The Official "Thrift finds" Thread

[RickHarrisMaine]

You know, I check this forum fairly often, and see that many people have plenty of success at thrift stores and flea markets. I have as well. However, I see a lot of eBay auctions that mention that this person picked up this boxed Colecovision (for example) at an estate sale. Now when I think of estate sale, I think of old persons possessions being sold. And I can't really imagine finding video games at these kind of places. But now some of you guys, when you have your estate sales, well, then I could see finding video games.

 

So my question is, anyone ever really find anything at an estate sale?

[SteveW]

I'd wager that "estate sale" is a nice way of saying that they got it at a thrift store. I mean, they aren't going to tell people in their auction that they only paid a few measly bucks for some games or hardware that they're trying to sell for a couple hundred dollars now, are they?

 

I truly hate eBay. It's killed the collector's market for those of us who don't buy games off online auction sites. eBay resellers strip all the thrifts and flea markets of classic gaming stuff before real collectors can find anything.

[atariauctions]

Just picked up a 2600 4 switch woodgrain with 15 common games. 2 joysticks, set of paddles and the power supply for $5 at a pawn shop . It is a little dirty, but looks like it will clean up good

[kuifje76]

I bought an Philips Oddysey 2001, a Videopac G7400, a SMS 1 (with built in hang on?) + 14 games, 2 junior with small rainbow on it (I still hadn't those), with deluxe joysticks, and a colecovision for 30 euro's.

Hehehe, I'm happy with it. now only the games for the coleco....

[dalton4life]

I also forgot my biggest find. I watch it every day and it's what I play all my games one. My 62" Philips Magnavox TV. I paid $250 for it at a pawn shop. It had some problems when I got it but I fixed them got the tv to display a decent image.

[StanJr]

Nabbed Xenophobe (2600) for $3, along with Alien for $1 and Boxed Summer Games for $5.

 

Not too shabby...

[Bruce Tomlin]

* "Stick the IRS" board game, apparently complete, $1

* Blockbuster SNES controller, 50 cents

* 9-inch Mario plushie, $1

* US Newtype magazine, V1#1, $5. That issue was severely underprinted, so I missed out on it back in the day. I'm pretty sure I had issue 2 already, so I passed that up.

* Add-n-Stac VHS storage module, 99 cents, I love those things... is there somewhere you can buy them new?

* three NES games I didn't have, $3 each: X-Men, Milon's Secret Castle, Side Pocket.

* three more NES games I didn't have, $5 each + $1 parking: Rollerblade Racer (w/instr), Black Bass, and Sesame Street ABC/123. I had to get RBR because it was somewhat rare and I already had box and instructions. But the crazy part is the guy had FOUR of them!

* 16 assorted game magazines, 25 cents each

* some Japanese paperback about Lodoss (seems to be a description of places and things from it) for $3... hey wait a minute... what's with this map that puts it off the coast of Turkey? Rhodes? So that's where the Japanese got the name from! (slaps head) Ahem. So I guess it's not about Lodoss after all. I was wondering why there weren't any pictures of cute elf girls in there.

 

EDIT: forgot to mention the best/worst part. The Savers thrift in South Austin got in some 2600 games, and lemme tell ya, their pricer is ON CRACK. First of all, this is the store that has had the same Atari 5200 carts priced at $8 for about 9 months so far. Well, this bin of about a dozen 2600 carts had them marked at all different prices. Quite a few were $3 or $4. A "mystery cart" (that was actually written on the price label!) in a Parker Bros. case was $2. Pitfall II was the only reasonably priced game at $5. The best part was Haunted House for (IIRC), $8, and Combat for (again, IIRC) $9! Folks, if you're going to make a wild-ass guess at prices on these things, could you at least be consistent? Or at least try to do the most minimal of research?

Edited May 7, 2005 by Bruce Tomlin

[+FujiSkunk]

Two Apple IIe computers.

One Apple DuoDisk drive.

 

One Atari 800XL computer.

One Atari 1040ST computer.

 

Two Commodore VIC-20 computers.

Two Commodore 64 computers.

Three Commodore Amiga 500 computers (two in their original boxes).

 

Five Commodore 1541 disk drives.

One Commodore 1541-II disk drive.

One Commodore 1571 disk drive.

 

A collection of various accessories and printers (precious few power supplies and zero monitors, unfortunately).

 

Total: A shade over $81 after tax.

 

THIS is why I go thrifting!

