The Official "Thrift finds" Thread

[Grig]

Got a Virtual boy with no stand,1 controller and 1 game(Mario tennis) for $4.i also got a boxed Microvision game(bowling) game with Sea battle under it for $1.87.and is goodwill supposed to be high because when i go to them they have consoles and controllers for high prices.They had a complete PS1(controllers,cords,) for $25,at another thrift store i go to a PS1 is like $4-5 and games are $5,at other thrift stores there like $2-3. Im in GA. by the way so is it my Goodwill's in my state or what?

 

I'm not sure for GA, but the Goodwill's in California are all under the same direction: They are NOT a thrift store anymore but a RESALE store. They get brand new merchandise from TARGET (they have an actual contract with them) after it hits the 75-90% off mark. Goodwill then re-sells Target's merchandise at about 40% of the original price, whether it's missing pieces or was a display model or whatever. Sometimes Goodwill will just stuff whatever contents they have into the original box and then claim it is "new", charging almost the same price as Target's original price. Now, Goodwill here still accepts donations but they will look up just about everything on ebay before it hits the shelves so they can jack up the prices. Sometimes they even print out the ebay seller's page and put it next to the item to show you what a "good deal" you are getting at Goodwill. Of course, these are very high "BIN" prices from the same idiots on ebay that we all know and love who keep on trying to sell 2600 PacMan, Space Invaders, Golf and Defender for the low BIN price of $25 each and NOT what has actually sold.

 

Goodwill's selling practices are now despicable. Only every once in awhile are you able to find something that makes it out to the shelf without first being looked up on ebay or locked behind the "collectible" glass at outrageous prices because the workers were either lazy or they just missed it.

 

BTW - most of this info is NOT my opinion. I interviewed the regional director for Southern California a few years ago after I started noticing the ebay printouts and the Target merchandise (which was being sold for MORE than what Target's last price was) and he straight up told me that this was now Goodwill's SOP.

 

Goodwill as far as I'm concerned can suck it. I hardly ever shop there any more. Most of their employees are very rude and don't know WTF they are talking about anyway. Salvation Army does a better job at least where I'm at though their selling practices are sometimes underhanded as well.

[Asaki]

Got a Virtual boy with no stand,1 controller and 1 game(Mario tennis) for $4.

 

Jealous.

 

and is goodwill supposed to be high because when i go to them they have consoles and controllers for high prices.They had a complete PS1(controllers,cords,) for $25,at another thrift store i go to a PS1 is like $4-5 and games are $5,at other thrift stores there like $2-3.

 

Like I said a couple weeks ago, I got a PSone with both controllers, both hookups, memory card, and a game inside for $10. So I don't know, maybe it just depends on who's working there that day...

 

Games around here are usually $3 each. One time they had a few Genesis games for $5 (I couldn't not get Altered Beast), I was afraid they were going to stay that way, but they didn't.

 

They get brand new merchandise from TARGET (they have an actual contract with them) after it hits the 75-90% off mark.

 

Now, Goodwill here still accepts donations but they will look up just about everything on ebay before it hits the shelves so they can jack up the prices.

 

Ours get Target stuff too, but sometimes (rarely) they actually have good stuff and it's still a decent deal. Got the GameCube version of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for $10. I heard an employee talking the other day, and she said they buy Target's stuff. I don't know if that's true or not, but that would explain the prices.

 

I hope ours doesn't ever start checking eBay, that sounds terrible.

[Grig]

I think what they may have been talking about is a donation - Target gives Goodwill the merchandise (they set it aside on wooden pallets) and they are able to write it off as a donation. At least that's what they do here in SoCal.

 

I remember seeing a remote control helicopter at Goodwill behind some glass and they were trying to get almost $200 for it because some seller's ebay printout listed the same helicopter at $250 BIN. Lots of different and possible variables there - but that's what our Goodwill's here do.

 

Goodwill also sends a lot of their "valuable" stuff to shopgoodwill.com (which is where most of the Atari/Sega/NES/PS stuff goes - people are still actually donating lots of great items but Goodwill sorts through their donations to send most of their VG stuff to their online retailers) where they can take a 1 lb item and ship it UPS for $17, no other options available.

 

Shopgoodwill.com takes a 1 lb item and makes it 5 lbs because of their packing - so your item that could have been shipped first class package at $2.50 ends up costing $15 parcel post or UPS or FedEx (sounds like a racket if you ask me - a deal between UPS/USPS/FedEx and Goodwill). They claim they are "helping others" but the shipping cost is not a part of the profit so that is not helping anyone except the shipping company and Shopgoodwill.com (shopgoodwill.com usually charges a "handling fee" of $4 or so per package, or 5% of the sale price).

