The Thrift Near Miss thread

[Lendorien]

So, We've got the thrift finds thread... how about a near miss thread. Anyone have and tales of woe over near misses?

 

Like finding some rare cart in a store and not having the cash for it, or seeing some other guy walking out with the mother lode and you were only 5 minutes too late to get it yourself. Etc.

 

I had one today. Colecovision. Loads of games at a Goodwill here in WI. And I found the paddles sitting on a shelf somewhere away from the electronics section. But the console itself was nowhere to be seen. Either they hadn't put it out yet or someone else got it. Naturally, this wasn't a significant near miss, but it might be interesting to hear other people's stories. I'm sure some of our more serious collectors have some stories like this that are far more heartbreaking.

 

So share! And oh... ebay doesn't count.

Edited February 15, 2009 by Lendorien

[Mirage]

So did you get the ColecoVision games? I'm unsure if you're saying that you got them based on what you've said. I wish I'd been there for the CV games... I only have a few!

[Lendorien]

So did you get the ColecoVision games? I'm unsure if you're saying that you got them based on what you've said. I wish I'd been there for the CV games... I only have a few!

 

 

Oh no. I don't have a Colecovision. I don't remember what was there either. About 8 or 9 games were on the shelf, but they were asking 2 bucks a piece. I wasn't about to spend 20 bucks on games for a system I don't have. Heh. That particular goodwill gets a lot of game stuff. It's in a wealthy suburb. But, they have this lousy tendancy to label every attachment with a price. Controllers, power supplies, etc. It means that people buy stuff piecemeal. It sucks.

[AtariLeaf]

I get it now and then either at thrift stores or yard sales where you ask if they have any old video games and once in a while you hear the dreaded "sorry, just sold an atari and a bunch of games half an hour ago."

 

I've been on the other side too. A few years ago there was an independent thrift store that would hold things for me and I got a call one day that they had some things for me so I got there and it was a box of Atari games and a junior IIRC. On the way to the counter I pass this guy with his girlfriend or wife and I hear him mutter under his breath as I walk by "Oh crap, Atari."

 

I smiled as I paid $5 for the box and walked out.

Edited February 15, 2009 by AtariLeaf

[BigO]

Like [...] seeing some other guy walking out with the motherload...

(I suppose a baby and/or its effects might be termed a "motherload", but otherwise I think the term you're looking for is "mother lode" ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_lode Edited February 15, 2009 by BigO

[famicommander]

Somebody on Craigslist had a Pioneer LaserActive with both the SEGA and NEC adapters, plus some games. He wanted 35 dollars for it. It was already sold by the time I called.

[Lendorien]

Like finding some rare cart in a store and not having the cash for it, or seeing some other guy walking out with the motherload and you were only 5 minutes too late to get it yourself. Etc.

(I suppose a baby and/or its effects might be termed a "motherload", but otherwise I think the term you're looking for is "mother lode" ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_lode

 

Fixed... Mr. Smartypants.

[Mirage]

So did you get the ColecoVision games? I'm unsure if you're saying that you got them based on what you've said. I wish I'd been there for the CV games... I only have a few!

 

 

Oh no. I don't have a Colecovision. I don't remember what was there either. About 8 or 9 games were on the shelf, but they were asking 2 bucks a piece. I wasn't about to spend 20 bucks on games for a system I don't have. Heh. That particular goodwill gets a lot of game stuff. It's in a wealthy suburb. But, they have this lousy tendancy to label every attachment with a price. Controllers, power supplies, etc. It means that people buy stuff piecemeal. It sucks.

 

Yeah, most of the Goodwills around here are like that. Depending on what games they were, I'd like to get those. I'll probably have to make the rounds again Monday or Tuesday to see if I can find them. I just made the rounds on Thursday. $2 each isn't bad at all for most CV games. Better than the way they usually price the Pac-Mans and Combats at $3 each, and of course half the time put the sticker right on the label.

 

I'm pretty sure I know the one you're talking about.

[Lendorien]

So did you get the ColecoVision games? I'm unsure if you're saying that you got them based on what you've said. I wish I'd been there for the CV games... I only have a few!

 

 

Oh no. I don't have a Colecovision. I don't remember what was there either. About 8 or 9 games were on the shelf, but they were asking 2 bucks a piece. I wasn't about to spend 20 bucks on games for a system I don't have. Heh. That particular goodwill gets a lot of game stuff. It's in a wealthy suburb. But, they have this lousy tendancy to label every attachment with a price. Controllers, power supplies, etc. It means that people buy stuff piecemeal. It sucks.