Edited May 7, 2005 by skunkworx

[masschamber]

This was a cool find a thrift store, the odyssey shooting range rifle in box.

for 3 bucks, unfortunatley it didn't have the cartridges or overlays (doesn't matter much as I don't have an odyssey) but the rifle itself is undeniebly the coolest light gun ever, made back when toy guns could look real and instead of like junk

[egdinger]

Got a 3d0 for $7.00. other wise a bust.

[dinovelvet]

Ok here's a bizarre little thrift anecdote for ya...

 

Came across a stack of NES carts, some woman and her kid were looking at them, so I hovered nearby waiting to pounce when they were done. She was looking at each of the carts in turn, and was examining the contacts in detail. Before I could ask what this puzzling behavior was all about, she explained to her kid that she was looking to see if the "chips were missing", and apparently she had concluded that most of these carts were "bad", except for one that she bought. I'm assuming that she meant the 'strips' on the contacts, which look different on some NES carts, some have all the strips, some don't. But where would anyone come up with a bizarre theory like that, that this somehow had something to do with whether they'd work or not? And I'm betting she has a blinking NES that's the main problem anyway.

And to add insult to her own injury, guess what the one cart she bought was? Yes, Super Mario/Duck Hunt. For FOUR bucks.

[SteveW]

Two Apple IIe computers.

One Apple DuoDisk drive.

 

One Atari 800XL computer.

One Atari 1040ST computer.

 

Two Commodore VIC-20 computers.

Two Commodore 64 computers.

Three Commodore Amiga 500 computers (two in their original boxes).

 

Five Commodore 1541 disk drives.

One Commodore 1541-II disk drive.

One Commodore 1571 disk drive.

 

A collection of various accessories and printers (precious few power supplies and zero monitors, unfortunately).

 

Total:  A shade over $81 after tax.

 

THIS is why I go thrifting!

851183[/snapback]

 

Dude...... Wow. Just WOW. Holy fecal matter on a stick! I wish I could find that kind of a haul all in one place. I am seriously jealous.

[gulag picture radio]

I've been too busy to hit the thrifts lately, but I did find something in an awesome used CD store while I was visiting Madison. It's the full-sized Atari Force comic book from 1984. I've got issues 1-6 along with issue #1 that came with whatever cart back in the day (Defender perhaps?).

 

All together they were $9. I'm not a comic book collector, but these looked kind of neat, and it's pretty freak to think that Atari and DC got together to do a space hero comic with just the name "Atari" to make it sexier.

 

[wrenchien]

recently , i've mostly found 'dolls' and a few atari games, but the games i'm not sure are worth bringing home.. though to be as honest in spite of a bad rep... i've found somehow, an infinity that could have been if fate, if physics itself, if change, chance and luck, might have existed.. yeah, i still go out once in a while to thrift and all...

 

and yes, i wonder indeed... in my time here.. was it all worth it? was it indeed?

 

because though i've seen some games like pac man, etc.. mostly i go for exercise in my older days...

 

because, yeah.. even i need to go out.

 

let's also say i've made some 'new friends' along the way, and i did find a new computer at one time.. but to digress.. i just haven't , well, had much luck lately.

 

i would, however.. wish for one thing again... if i'd had the chance to do it all over..

 

i'd still have wished... way back when..

 

for a poodle.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Not too much today... Predator for CoCo3, $1; the instructions to Altered Best (Genesis) and NBA Shoot Out (PS1 long box) in a bunch of stuff; and eight game magazines for 9 cents each, two of which were Playstation Magazine with the PS2 demo disc still inside.

Edited May 9, 2005 by Bruce Tomlin

[vdub_bobby]

Not really a find at a thrift, nor much of a find in any case, but it did seem like a couple of sweet deals:

 

At the neighborhood-wide garage sale at the neighborhood down the highway from me, picked up:

Gameboy Color (w/ some Armorines game) + 2 AA batteries they stuck in it after I asked if it worked: $3

PSX + Boob Raid- er, I mean, Tomb Raider Revelation, Twisted Metal 4, Cool Boarders 3, Madden 2001, Triple Play 200?, Crash Bandicoot Warped, one controller and one memory card: $5 (of course, it was from my friend so he gave me a deal, but still )

 

All in all, $8 got me two new systems + a couple games.

[yuppicide]

Don't know if I posted this on AA somewhere, but I went to a fleamarket on Saturday.. Friday it said 50% chance of rain for Saturday, but Friday night said no rain for Saturday! So I went.. I'm glad I did!