 

A lot of shopgoodwill.com's stuff is pure junk that someone somewhere thought was worth a bundle because it's a box of broken Star Wars toys (like the post n zip's here on AA - "ooooh it has the Atari logo on it, I'll get some sucker to pay me $100 for a $1 item just because it says Atari!"). What a rip-off.

 

I guess my thoughts are known about what I think of Goodwill!

[AtariBrian]

and also most of the people that dont have much money and depended on going to the goodwill arent gonna be able to afford internet... computers... much less have credit cards or paypal ?

[Asaki]

Goodwill also sends a lot of their "valuable" stuff to shopgoodwill.com...

That's what I thought, but a couple weeks ago someone was trying to convince me that that isn't what they do at all.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Time for a little intermission...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6RiZrcnLJM

[+FujiSkunk]

This is hardly a find worth bragging about, but at the same store I picked up two CDs, the Proclaimers' Sunshine on Leith and Steven Curtis Chapman's All about Love. The Proclaimers' CD includes their original version of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", which is why I bought it. The Chapman CD I picked up for other tunes, but then discovered it also had Chapman's cover of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)." So, a neat little unexpected coincidence. Chapman's take on the song is pretty good, too.

 

The original:

 

Chapman's recording:

[the.golden.ax]

This is hardly a find worth bragging about, but at the same store I picked up two CDs, the Proclaimers' Sunshine on Leith and Steven Curtis Chapman's All about Love. The Proclaimers' CD includes their original version of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", which is why I bought it. The Chapman CD I picked up for other tunes, but then discovered it also had Chapman's cover of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)." So, a neat little unexpected coincidence. Chapman's take on the song is pretty good, too.

 

The original:

 

Chapman's recording:

 

I love Steven Curtis Chapman! AAAAH!

[ARCZero]

I found some great items on my vacation to Vacouver Canada. One shop near their China Town had Japanese Hu cards for $3 each. I picked up 9 and it included some nice games such as a Super Grafx game and Don Doko Don. I also picked up Spud's Adventure for the Game Boy for $8 and King Arthur (Enix) for the SNES for $20. I overpaid on King Arthur but it's the first time I've seen it.

[orangest]

 

Spotted at a Salvation Army. Even with a 30% store-wide sale, I had to pass.

[the.golden.ax]

Damn. I am so envious of your area just for the cool crap that shows up. I couldn't have bought it either, but I'd have at least made them let me try to fire it up under the guise of possible purchase

[AtariBrian]

 

Spotted at a Salvation Army. Even with a 30% store-wide sale, I had to pass.

wow, that looks like its in great condition

[cybercylon]

I would never see something like that around here. Like Ax, I would have probably ask them to fire it up.

 

All we get are old PS2 and Xbox sports game.

[SRGilbert]

 

 

Spotted at a Salvation Army. Even with a 30% store-wide sale, I had to pass.

 

Wow, even non-working I think I would have nabbed that for only $336. Was there something really nasty about it that we can't see? Where is this?

 

Also, maybe it's just the lighting, but the joystick looks black in the pic, instead of the transparent blue.

[orangest]

The cabinet was in great overall condition, the only thing wrong was the non-workability. I just don't have the fix-it knowledge, space or disposable income at the moment for it. It's at the Salvation Army on Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance, CA. And yes, I think the joystick was indeed black.

[Bruce Tomlin]

A few months ago I found a non-working Heathkit ET-3400 "microprocessor trainer" at a Goodwill salvage store.

 

This weekend I finally took some time to fix it. Fixed a few broken pins on the 74LS241 chips (they had broken while in the socket!), reseated the 6800 and a couple of other chips, and now it works! The power-on reset (if there is one) doesn't work, but I just have to hit the reset key when it starts up.

 

I also found a schematic for a 2864 EEPROM addition and rigged it up. Then I added another 2864 with a minor change to the decoder circuit.

 

I tried to mod one of the sample programs to not use self-modifying code, and was surprised when there was no LDAA B,X or ABX instruction available. I was really spoiled by my time writing 6809 code, that's for sure.

[+FujiSkunk]

The cabinet was in great overall condition, the only thing wrong was the non-workability. I just don't have the fix-it knowledge, space or disposable income at the moment for it.