 

Yeah, most of the Goodwills around here are like that. Depending on what games they were, I'd like to get those. I'll probably have to make the rounds again Monday or Tuesday to see if I can find them. I just made the rounds on Thursday. $2 each isn't bad at all for most CV games. Better than the way they usually price the Pac-Mans and Combats at $3 each, and of course half the time put the sticker right on the label.

 

I'm pretty sure I know the one you're talking about.

 

Oh, one from around my parts... We're stomping on the same grounds eh? I'd ask where you go to find stuff, but who wants competition, right? Not that I'm a serious collector, cause I'm not. I get games to play them.

 

Yeah, it's the one in the city to the west of us. I was just there this afternoon, so they'll likely still be there if you went now.

[Mirage]

Oh, one from around my parts... We're stomping on the same grounds eh? I'd ask where you go to find stuff, but who wants competition, right? Not that I'm a serious collector, cause I'm not. I get games to play them.

 

Yeah, it's the one in the city to the west of us. I was just there this afternoon, so they'll likely still be there if you went now.

 

I'm sure we hit the same places all the time anyway. They're closed now, I may go tomorrow morning. I'll let you know if I get the CV stuff. BTW, I doubt I'm much competition for you. I have so much stuff already that I leave most stuff behind either because I already have it, or because I don't collect for it (we go due to collecting for other stuff, but I still always look for games). For NES/SNES/Sega stuff, I only pick up something very occasionally, since I'm not too interested in most of those games. A lot of the time if you see those, I've probably already passed them by. CV is one of the few things I'd still be excited to see stuff for, and I already have the consoles, so I'd leave those for you too

Edited February 15, 2009 by Mirage1972

[Almost Rice]

I saw a top loader NES system complete in box for $15. The guy grabbed it first before I got there and he was not sure if he wanted to put it down. There were at least 3 people including myself waiting to see what he would do. He walked to the cashier a few moments later.

[BigO]

Like finding some rare cart in a store and not having the cash for it, or seeing some other guy walking out with the motherload and you were only 5 minutes too late to get it yourself. Etc.

(I suppose a baby and/or its effects might be termed a "motherload", but otherwise I think the term you're looking for is "mother lode" ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_lode

 

Fixed... Mr. Smartypants.

 

Sorry, one of my pet peeves got off of it's leash momentarily.

Edited February 16, 2009 by BigO

[RickHarrisMaine]

I remember I got to a Goodwill and was thrilled to see some decent SNES games for $3.99 apiece. Super Mario World, Darius Twin, and Starfox were the ones I picked. I was fairly chuffed about the whole thing til I got to the register and saw some guy look at my lot and sort of smirk, as the cashier put Earthbound and Chrono Trigger in the bag, and he waltzed his ass out of there....for some reason, he had Pilotwings too, which I didn't much care about, but if I had been there about 15 minutes earlier, it would have been a VERY good day.

[Stan]

One time I went to a Salvation Army and I didn't have any money on me, just looking around. Holy poop, they had a mint in box with everything set of Jarts! 2 stinking dollars! If you don't know what these are you probably wouldn't realize the shock I had and how awesome that was. Luckily I came back and they were still there.

[Mirage]

One time I went to a Salvation Army and I didn't have any money on me, just looking around. Holy poop, they had a mint in box with everything set of Jarts! 2 stinking dollars! If you don't know what these are you probably wouldn't realize the shock I had and how awesome that was. Luckily I came back and they were still there.

 

The old metal tip ones? Speaking of poop, I was scared poopless of those as a child. Flinging heavy, sharp metal objects though the air was always a great idea, especially in the '70s.

[shadow460]

I bumped into a collector at the Goodwill MMV store in Midwest City. We chatted about Game Gear collecting, and he asked if I collected anything else. He seemed to be one of those kind of people who always claims to have something better than you, no matter what you say you've got. Otherwise, he's a likeable guy.

 

We went to Wal*Mart one night for cold medicine. They refused to sell it to my wife since she didn't have ID, so we stormed out and went to Target instead, where we spent close to an hour. Just as we checked out with the cold medicine, I hear, "Hey! Game Gear collector dude!" I'm thinking, yeah, I collect Game Gear stuff, but there's no way anyone's referring to me...

