Mindfield Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 Goodwill and Salvation Army are both writeoffs here in my part of Canada, too. They almost never get anything video game related except the occasionl joystick or one or two NES games. VV around here has had a hell of a lot more than anything else -- I've actually had a few good finds and one awesome find there (A SuperGraFX). 'Course I've found a few duds, too -- brought home an almost CIB TI-99/4A that turned out to be completely DOA. (It didn't have an AC adapter but it took the same connector, pinouts, and the same voltage ratings as the Colecovision adapter, but it still didn't work) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 I've got a couple places in my area that still yield some goodies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaineMaxwell Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 My local thrift and Salvation Army shop barely has anything anymore either. Really sucks for late-comers to this great hobby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KaeruYojimbo Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 I think there are 2 major reasons we're finding less in thirft stores. First, fewer people are donating. They see a story about game collecting on the internet or Antiques Roadshow or they see some Atari shirts at Hot Topic and they think their collection of Pac-Man and Asteroids carts is worth a fortune. Second, there's less stuff out there. It's been over 15 years since anything was mass-marketed for the 2600. That's a lot of time for this stuff to either get junked or end up in the hands of collectors. Especially with the way the hobby has been growing in the last couple of years. All that said, just this past Tuesday I found an Atari 400 computer complete in box with 2 controllers, 6 games and all the manuals for 5 dollars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildBillTX Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 Stop 2: Damnation Army Thrift Store. Nothing remotely interesting here, but I took a look at their prices. They must be insane. The stuff they had was so high you could almost buy a new one, or in some cases you could buy a new one for the same amount. One example was a 19 inch TV for $100, last time I was in Walmart they had 21 inch TVs for something like $85. Nuts. It happened to most ofl the Goodwill stores here in Texas - they all went corporate. They stopped renting space in old supermarkets and strip malls in the older/seedier parts of town. They bought land near the newer (white) shopping areas and built new stores - and jacked up the prices on everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariDude Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 I am sure that eBay has affected the prices as well. Now that there is money to be made, everyone starts to charge more for items that before the existence of eBay would have gone cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christianscott27 Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 i'm feeling hopeful about thrifts again. now that funco/gamestop have stopped taking in anything older than PS1 stuff we can expect a decent up turn in thrifts and yardsales. for whatever reason there are still plenty of people who cant be bothered with ebay, not to mention mom's cleaning out closets. thrift store pricing seems to be pretty off the cuff, and you can 'train' them. if a store keeps putting out $5 genesis sports titles and nobody buys them sooner or later they'll drop them down to $2. sooner or later they understand that nobody will pay $50 for a model one playstation and so on. theres an AIDS action thrift near my house, they try to be very upscale and tend to price that way. i guess they must have gotten the hint that nobody was about to pay $15 for used games. this weekend i stopped in by chance and found my best score there ever. 9 complete saturn RPGs including the holy grail dragon force for just $3 each! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaineMaxwell Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 Hmmm, that's point CS. Long as we keep looking sooner or later something's gotta turn up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homerwannabee Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 For some reason the local thrift stores are totally dead around here recently. I have gone to my local salvation army about 20 times in the past 3 months and come up empty handed every single time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alienblue Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 I think there has been an evolution in thrift stores....no more atari, coleco, Mattel.... not even NES...now I find GENESIS and SNES stuff, ocassionaly. Actually, I've switched focus to collectiong 80's computers/games. I just got back from SA and they had a Vic-20 in box for $10 (sadly, no games)...I have most of the early PCs but haven't found any games for my TI..my Coco3 and C64 are my main mean machines right now... We have 2 stores in town, and all I have is a bike but I visit SA and goodwill once a week. I almost always, at the very least, find a handheld game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildBillTX Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 Im seeing a lot more old 90's computer gear tossed out more than video games now. And again they are overpriced! I collect records too and the late 80's-early 90's were a blast for collecting. People were buying CD's and getting rid of thier record collections. I remember going to one store where they had 25+ boxes of nothing but 70's rock/jazz/country LP's. Truckloads of cheap cassettes too. Now everyone has CD's and you're lucky to find anything rare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gulag picture radio Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 YEah, there's a LOT of stuff out there that will never be reissued on CD, so LP is the only way to pick up some of this stuff. I'm also very fond of the pivate label LP's that people had made of their high school bands, rock act hopefulls, etc. I've got like 3000 LP's that I'm gradually thinning out. In the early 90's, the thrift that I went to the most (a little suburban place that was only open twice a month) had records for a dime a piece! They were also a very good source for Atari games which were always 25 cents, and systems were $2.50. Over time I found NES consoles, a TG-16, and over the last year half-a-dozen very high end turntables (I got a Bang & Olufsen turntable for $2 - but I had to buy a new stylus which cost me $150!! I don't regret it for a second). I'd have to say that the bulk of both my record and video game collection came from there. It hasn't been that good in years! Now I'm lucky that there are still a couple of thrifts around me that still seem to get Atari games in. DOn't know how, but I'm not complaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildBillTX Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 YEah, there's a LOT of stuff out there that will never be reissued on CD, so LP is the only way to pick up some of this stuff. I'm also very fond of the pivate label LP's that people had made of their high school bands, rock act hopefulls, etc. Some are fun - most I have found are horrible - people who thought they could sing. Go to http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/01-2.html and download Mark Savage - Do You Think I'm Sexy. Its from some high school talent show album and its a riot. And theres no way a CD can replicate the cover art, liner notes and some put in a booklet or poster. Im also a fan of 70's/80's Power Pop, Punk and New Wave and many great and hard to find albums from those genres have never been reissued on CD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gulag picture radio Posted August 9, 2004 Share Posted August 9, 2004 I've got all the 365 Days music stuff - it's brilliant, except when it's all being totally incompetent. I find myself singing "Blue" and awful lot around here! Have you downloaded any of the stuff from the 365 Days' organizer's netlabel? It's at www.ComfortStand.com and I make a teeny appearance on one of the CD's. It's called "interplanetary materials" - a 2CD set of music all about space. I'm there under my "GUlag" moniker in case you're interested. [/shameless plug OFF] You mention the nice record cover art - that' one thing that I'll miss about Laser Discs. I won't miss them being kind of fragile, susceptible to but rot, needless expense, analog noise, etc. I will miss the giant packaging, and that pulling out that giant disc is kind of an event in itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 Man I am soooo lucky that I live in Brooklyn near New York City there are lots of Thrift Shops I go to every month and just a month ago I found a two 'Columbia Home Arcade' (Thats RIGHT TWO Columbia Home Arcade consoles) and 23 games for $10 One of the Columbia Home unit don't work but the second one did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gulag picture radio Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 Of course that's supposed to be "bit rot" in the Laser Disc comment above... Lucky you getting two Columbia Arcades! They're identical to the Gemini, right? Even though I've got a Gemini, I'd still love to find one of those... especially two of them loaded with games for $10. Nice score! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 Out here in NC where getting anything Atari is not all the bad, Plus with me living in Redneck country that helps out it's funny in a way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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