 

I feel your pain. In all my years of thrifting I have come across one arcade cabinet, the original Mortal Kombat. I would have loved taking that thing home, and I had the money for it. What I didn't have was a way to trasnport it, a place to put it, or the time to take proper care of it. sigh...

 

* * *

 

This weekend I got to be Someguy. At one of my usual thrifts I was flipping through the vinyl when I came across decent first-pressings of Cheap Trick's At Budokan and Rush's Hemispheres. Not the rarest records in the world, but they both originally came with extra papers that tend to disappear over the years, plus Rush seems to be one of those groups that almost never turn up in thrift stores in any condition. As I was setting them aside, a guy next to me spots the Rush record and says, "Aww man, you better buy that, because if you won't, I will!" I let him know I was.

 

I discovered the jacket for At Budokan also had a couple of newspaper clippings from 1979, one of a review of Cheap Trick's concert in Houston, the other an advertisement for Cheap Trick releases available at the local record store. All told, a nice little time capsule!

[Asaki]

Found a Pearl Blue AGS-101 model GBA SP (the "brighter backlit screen" model) at Goodwill yesterday for $5 B)

 

Or, as some kid there put it, "that DS!" It must've escaped sale two or three times while I was there (kept moving around behind the glass display case).

 

I was kind of hoping it didn't work so I could use it for parts, but a fully functioning unit is cool too.

[orangest]

 

Nomad w/ battery pack, the very 80s-looking "Game Sak", SFII Champion Edition, Gunstar Heroes & Sonic 2 for $19.99 at Goodwill.

 

 

Wind Waker and Pikmin-$5.99 each

Ultima VII Part II Serpent Isle-The Silver Seed (shrinkwrapped)-$5.00

 

These were at the Salvation Army that had the Tron arcade cabinet, which is still there. I didn't notice before that "No discounts" is written lightly on the price tag, so it is indeed $480. At least for now...

[Grig]

Very nice on the Nomad and the Ultima game.

[the.golden.ax]

I'm going to hit the "far away" goodwill this evening on my trash run (half hour away). Last time I scored Atari stuff (that categorically means that there won't be Atari stuff again) at any rate wish me luck. TTYL

[Jess Ragan]

Man, a Nomad for twenty bucks. Not a bad score at all, even if you have to rivet the cartridges into place to keep them from jostling loose as you play.

 

Wish I had something exciting to report, but I did manage to find a Nintendo 64 with games for about five bucks at one yard sale. Guess who was broke at the time?

[the.golden.ax]

Just got home (went to GamePlop and Wal-Fart after Goodwill closed at 8pm) Got a Guncon2 for PS2 for $3.99, an N64 video cable for 99¢, a PSP power supply for $1.99. They had some good Xbox1 titles (sonic collection, heroes, and a few others) but idiotic $9.99 price tags no joy there. However they had more than a DOZEN unabridged CD audiobooks, and the wife scored 6 (all half off) between $3 and $1.50 so she was VERY happy. It's the first time she came away with a bigger haul than me. BONUS!

 

Finally got Plants Vs.Zombies for PS3 (NEW on sale at GS for $9.99) was on my want list since Christmas.

 

Nothing game related acquired from Walmart.

[Asaki]

Ultima VII Part II Serpent Isle-The Silver Seed (shrinkwrapped)-$5.00

Back in the day, I remember Staples or Office Max had a bargain bin chock full of EA Gold Box titles, for $2 each.

 

We did get a lot of great games out of the deal (The Complete Ultima VII, Ultima VIII, Syndicate Plus, Theme Park...I forget what else, some racing game?), but if I could go back.........

[SRGilbert]

This is easily the worst summer on record for me as far as yard sales and flea markets (and forget about thrift stores, I can't remember my last score there.)

 

I think we've only managed to get in three or four Saturdays since April and the picking are weak when we do. Two of the three past monthly flea markets have been rained out too.

 

I do finds lots of non-game stuff, like CD's and tools and stuff, so it's not a total loss.

 

The highlight of last weekend was finding a boxed and almost complete Radio Shack/ Tandy Armatron. Guys who grew up in the late 70's early 80's will remember this!

 

 

The guy didn't know if it worked (and the leaking batteries didn't give me much hope) so he told me I could have it for a buck! Even though the bats leaked, the contacts were clean so I took a chance. I figured even if it didn't work, it would still display nice. Took it home, cleaned it up, new bats, and it works great! Always wanted one back in the day too.

 

Interesting note, like a number of RS toys, this was made by Tomy, who made a TON of cool toys back then. I personally collect Tomy robots, so this fits in great!