The same collector was in the door and he bragged about finding a "whole bag full" of 5200 carts at the Uptown Thrift nearby. Not thinking, I went to uptown and asked about them...the clerk verified those carts had been there but they'd been purchased. If I had thought of that before we left Target, I would have asked to look through the bag and offered a few buck each for some of the games.

 

Another time, I went into OK Family Thrift and saw a customer holding a Leap Pad close. I wonderd if she wasn't trying to steal it. she was standing in front of the glass case where they have games. I thought also she might be waiting for someone to get something from the case. After an eternity, she moved on, and I saw why she was so protective of the Leap Pad. It had a carrying bag with it, and stuck inside the bag was a GBA SP that had not been priced. I asked the cashier if it was supposed to be sold with the Leap Pad set. The set was priced at $30, and I felt that the SP was worth far more than that. The cashier did not sell the me the Leap Pad or the SP. She took the SP to her office.

 

Both stories do have a happy ending, though. In the first case, about two or three months after that, I had a huge haul from a Midwest City thrift store. It wasn't the MMV store, either. I grabbed a boxed Sunrise version of Quest for Quintana Roo for the 2600 and a number of CIB 2600 games. Not long after the deal with the SP, my wife told me someone had left a DS Lite at her job several months prior. The DS sat there at her job, unplayed, for over a year and she brought it home a while back.

 

More often than not, though, when something like this happens, I'm the person who's checking out with the big haul while other collectors are drooling. I hit the thrifts about once every week or two normally. I'm not currently shopping them right now, though. When I start back, I will add in Golden Goose and Mary's to my weekly or bi weekly haunts.

[Stan]

The old metal tip ones? Speaking of poop, I was scared poopless of those as a child. Flinging heavy, sharp metal objects though the air was always a great idea, especially in the '70s.

 

Yep, that would be them. It's nearly impossible to find them now because they were ordered to be destroyed. They have these lame-o jobs that Walmart sells that bounce and totally ruin the fun of it. I mean, hey, the threat of death and an ominous THOOK in the ground is the way to go. Really, though, they're totally fine, the reason people got hurt was because they were acting like idiots with them and trying to catch them in their mouths and such.

[Lendorien]

Both stories do have a happy ending, though. In the first case, about two or three months after that, I had a huge haul from a Midwest City thrift store. It wasn't the MMV store, either. I grabbed a boxed Sunrise version of Quest for Quintana Roo for the 2600 and a number of CIB 2600 games. Not long after the deal with the SP, my wife told me someone had left a DS Lite at her job several months prior. The DS sat there at her job, unplayed, for over a year and she brought it home a while back.

 

I've gotten a few things from lost and founds over the years at various places I've worked. Never anything quite as nice as a DS tho. I did buy a HP media PC worth 300 dollars off a guy for 10 bucks about 2 months ago. He was recycling it as my place of work, and when I saw what it was, I offered him the cash in my wallet for it. Since it was busted (his words) he took the money. Got it home and there was nothing wrong with it except that the CPU fan was so clogged with dust that it didn't even move any more. Needless to say, a vacuum solved that issue and I got a 300 dollar media pc out of it. Sold it to a coworker too. Man folks were jealous about that one.

 

The old metal tip ones? Speaking of poop, I was scared poopless of those as a child. Flinging heavy, sharp metal objects though the air was always a great idea, especially in the '70s.

 

Yep, that would be them. It's nearly impossible to find them now because they were ordered to be destroyed. They have these lame-o jobs that Walmart sells that bounce and totally ruin the fun of it. I mean, hey, the threat of death and an ominous THOOK in the ground is the way to go. Really, though, they're totally fine, the reason people got hurt was because they were acting like idiots with them and trying to catch them in their mouths and such.

 

They were banned in the late 80's after a couple kids were killed by them. Consumer protection gone overboard. I'm sure more kids have died by drowning in kiddie pools than by Jart impalings. Are we banning kiddie pools? Nope.

 

I actually did play Jarts once in the early 90's some friends had a set. We were supervised when we played as it should have been.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Lendorien

[madhatter667]

Jarts = lawn darts? The big darts with the target ring that you set out on the lawn and try to pitch them up in the air to accurately land within?

 

I got a free GBA SP from my best friend. He works for a motel, and someone left an SP there. He waited a few months, no one came to claim it, no one called. Since he already had one (same color too), he gave it to me.

 

The only time I have ever been bested at a thrift hunt is by one of my buddies, and we were hunting together. He beat me to the shelf where the game stuff is kept.