 

I picked up a NES Four Score adapter to connect 4 controllers to a NES for $3:

 

 

Got a Satellite for $5:

 

.. and my favorite find of the day:

 

Excalibur Mirage Chess Set - I don't really like chess, but I've always wanted one of these. The chess pieces move by themselves when you play the computer! It also teaches you how to play. Originally this was like $200! The guy wanted $20 and I was like well I dunno and he's like do you wanna see and I'm like nah not really.. so I'm walking away and he's like $15 come on take a look at it. He pulls it out of the box.. excellant almost new condition. So, I'm like ahh I dunno and start walking away and he's like you know you can make me an offer. So I go $10 and he says ok and I go sold. Someone told me they saw them on eBay for $600 before. The first day mine sold for $175 Buy It Now.

 

 

Then came Mother's Day. We went down to my Grandmother's house and my Cousin gave me some old games he didn't want:

 

Sega Genesis with 2 controllers.. has everything 'cept the cable to connect to TV.

 

Games: Sonic, Sonic 2, Vectorman 2, Tiny Toons Buster's Hidden Treasures, Aladdin, The Lion King, Sonic & Knuckes and one N64 game: Super Smash Bros.

 

 

Which is great because I've been wanting a Genesis for more than a year now since I have a Genesis 52-in-1 multicart that I haven't tried out yet.

[SteveW]

I don't know why I bothered buying it, but I bought another Sega Dreamcast. It came with a couple controllers and a VMU, and it was only $12.51. And it has a copy of NHL2K in it. I thought that there might be a game already inside it, but I hoped that it would be something good, not another worthless sports game.

 

Bought a Quickshot Sega Genesis controller, and a Competition Pro Genesis controller, 98¢ each.

 

I bought a SMS game called Parlour Games. The store had other SMS games, but they were all sports titles, so no thanks. And oddly enough, I also got a shrinkwrapped copy of Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix for the Mac, $5. I'm not much for 'covert ops' type games, but for $5 new, I might as well try it. I don't find a whole lot of modern Mac games in thrifts.

[gulag picture radio]

Got a red VMU for Dreamcast for $3, a memory card/rumble pack for N64 in red chrome - also $3, original Game Boy storage folder for games $1, Game Boy camera $5, Atari Junior + controllers + AC etc. $5, Dreamcast in black "sports" style with matching black controller, regular white controller, David Mirra (?) BMX game, a pair of VMU's and all hookups - $10.

 

I'd better figure out something cool to do with all these Dreamcasts around here.

 

I passed up a Sega Pico because it was $10. I've got on already along with some games, but I haven't even tried it out yet to see if it's cool at all.

[Zonie]

Got a red VMU for Dreamcast for $3, a memory card/rumble pack for N64 in red chrome - also $3, original Game Boy storage folder for games $1, Game Boy camera $5, Atari Junior + controllers + AC etc. $5, Dreamcast in black "sports" style with matching black controller, regular white controller, David Mirra (?) BMX game, a pair of VMU's and all hookups - $10.

 

I'd better figure out something cool to do with all these Dreamcasts around here. 

 

I passed up a Sega Pico because it was $10.  I've got on already along with some games, but I haven't even tried it out yet to see if it's cool at all.

853095[/snapback]

 

 

The pico is fun for kids. We have one that my son played with as a little kid. I'm wondering if it is just a genesis inside with a touchpad and page sensors. Anybody here know?

[Elthesh]

Got myself a brand new orange Gamecube controller for 5 bucks. Apparently someone bought it on launch day opened it then returned it to circuit city based on the return label date. It was covered in layers of warehouse dust. At least the controller was near spotless being inside the plastic. Dreamcast lightgun for 6 bucks. Gameboy "official" case. Well, I consider the ALS line of cases official as they use the official logos etc. Gameboy advance link cable for 5, new. Gameboy Advance case for 3 bucks. Quite a large ALS case there, nice.

[Wester]

NES controller $1.50

Pole Position II Sealed with hanger $1.00

 

Passed up a bunch of SNES sports games and NES Dick Tracy and Super Mario Bros.

[SteveW]

Picked up a couple Pointmaster Pro joysticks for the 2600, $2.92 each. One of them doesn't look like anyone's used it before.

[20eyes]

Goodwill:

 

Gameboy-

Tetris

Kid Ikarus

Baseball

Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 2000

 

Atari switchbox

NES Zapper

 

Another Thrift:

 

Genesis cart only-

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

Castle Of Illusion Starring Mickey

Star Control

 

NES Power Pad

NES Double Dragon 3

[Famicoman]

My dad found me an Atari 2600 jr. Complete w/ about 10 boxed games.

$5