The Official "Thrift finds" Thread

[Bruce Tomlin]

Last weekend I found a Wii in the bins at a Goodwill salvage place in Austin, along with power brick, AV cable, light bar, stupid stand (as if I didn't already have plenty of all those), and a Wiimote without a battery cover. It was just missing the flap over the Gamecube ports. Later I noticed a 4GB SD card in it. Not bad for $1.59 (?) a pound.

 

When I turned it on, it had a Mario Kart disc stuck in it. I remembered I had a box to Mario Kart and, meh, it already had a disc too, so now the box has two discs. After much messing around with tri-wing bits, I was able to open it and get it to eject the disc. After that it seemed to work just fine.

 

The only thing that didn't work? That stupid Wiimote wouldn't sync. Fortunately I had a couple of extra nearby to confirm that it really was just that one control. If it'd had a battery cover, at least that could have gone to another one that needed a cover! I guess I can try it again with the pile of controllers I've been accumulating. If I really can't get it to work, I guess I can take it apart and use the plug for hooking up a Wiichuk or other thingy to I2C for a microcontroller project.

Edited May 12, 2018 by Bruce Tomlin

[Almost Rice]

I picked up a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro for $35 after my 30% discount. It is missing battery, ssd, and power supply. I got it working by removing the CMOS battery and installing a 1TB 850 EVO.

[Tanooki]

Last weekend I found a Wii in the bins at a Goodwill salvage place in Austin, along with power brick, AV cable, light bar, stupid stand (as if I didn't already have plenty of all those), and a Wiimote without a battery cover. It was just missing the flap over the Gamecube ports. Later I noticed a 4GB SD card in it. Not bad for $1.59 (?) a pound.

Not bad. If it's worth your while I have a bundle of spare exterior parts I had put on ebay that didn't sell that has all the doors for the Wii in it along with the exterior (white) faceplate w/electrics and ejector button attached.

 

 

I hit one flea market today got some nice goodies. $20 netted 3 records (Best of Cream, Eagles and their Greatest Hits, and Raiders of the Lost Ark), Captain Toad, a $1 Gundam toy that's all gold kinda chibi-SD style, and then $5 on a still untested fake N64 controller handheld powerjoy famicom thing that came with a clean battery box and ac adapter too. I'd call all that for $20 a win in my book. Going to check another flea tomorrow that has gone pretty downhill, may be the last regular visit depending on how it ends up.

[Jess Ragan]

Hey Bruce, you gonna sell that extra copy of Mario Kart Wii? I've got that game, but my copy is too scratched up to play. Guess the previous owners didn't treat it right.

[Tanooki]

Yay vinyl get part 2!

 

AC/DC Back in Black, (History) America's Greatest Hits, Boston, Bob Seger Stranger in Town, Fleetwood Mac Rumours, Jimi Hendrix Experience Smash Hits, and ZZ Top Eliminator -- Paid $4 for America, $40 combined for the other 6 all in VG shape or a bit nicer.

 

Also found for $2 PS1 stuff - Midway's Arcade Greatest Hits #2 (the one with Spy Hunter) and also almost PaRappa the Rapper but it had a Gods and Generals movie in the case Yet he gave me the case with the cover manual/art and rear art for free! (Anyone got a loose disc to sell or trade into? It values around $20~.)

[7800fan]

Just today:

 

It's frickin' rare to find any Atari item in a typical Goodwill stores, those either gets picked up by Sumguy or held for shopgoodwill site.

I need to ask: why tiny base with big shaft? Was the designer compensating for something when he designed this joystick handle?

[Mulletino]

Maybe it was designed to sit between a kid's legs? Like a flight stick?

[Asaki]

Or so you can hold it with two hands?

[7800fan]

Maybe it was designed to sit between a kid's legs? Like a flight stick?

 

And bruised balls if the boy got too rough playing?

 

Incidentally I got these:

Edited May 17, 2018 by 7800fan

[Grig]

Love the mugs

 

I found this lot for $5 - looks like mini N64 wired controllers by DOCS and an expansion cable

 

i can't find any information about them on the ol' net except that apparently DOCS made some N64 wireless and another wired controller that looks very different from these. Still, a good deal for $5 ... if they work.

[icemanxp300]

if they work.

 

Exactly! I have not come across an aftermarket N64 controller that works yet. I would have passed on them.

[S1500]

I had that pac man glass many moons ago. Ah memories.

