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The Thrift Near Miss thread


Lendorien

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Back in 2002 my wife and I were going over to Goldsboro NC to a flea market we use to go to every weekend. On the way we see a big yard sale and my wife says lets stop there first. I say no I dout they have anything we will stop on the way back. Well anyway about an hour or two later we come back by and I ask the women at the yard sale if she has any old video game stuff. She says not now but I just sold an Atari with about 60 games about 45 mins ago!!!! Also just yesterday we were at a flea market and some old man had about 15 atari games. Only one I didn't have already. I ask him if he has anymore he says no he did this morning but some guy came by and picked up about 10 games!!

Edited by kyle
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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

I would have just talked to the guy and see if he knew his stuff. If he didn't then I would had offered him starting at $5.00 for Qubes and if said no just kept going up until he said yes. I mean even if you paid him $20 or so for it thats still a deal.

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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

I would have just talked to the guy and see if he knew his stuff. If he didn't then I would had offered him starting at $5.00 for Qubes and if said no just kept going up until he said yes. I mean even if you paid him $20 or so for it thats still a deal.

 

 

I did. Got up to $35 before I gave up.

 

AX

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Along with retro computing, I collect stuff to do with the sci-fi series Doctor Who. i've seen people walking the local car boot sale about with (then very rare) videotapes. One very near miss involved magazines - I brought some from a person for 10p each and he promised to keep anymore by for me if he dug out more. He did and came to teh car boot sale the following week and promptly sold them to someone else.

 

My near misses are mainly involved with the pricing of things, but these days, retro computing goodies are hard to come by over the boot sale. I did see an 2600 two weeks ago but had no money left..

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Not near misses but wish I wouldnt have sold it. Top Load NES with power supply. Bought it for 14.99 at Savers(RIP) and a week later the dog bone controller for 4.99 which went up on eBay for what I bought them for. Got 74.00 for the top load and 11.00 for the dogbone controller. Same store bought Goldeneye for N64 for 1.00 and Paper Mario for 75 cents which made me real happy. Have the N64 to play them on but still havnt connected it up yet though. Also have Wave Race for the N64 which I really have no clue what it is except flying on water from what I understand.

 

Blud

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  • 9 months later...

Reviving an old thread. The other day I was at goodwill and they had a Colecovision rollerball controller and some bits and pieces of an Adam. Made me wonder if they put it out separately or threw the computer parts into their recycle bin. I makes me sad to think how many vintage computers get recycled by Goodwill.

 

Anyone have any recent near miss stories to share?

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Saw a color laser printer for $12. It was a bigger more industrial oriented one, so even if it had issues it would have been repairable. A guy walked out with it moments before I could get there. Thta's okay though - I don't do enough printing to justify stocking yet ANOTHER kind of ink/toner around here. Besides the cow needs real space... but I would not been able to resist the temptation. So glad the other guy got it.

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The rarity there is all the hookups. There are a lot of fiddly little cables that have to be present for a 32X to work. There was a time where I saw 32X's all the time, but it was never with the special custom cables necessary. I've probaly got a couple in storage, but they're only good for massochists who want to solder for hours just to get some mediocre games to work. ;)

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I've posted about this elsewhere. Once I went to a Salvation Army and saw a whole bucket full of 400/800/XE carts. I didn't buy any, since I didn't have an 8-bit and I didn't know what those were worth. A few days later, I buy an XEGS and go back to that store, and guess what? Every single last cartridge is gone. I've been kicking myself about that ever since. :x

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I always know it was a near miss when I go into a thrift and there's a slough of new (since the last recent trip) sports and junk titles for a system... I just know there was almost positively a system and good games there. This weekend I went to a Goodwill and this was the case with N64 games. I was still able to pick up 007 Goldeneye and Turok Rage Wars, but what else did they bring in other than the dozen sports titles?!! :x

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The rarity there is all the hookups. There are a lot of fiddly little cables that have to be present for a 32X to work. There was a time where I saw 32X's all the time, but it was never with the special custom cables necessary. I've probaly got a couple in storage, but they're only good for massochists who want to solder for hours just to get some mediocre games to work. ;)

 

Over at sega-16.comthere is someone wanting to give away a sega to 32x cable if I recall in Sonic's bazaar....

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I always know it was a near miss when I go into a thrift and there's a slough of new (since the last recent trip) sports and junk titles for a system... I just know there was almost positively a system and good games there. This weekend I went to a Goodwill and this was the case with N64 games. I was still able to pick up 007 Goldeneye and Turok Rage Wars, but what else did they bring in other than the dozen sports titles?!! :x

 

Hey Mirage, I've had some luck lately... that being the past month or so. I got a whole slew of NES games in the original boxes about a month ago. SMB3, Castlevania, Dragon Quest, and TMNT. Also found some rare Dreamcast games. I was floored to find Sonic Adventure 1 + 2 at a Goodwill about a month and a half ago. Amazing. I will admit to reselling stuff I already have and know have value. Pretty much all of my NES games come from Goodwill. And I have some good ones too. Far cheaper than you'd find on auction or retail sites.

