin' huge home stereo system in our storage space, she's gonna kill me!  It's just way too cool to play Atari games on your stereo!

 

Try coming home with a office size copy machine. I don't mean a little desktop unit I mean a huge copy/ coalator (sp?) That had to weigh almost 300 pounds! The thing is I got it for $5! Not an Atari find but I had to mention it when you were talking about getting in trouble for your stereo.

[UK WOMBLE]

First time I've found something really special to shout about !

 

From a local paper, a 2600 wood complete in box with everything, inserts, manuals and all packaging, excellent condition, no damage to the box or anything. Also came with 5 CIB games all in pretty good condition.

 

£20 !! (Compared to ebay UK that is a total steal, my best yet !! )

 

Si

[SteveW]

Drove all over and didn't find much today. I got excited when I saw a store next to a GameStop called The Cartridge Place, but it turned out to be a printer ink cartridge store, not a videogame cart store. Damn. Anyway, found Gunstar Heroes, Pac-Attack, and Super Battletank for the Sega Genesis, $2.92 each, and Forsaken 64, Starfox 64, and Hybrid Heaven for the N64, $3.93 each. All without boxes or instruction manuals.

[jim]

Did pretty good today. Got 79 games. Stuff for 2600, 5200, Coleco, Sega, Gamegear, NES, SNES, and a few others I can't remember.

[thegamezmaster]

Just got around to checking the Colecovision and one controller works fine but one the left and right doesn't work.I'll have to try a good cleaning!

[Rockin' Kat]

I bought an Aladdin Deck Enhancer with 4 Quattro Adventure for $4.99 at Game Crazy today.

[shining slade]

I found DK Jr. Math for NES for $2.50 & these for 2600:

Artillery Duel-$8

Mogul Maniac-$2.50

Robot Tank Blue lbl-$2

[jim]

Got 2 SNES systems, Colecovision system, big pile of assorted controllers and power supplies, Atari binders with 2600 and Colecovision games, a couple Sega CD games, a couple N64 games, a bunch of old calculators, PC stuff, old electronic stuff, albums, old Hot Wheels, 8-tracks, old SW figures, plus more. All for free. Well it cost me my time. I helped some people at a big junk shop sale all day. Helped set stuff out, unload truck loads of stuff, and load big stuff for people. Got a whole pickup load of stuff for helping.

[donkeykong1]

I found a JVC controller for the X'EYE-$2.00

[ussexplorer]

sonic and knuckles loose $2.00

Vitrual Racing loose $2.00

 

broke so I passed up:

 

Sega genesis 1 with db9 connector

 

 

Things I was not interested in:

 

Genesis 2 with 32x. Each priced serpatly

Additional Genesis sprots games and super nintendo sports game

Controllers

Atari 810 disk drive with printer attachment

Super Nintendo

Collecovision with both controllers and power supply.

 

Perhaps if the rest of the atari system came in for a good price but these systems was hovering around 10.00 to 15.00 each.

 

Later,

 

ussexplorer

[donkeykong1]

Today I found an NES complete w/ one game(Bionic Commando) for $10.00

Also 2 Vectrex games (Starhawk and Hyperchase)along with a handheld Mrs Pacman game from 1992 for $6.00

 

Atari games $1.00 each

Space Cavern

Space Invaders Sears text

Missile Command Sears text

Warlords Sears text

 

Instruction manual for the NES $1.00

SNES Super Mariokart Instructions $1.00

[masterful gamer]

Last weekend i found a darth vader 2600 at a thrift store. It came with 8 games, instruction books for all of them, the atari users manual, a catalog, 2 original joysticks, the tv/game switch box, the a/c adapter, a pair of paddles, and an off-brand game center without the hood. The whole thing was only 25 dollars, so i bought it. Then, I turned around and sold the atari, controller, and the three games i already had to my friend for 25 dollars. He got a pretty good deal, and i got back what i payed for it. I was pretty pleased.

[Kialan]

Thrift store 1: Today I passed up a Genesis 1 in the styrofoam with a controller and manual....the only thing I would have needed from it was the manual. They priced it $30.99 which is ridiculous, considering it was not in the greatest condition.

 

Store 2: No video games of any sort.

 

Store 3: Went on a whim. At first I found a Sega Master System RF adapter which I needed to replace my malfunctioning one (the wires near the plug are picky and if you move them the signal goes out)

 

Then I looked up on these shelves and saw the box for Coleco Super Action Controllers. Heart jumped, pulled it down, and behind it was the box for the Driving controller (exp. module 2) so I pulled that down in surprise, THEN there was the box for the Roller controller!

 

So I stack these up and hobble over to a table to open them up to check. All are in great condition, all have coleco styrofoam, and there was even a spare Coleco controller locked in the trakball. Unfortunately, each box was priced 25.99 so it was a big ouch to the wallet. But damn, I don't know about you guys (and don't try to correct me it's irritating) but here in California I swear anything Colecovision is very hard to find "in the wild." In all my collecting I've only found 8 games, a bigass power supply, a Colecovision that doesn't work on channel 3--on 4 it works but still fuzzy so basically it's broken, and a loose Super Action cont.

 

So when we were at the checkout counter, this man and woman start talking to me and congratulating me for the find. Apparently they are collectors or sellers or something, because they said at the same store they bought a Colecovision for 40 bucks but it didn't work. I think they had found these boxed controllers that same day but probably didn't have the money and got only the system, and were gonna come back. But they came back about 15 min too late heehee. So yeah they were nice and wished well it was sweet.

 

It is good that they bought the colecovision because if they didn't I would have, thinking that it would work perfectly to replace my current "issues" one, which of course it wouldn't.