[Tanooki]

I love those mugs too, i have one of both of them as well. I'd drink out of them but they're so old I don't want to ruin the things. Also have one other which is a coffee mug style that is from england, looks like this:

[7800fan]

I love those mugs too, i have one of both of them as well. I'd drink out of them but they're so old I don't want to ruin the things. Also have one other which is a coffee mug style that is from england, looks like this:

 

 

Not to mention early glasses used toxic chemical to make print like cadmium for red and lead. IMO I wouldn't drink out of anything made before this century

[AMenard]

 

Not to mention early glasses used toxic chemical to make print like cadmium for red and lead. IMO I wouldn't drink out of anything made before this century

 

Unless you drink from them continously you'll never be able to absorb enough to make you sick or have an impact. You probably are exposed to more toxic chemicals in your modern home or by taking a walk in a city in a day than you'll ever be by drinking from such glasses all your life.

[Asaki]

Typically the paint is on the outside of the glass.

[digdugnate]

i have a handful of assorted character jelly glasses / promo glasses from the 70s/80s. They are awesome to look at! I don't tend to drink out of them because I'm clumsy and they'd likely end up broken somehow.

 

Squirreled away somewhere also I have a set of Atari game shot glasses from ThinkGeek- I missed out on the pint glasses, though.

[Eltigro]

Our local Goodwill recently went through a remodel and my gf wanted to go check it out. I went along, not really expecting to find anything. I never find anything worth buying here, but I did find something this time in the DVDs. It's not a great find or anything, but I got Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 for the OG XBox for $1.99. Then we went to another local charity/thrift shop where I found nothing I wanted to buy. They did have some gaming stuff... Wii Speak accessories and a PS2 High School Musical... but nothing I wanted. I did see this CD that gave me a smile, though. Thought about buying it, but knew I probably would only listen to it once, so I passed.

 

 

[Grig]

If you go back and buy that CD I will pay you for it + shipping! + $ for your time.

[icemanxp300]

If you go back and buy that CD I will pay you for it + shipping! + $ for your time.

 

You are better off just buying it for $5 off ebay.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Great-White-North-Bob-Doug-McKenzie-Audio-CD/263687652540?epid=3225264&hash=item3d650244bc:m:m6CjPykuSOGiDYpW9gGhEdA

[Tanooki]

Today for $6 I got a couple common car games on PS1 (NFS HIgh Stakes and Demoition Racer) + Red N64 controller at a neighborhood garage sale, at another home earlier left behind a boxed up Sega Genesis original model once the high def graphics tag was removed, hope someone got it and enjoyed it. I did find at a thrift for $25 between the two a 2 recrod History of Eric Clapton album and another for Simon and Garfunkel too -- both in basically scratch free shape.

[Silverfleet]

I went out hunting over the weekend! First stop was a car swap meet I go to every year, and I always find gaming items there. In past years, I've gotten rare NES games real cheap, piles of Atari games, and more. This year, I found stuff, but it was all overpriced. Game Over.

 

-PS2 commons were $10-up, GC commons were double that!

-PS3/360 commons were even more

-Found a bunch of grungy OG Xboxes, all $65-up

-Broken Game Gear with a handful of games for $30

-NES Control Deck Box for $75 (just the box, not even the Styrofoam!)

 

Needless to say, I got nothing.

 

Later in the day, I was driving by a closing Toys R Us, and decided to pop in one last time. To my surprise, the place was still loaded up pretty good, and even had some games. Nearly all of the games were in a case, and no one would open it. But I did get what's in the pic below for right around $30:

 

 

The Switch controller grip was interesting. I think I read somewhere that I can get a cell phone to recognize the Joycons and use it to play games, or I can just use it as intended. It also charges the Joycons as you play, which is cool. Sunset Overdrive is one I've had on my list for a while. The Lego car was an impulse buy, as is the little Lego-style arcade machines. Those things were cool, and I bought all they had (there are 6 in the set and they had 4 of the 6).

 

[FireStar]

 

Found the first atari related thing from a thrift in a while, referring to the OG atari stick on the left and not the flashback stick on the right. This is actually my first original atari stick that isn't falling apart, so far I think I like it better than the flashback 2 sticks. Sonic Heroes is just the case and manual but my copy was loose so it works out for me.

[AtariLeaf]

I spent 10 bucks on a box. Normally I wouldn't do it but it's in great shape this one seemed unique and worth it

[Tanooki]

There is this holiday flea market that rolls around here throughout the year. I actually found some fun stuff today. Never have I picked up or seen games, but oddly I did find a couple Kirby games ($5/ea.) They weren't the highlight, probably going to give one of them to my daughter as he's randomly failed (tilt n tumble) and won't boot anymore. There was a mix of some useful tools (triplet magnifier loop) and 4 various size tool picks to work with or I guess teeth new too.) But the pleasing part to me were finding Japanese toys! 1983 Ultraman Black King from Bandai, and the big win was a brand new Mothra 1997 (from 96) toy from Bandai all sealed up still. It's Rainbow Mothra and you can push on the body and the wings flap, it's about nearly a foot wide with the wings.