[shadow460]

I've actually had several scores from people who left things behind. When I did apartment maintenance, I was responsible for cleaning stuff out of units. It becomes property of the apartment complex 30 days after they are evicted, or immediately after they turn in the keys when they move out normally.

I got quite a few CDs and movies that way, and I also got several gaming items. The best one was probably my Genesis, and the best item overall I got this way is an LG brand mp3 player.

 

You know, a former co worker suggested that if I ever do apartment maintenance, I should keep the stuff I clean out of empty units and then sell it all monthly in a garage sale. We're talking nice stuff that get left behind...small appliances like coffee makers, microwaves, blenders, electronics like mp3 players, clothes, and tons upon tons of dishes. And there's a lot of computer stuff left behind, too. I've made many trips to the thrift shop just to drop stuff off, and I said to heck with dropping dishes and clothes off.

 

I've digressed. This does remind me of one other near miss. In 2007 I was cleaning out the shop that had been left to me by the last maintenance person in the particular apartment complex. I found a PS2 memory card and just the packaging for a 2GB MS Pro Duo that I could have used with my PSP. I am 100% positive the actual MS was in that pile of trash, but I must have threw it out without realizing it. I traded the memory card off for $7.50 in store credit.

[Mirage]

The old metal tip ones? Speaking of poop, I was scared poopless of those as a child. Flinging heavy, sharp metal objects though the air was always a great idea, especially in the '70s.

 

Yep, that would be them. It's nearly impossible to find them now because they were ordered to be destroyed. They have these lame-o jobs that Walmart sells that bounce and totally ruin the fun of it. I mean, hey, the threat of death and an ominous THOOK in the ground is the way to go. Really, though, they're totally fine, the reason people got hurt was because they were acting like idiots with them and trying to catch them in their mouths and such.

 

Yes, the new ones suck. The problem with "totally fine" is that a lot of kids are stupid. I had some not-bright friends in the '70s apparently, and I remember several times having a Jart hurling at me. Part of me thinks it's a bad idea to over-regulate stuff, and kids shouldn't have been using the things to begin with, or at least should be supervised... but jeez, that's just tempting fate. That said, if I saw a brand new set today for $2, I'd buy them too, and consider it to be a good find!

 

I wish I could think of any near misses to get on topic. Most of my stories like that would just involve seeing something cool and the thrift or store owner/garage sale owner wanting WAY more than something is worth and having to leave it behind for that reason. There was a resale shop here in Milwaukee a couple years ago that had an average condition 5200, and it was in a crappy box... I was thinking I'd buy it, but then the guy said he wanted like $400 or $500 (I can't remember which) for it, and he kept saying how incredible it was that it was still in the box and it's worth a ton. I sort of got the last laugh though, because he had a few copies of a CD for $2 each that I knew was rare and worth a bit (how he got three legit copies, I don't know... distributor I suppose)... I bought them, and resold them for around $20 each on ebay.

[AtariLeaf]

I saw a top loader NES system complete in box for $15. The guy grabbed it first before I got there and he was not sure if he wanted to put it down. There were at least 3 people including myself waiting to see what he would do. He walked to the cashier a few moments later.

 

I can just picture the 3 of you stalking this guy around the store, pretending to look at other things and waiting to pounce if he so much as sneezes.

[AtariLeaf]

I've actually had several scores from people who left things behind. When I did apartment maintenance, I was responsible for cleaning stuff out of units. It becomes property of the apartment complex 30 days after they are evicted, or immediately after they turn in the keys when they move out normally.

 

I had something similar. It wasn't me personally but a co-worker had a part time job cleaning homes that have been repo'd. She's always finding various items left behind in these houses. She knew I was a collector and one day she brought a box to work with a junior and about 20 fairly common games to give me that she found in the basement of one of these homes. Not a huge score but nice nonetheless.

Edited February 16, 2009 by AtariLeaf

[the.golden.ax]

I can't take threads like this one. I have flashbacks... like someone buying Q-berts Qubes for 49 cents right in front of me as I walked in.... AHHHHHHHHHH

 

 

AX

[Mirage]

I have sort of a meta-story... caused by this very thread!

 

I went to all three area Goodwills looking for those ColecoVision games Lendorian mentioned. Nothing. Hit Berlin, 'stallis, and even Waukesha. I'd have been thrilled to have found the CV power supply since I have 2 CV's but only 1 PS. No such luck. Not even any sign of the CV controllers anywhere. Someone must have gotten there before me. Best thing I saw today was an NES Tecmo Bowl, which I left behind.

 

Oh well, the fun was in the chase!