Finally, a huge score at Goodwill!

[KAZ]

Well I'm writing this here because you are the only ones I feel would appreciate this find in the wild. My first ever find of any Atari in the wild.

 

Here's the story:

 

I decided to visit Goodwill again, but they never have Atari stuff, so I figured I'd just browse anyways (looking for untold treasure!) I went back by the electronics section, sifting through their old VCRS and TVS, and fans. My eye caught on a lone Atari 2600 game right away. It was Space Invaders! I thought wow, I actually found something of Atari here! I thought my day was over, and was simply going to go pay for it and leave.

 

But then I got to thinking, gee if there's one there must be more?? So I went up towards the front where they often keep 8 track tapes, and CDS and stuff. From a long ways off I spotted it: JACKPOT! I didn't realize when I walked in, it was right there: 4 stacks of Atari 2600 cartridges! While walking over towards this golden opportunity, I was thinking to myself, wow, maybe they all cost like $.50? I was thinking I'd just waltz right over and just grab them all up like candy. Well I was wrong about that one, but I wasn't disappointed either.

 

Ok, now to the figures. I think I spent slightly more than I should've, but since this is for charity, and since it is awesome I found this stuff in the wild....it is all worth it. I know most of these titles are common, but I want to know what you think of my score too.

 

Most were $1.99, but like 5 were $5.99 (ouchie):

 

15 Cartridges total: $53.09

 

Titles, and prices:

 

1. Freeway: $1.99

2. M.A.S.H.: $1.99

3. Bowling: $1.99

4. Keystone Kapers: $1.99

5. Night Driver: $1.99

6. Astroblast: $1.99

7. Basketball: $5.99

8. Tennis: $1.99

9. Video Olympics: $1.99

10. Blackjack: $1.99

11. Space Invaders (Label Variation, I had one, but this one has no picture on it, just words): $5.99

12. Street Racer: $5.99

13. Video Pinball: $5.99

14. Moon Patrol: $5.99

15. Breakout: $1.99

 

Well my first question is, who the hell decided to price some at $5.99, and others at $1.99, were they going by some sort of rarity guide or something? Well it doesn't matter, tho the $5.99's really "pained" me to buy.

 

Total taxes were: $3.24 (about what shipping and handling would be from Ebay).

 

(To Be Continued)

 

[ 05-16-2002: Message edited by: KAZ ]

[AtariKen64]

great to see some atari stuff in goodwills again. it seems in my area all i can find is genesis stuff. found about 20 games over all at the one by me! i think you got ripped on the 6 buck games i woudl have left them justto say that atari stuff is an will still be at that store nice thoughts/

[Scooterb23]

Hey, if you are happy, that's all that matters. The prices seem a bit steep, but not unreasonable (of course, I'd pay $2 for any Atari cart I didn't have yet), except those $6 carts yikes!! I can explain a little of that I think...

 

Often, they put the price up on a game if they think it has a lot of games on it (i.e. Space Invaders has 112 game variations, so to them it means it has 112 games while the others have only 1, so it is more expensive).

 

Can't really explain Video Pinball or Moon Patrol, perhaps those fall under the "I've heard of that, so charge more for it" category. It is understandable, people have heard of pinball, and Moon Patrol was a pretty popular arcade game, so they think those should be more valuable. I'll assure you, they don't have rarity guides. But following that logic, M*A*S*H should have been $6 who knows?

 

There is no possible explanation for a $6 Street Racer IMO.

 

Again, as long as you are happy with it, then it's a good find.

[KAZ]

(Continued from above)

 

My first visit, I picked up 10 games, the second visit about 45 minutes later, I picked up 5 other ones (after consulting my master list of Atari 2600 games I got).

 

So I went up to check out my Atari 2600 games, I had them in a basket thing. I wanted to check them out myself, to be gentle to them, but the cashier insisted on being rough to them as much as possible. I'm surprised she didn't throw them on the ground, and jump on them, while she was checking them out. And when she was about to put them in a bag, I told her "I'll do it!" She still insisted on "helping me", and kept right on being rough to my merchandise.

 

Being this stuff was from Good Will it was stuff that was already being abused every second it sat in this wretchedly awful atmosphere. I was saving these cartridges from who knows what abuse!

 

I like analogies: It is like I would go to an animal farm of somekind, where they mistreat their animals, and I go to purchase a dog from there. While I'm making the final transaction, the owners ask me if they can kick the dog a few more times before I can take it home.

 

And when I went back to get the remaining 5 cartridges, this same cashier DID IT AGAIN. God she was rough to the cartridges. I know they are infinitely durable, but come on! It was like she was on a mission to destroy them! Just pissed me off, cause I take good care of all my stuff.

 

They weren't hurt by it, maybe my cartridges enjoy are used to being mishandled.

 

They were all in really good shape tho!

Some had gorgeous labels.

 

There's only like one that I DIDN'T get, even tho I don't have it in my collection. It was a KABOOM! cartridge that had a gouge out of the label, and was listed as $5.99. I'm like **** that!

 

So are you proud of my achievement? It is very gratifying to finally get something from the wild! So happy!

[KAZ]

Oh, by the way, I left about 15 other cartridges there, since I already have them. Pole position, Missile Command, Asteroids, a couple of variations of Combat, and Berserk were there, plus some others than I have but don't remember what they were there. They were all either $1.99 or $5.99. Oh yeah, I hate that pricing convention too. ($2 and $6)

 

Of the ones I got Bowling, Night Driver, Basketball, Tennis, Video Pinball, and Moon Patrol were definitely finds that I wanted!