 

But I totally know what you mean. Like the few Sega Master system carts left on the shelf that implied one had been in the store. Or the mediocre homebrew dreamcast game and Web browser disc 2 days ago that made me wonder what other games I missed (and the dreamcast that had the ethernet attachment on it...).

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Someone brought a Pioneer laser disc player into the North May Vintage Stock. Just missing the player alone could have qualified for this thread, but the way the described it, it was a LaserActive! :o I wish I'd been there as I'd have offered some cash on the spot even if it was one of the "normal" models.

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I always know it was a near miss when I go into a thrift and there's a slough of new (since the last recent trip) sports and junk titles for a system... I just know there was almost positively a system and good games there. This weekend I went to a Goodwill and this was the case with N64 games. I was still able to pick up 007 Goldeneye and Turok Rage Wars, but what else did they bring in other than the dozen sports titles?!! :x

 

I suspect something like that happened at my local GW last week. Someone brought in a slew of 3rd rate NES games. Went to the shelf where anything like that goes, and there sat two NES controllers, the power supply, the TV hook up, the light gun, and a NES toaster sized space in the middle. My GW recently stopped bundling things and now prices everything separately, so someone likely bought the console. Too bad, because I am looking for one even it it blinks as I already have a good 72 pin connector.

 

(Spending money is gone for the month, so the above was not a hint)

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Well, I do have a nemisis around here that I often run into at yard sales. We often cross paths and brag about what we've found recently. The main thing that bugs me about him is that I think he's not really a collector but an ebay reseller. Sometimes he beats me to a good haul, but just as often I get there first! He's a decent guy though, and I have bought stuff from him for reasonable prices.

 

I'm lookin' at you Justin! icon_fett.gif

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Well, I do have a nemisis around here that I often run into at yard sales. We often cross paths and brag about what we've found recently. The main thing that bugs me about him is that I think he's not really a collector but an ebay reseller. Sometimes he beats me to a good haul, but just as often I get there first! He's a decent guy though, and I have bought stuff from him for reasonable prices.

 

I'm lookin' at you Justin! icon_fett.gif

 

There's a certain Genesis collector here that this reminds me of. I don't think he is a reseller, though. He carries several magazines with price guides in them. They look old, but it's possible he puts a lot of use on them going place to place. He is quite friendly and very chatty. I don't know the man's name, I just know he collects Genesis and CD music. He'll also grab up other lots here and there. I'm certain if he'd seen the ones I picked up this week, he'd have gotten some of the manuals and the grab bag that I flipped for more than what I paid even after pulling some of the games from it.

Competition keeps me on my toes. If I get beaten to something good, though, I'm happy for the person who did get it.

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This weekend, I was at a goodwill and missed out on an xbox with two controllers for 15 bucks. One of the controllers was some strange dual handled promo controller. A hispanic fellow got it before I did. Darn.

 

Also missed out on a PS2 steering wheel and pedals for 5 bucks. I was debating buying it when some kids came by and grabbed it.

 

Nothing major this week.

Did this happen to be it? post-22364-126600810087_thumb.jpg

Edited by STICH666
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Did this happen to be it? post-22364-126600810087_thumb.jpg

 

Nope. It wasn't that one.

 

I looked around for a similar one on google images with no luck. It was painted with a sort of futuristic military style with sort of a green metallic look, but so it looked gritty and banged up and it didn't have the shape of a standard controller. It was a nice looking controller too. It was also bigger than a standard controller.

 

Oh... hey. Found it. It was a Radica FPS Master.

 

There was another one that same day that was odd, but I don't remember it well enough to find it.

post-22224-126600896097_thumb.jpg

Edited by Lendorien
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I once went to a thrift store without any cash and found a Dark Tower board game.....It was missing a bunch of pieces but still had the tower......I already have the game (from back in the day) but I needed some extra pieces....it was $3.00. I ran to the ATM down the street, pulled $10.00 out, got back and it had been already bought and gone. I wasnt gone for more than 10 min..... :x

Edited by lhfreak
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I once went to a thrift store without any cash and found a Dark Tower board game.....It was missing a bunch of pieces but still had the tower......I already have the game (from back in the day) but I needed some extra pieces....it was $3.00. I ran to the ATM down the street, pulled $10.00 out, got back and it had been already bought and gone. I wasnt gone for more than 10 min..... icon_mad.gif

 

They didn't take debit? I would have had the cashier hold it and say I'd be back in 10 minutes. I've done that before and never had them refuse to do so.

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