 

So...SCORE!

[Susuwatari]

Found a garage sale today (I guess the seller isn't religious since it's still Easter today) and to my surprise I found a nice Vectrex system with a few games. I won't list the price because there will be someone who'll say 'I got that for less' It was fairly dusty and dirty but it's easily cleaned off. The controller has bad overlay, like maybe someone tried to peel it off or something. The controller seems to be OK. The system did have the funky smell that almost smells like a cat had already marked the system as his own. I'd have to see if I can clean that off. Sadly no Polar Rescue or Minestorm II.

 

Only one screen overlay came with the system: Blitz. The game cart I got: Armor Attack, Blitz, Cosmic Chasm, Hyperchase, Spike, and Star Trek. I also got Starcastle and Starhawk but I'm keeping both as I don't have it.

 

Anyway, that vectrex system plus the few games (and a few dups I already have) are up for grabs, check the marketplace forum for pictures in a few minutes.

[Artlover]

Well, it's not a "thrift" find, since it was at GameXchange, but anywho...

 

I picked up 9 - 7800 carts and 1 -2600 cart (bastards shrunk-wrapped a end-lableless 2600 in a 7800 5-pack).

 

$12.90.

 

And I got.....(drum roll please)

 

7800:

-Choplifter

-Ace of Aces

-Karateka (2 of them)

-One-on-One Basketball

-Xevious

-Mission Impossible

-Dark Chambers

-Touchdown Football.

 

2600:

-Joust

 

I "think" it was probably a fair price, there is a rarity 4 cart in there.

[skeletor]

been a while since I've posted but here is what I've found lately.

 

Intellivision II system complete with box(no instructions though) $12.50

 

Atari 8-bit Games: $0.79 each

Whiz Kid

Fantastic Voyage

Congo Bongo

[UK WOMBLE]

Went over to a huge bootsale today, about half hour from where I live, so not too far.

 

Spent close to £100, but got this lot :

 

Boxed complete Atari 520 stfm with a fair amount of boxed games. (Dont know why I bought this really, but after I'd haggled her down to £15 it seemed rude not to !)

 

Loose N64 with a load of accessories and 44 games (Most boxed complete)

 

10 Mega drive games , 5 boxed and 5 loose...

 

 

Walked away from a spectrum, was toying with the idea but in the end decided it was pretty tatty and had very few tapes included.......

 

Nothing special really, but not too bad considering I got lost on the way there and was pretty late, hope I didnt miss too much stuff !

 

Spring is here, time for all the UK people to indulge a little in a 'boot sale challenge' methinks !

 

Si

[Pipster]

Saw a bloke walking out with a boxed woody at a boot sale today (Taplow, near Slough), just my luck. I got a Vectrex for 20 quid and a boxed woody for a fiver there last year though so i shouldn't complain but it's not often you see Atari stuff at boot sales in the UK.

[EricDeLee]

Well... not video game related... but I still thought it was a good find:

 

Dark Tower board game... complete... in its box. (and two garbage bags of toys) for only $2.

 

The Dark Tower game alone will sell for about $150-300!!!

 

Great game as well!

[jim]

Got a Nintendo Gamecube system, Colecovision system with 2 expansion modules and some games, 2 TRS-80 games, 3 NES games, 1 SNES game, a couple different game books, and 2 Commodore tapes all for $40.00.

[Hydian]

Been trying to stay away from thrifts as much as possible lately due to space/money restrictions (and the all too common disappointment factor.) I decided to pop into one while on my way to a customer location and found this:

 

Decent (Playstation, large box) $2

Shinobi (SMS) $3

Rampage (SMS) $3

Spiderman (SMS) $3

 

Dark Tower (board game) complete for $13.

 

Definately not a bad day.

[donkeykong1]

I found a few NES games yesterday. The day before I bought a bag full of old tapes because there were about 5 Atari games in it-$3.00

 

I bought four different NES systems in different places for $10.00 each and some had games included.

 

Couple Genesis games complete-$3.00

 

Today I found a boxed Intellivision 2, the box seemed like it was wet before, also there were no hook-ups though-$10.00

 

I finally got an actual Heavy-sixer joystick, no disk on it though -$3.00

 

SNES

Super Metroid-$5.00

Contra 3 - $5.00

 

A bunch of other stuff throughout the last few days but can't remember what.

[Happy_Dude]

A new Games Wizards opened in my town in the past week.

Normaly I don't care much for big chain stores because the employees aren't

gamers or they're ultra modern gamers. Well I went in to see what they had

(3 huge walls of Xbox PS/2 and PC and 1 small stand with Gamecube )

And I ended up talking to the guys in there for an hour about classic games

I even pointed them to this site (when they asked what I was playing and I explained homebrews to them )

 

Anyway I bought Activision Anthology even though I don't have a PS/2 yet.

 

Recent finds :

REZ (PS/2)

ICO (PS/2)

Berzerk (board game)

 

And I found an AMSTRAD dual video recorder. I didn't know Amstrad made anything other

than computers but now I can tape games to submit to Twin Galaxies (like I'll ever be good enough to break a world record )

[jim]

Got a nice lighted Sega sign today. Also a stack of 8-Tracks, a couple joysticks, and a Genesis game. All for a grand total of $20.00.

 

Found a "new" junk shop today. They had around 100 Atari games, 80 or so NES, 20-30 SNES, some assorted Genesis, and others. Plus some assorted systems. I tried to say I would buy everything they had game related if they would give me a price. They wanted $45.00 each for 2600 games, and $10-15.00 each for NES. That's just single games mind you, not systems or anything. They said Atari games go for $200.00 on eBay. I just shook my head and laughed all the way out the door.