 

Never played Street Racer, I haven't even stuck it in my system yet.

 

Astroblast has a neat shape to it.

 

I guess I might be going to Goodwill more often. I might bring a gasmask tho (eek).

[Scooterb23]

What kind of smell did you get there? At the Goodwill on Morse Road in Columbus, I walked in one day feeling great, I threw up five times in the next 12 minutes...as soon as I walked back outside I felt fine again. Definitely a strange smell in the place (and before anyone else says anything cruel, we got there just after opening, and were the only people there).

[KAZ]

Well perhaps there isn't exactly an odor persay. The atmosphere "feels" dusty, dirty, and grimy. Perhaps it is because every aisle that I walk through has junk lying on the ground.

 

I see alot of people who are covered from head to toe in some sort of shawl.

 

I guess that's what they like to wear, but I see more of them in this place than any other. What's up with that?

 

The thought of actually buying clothing from the store, AND wearing it make puke start to well up in my throat. The yukiest looking orange and green clothing is there. Long live the 70's!

 

So then if this place disgusts me so, why do I continue going back? It is the only place around that actually has cool unique rare items. If I look hard enough maybe I'd run into a speak and spell, or a lite brite, or some other neat 80's item that I used to like.

 

If there was any odor, I might describe it as hot sweaty armpit smell. I'm thankful they keep the place air conditioned, or I wouldn't step foot in the place.

[SlimJim26]

I saw this cool movie called Good Will Hunting. Can't remember at the moment who was in it or what it was about or why I went to see it. I assume this is also true with any store I'd see with the name Good Will. I don't know why I'd go there. I don't know who would go there. And I don't know what's inside.

[AtariChick]

Dude, that totally sounds like my Savers experience. I found some totally worthwhile lp's (records....) one was Hendrix, worth $200 and the girl turned it upside down and ripped the cover! ARGHHHHH!!! I'll do it MYSELF!!! Cool, when I find stuff at goodwill, d.i., savers, etc. i want to buy it and give it a good home, especially lp's and atari stuff. enuff chat....

 

"Everybody wants a prosthetic forehead on their real head"

[ATARIPITBULL]

Over all I think you got a great bunch of games there but I think you paid a little too much for games like Moon Patrol and Video pinball, I could this this price if they were complete in the box, but by them selves there not worth that much.

[KAZ]

I tested out every one of my new cartridges. Only 1 does not work. It is one that is closed on the bottom. So I used a card that I got from great clips, tore off a piece, and managed to access the board to clean it. I'm like "I gotcha now!" (Before reading the instructions how to clean closed cartridges, this was the first time it actually worked).

 

I cleaned it really good, stuck it back in and......NOTHING. Dammit. I thought I had it defeated.

 

It is nice looking non-working Night Driver.

 

The Astroblast I got from there seemed ****ed up too. The ship just sits at the far right of the screen, and doesn't move. I cleaned it really good too, but it didn't help it any.

 

Maybe I should take the two back to Goodwill and see if I can exchange them for some shitty clothing!

[sdrake]

quote:

---

Originally posted by KAZ:

15 Cartridges total: $53.09

 

Titles, and prices:

 

1. Freeway: $1.99

2. M.A.S.H.: $1.99

3. Bowling: $1.99

4. Keystone Kapers: $1.99

5. Night Driver: $1.99

6. Astroblast: $1.99

7. Basketball: $5.99

8. Tennis: $1.99

9. Video Olympics: $1.99

10. Blackjack: $1.99

11. Space Invaders (Label Variation, I had one, but this one has no picture on it, just words): $5.99

12. Street Racer: $5.99

13. Video Pinball: $5.99

14. Moon Patrol: $5.99

15. Breakout: $1.99

 

Well my first question is, who the hell decided to price some at $5.99, and others at $1.99, were they going by some sort of rarity guide or something? Well it doesn't matter, tho the $5.99's really "pained" me to buy.

 

Total taxes were: $3.24 (about what shipping and handling would be from Ebay).

---

 

 

WOW glad your happy to find this, but man that's way over priced. Last year I found within a week of each other in the same Goodwill, two mint condition 2600 with ALL controllers, AC and 15 games, manuals in a Telegames storage case for 15 bucks. Went back a week later, and it was like deja vu. I couldn't believe it, there was another one sitting there for the same price with mostly different games. Most of my Atari 2600 collection came from Thrift and Goodwill stores. Guess I have been pretty lucky in that dept.

[KAZ]

Wow, that IS unreal. You have incredible luck!

 

Being this is going to charity, I'm not all that concerned, even tho I don't usually just dole my money out to charitable organizations.

 

I don't have money to burn either, but it was a treat after so many months to finally be able to get SOMETHING in the wild. It was a rare treat from what I've seen in this Goodwill store.

 

Kinda made me happy to know that someone in my area actually still had 2600 cartridges, and they weren't just thrown in the trash.

 

Being on this message board is helping me more and more become an experienced collector. I would consider myself to be an "official" collector of Atari stuff now.

 

Atari 2600 IS most definitely a system that is rewarding to collect for. I played Keystone Kapers for real for the first time last night, and god it was fun. I never could figure out how to go DOWN escalators (those moving steps), only to go up them??!

 

MASH had that surgery part that was kind of neat. Kinda like the game "Operation".