Saturday's Garage Sale Madness!

[Lifeguard]

Now that yesterdays finds are dusted off, their story of being rescued from probable garbage can placement by their former owners can be shared with all.

 

The weather was pretty nice yesterday. The overcast broke up earlier than the day before and I determined that it was a fine day to do some hunting. I left the house and went to the same neighborhood half a mile down the road that just a month ago produced a working Intellivision system with over 20 boxed games for only $10 (after getting home that day I discovered on one of the turned brown box flaps "Intellivision $5" -- I'm convincing myself still that it was a good deal anyways.)

 

After the first stop, which produced nothing except a sighting of a pile of 8-track tapes, I wandered onto a street that had a NES system with a half-dozen games out towards the sidewalk. That's not my cup of tea so I trekked further into the maze of toys, clothes, tools, record albums, small appliances, kitchenware and a really old gas BBQ grill.

 

Spying a plastic grocery store bag with what looked like some game cartridges in it, I knelt down and found that it was full of interesting stuff. Futher inspection revealed Sega Saturn's College Slam, Madden NFL 97, and Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball in their original cases and Sonic 3D Blast in a jewel case. Below those were a bunch of 5200 games: (3) Pac Man, Space Dungeon (w/inst.), Rescue on Fractalus, Missile Command, Football (w/inst.), Mario Bros. (w/inst.), Frogger, Gorf, Qbert and Gyruss. After looking over that stuff I then moved some shirts that were covering the top of a box next to the bag to find 2 dusty 2600's. One a Vader and the other a woody 4 switch. Also in that box were a number of controllers, a power supply, and a Spider Fighter cartridge with considerable acti-plaque.

 

Asking the lady how much all this stuff was she proclaimed that I could have it all for $3. Her kid started to protest saying it was worth more than that but she was bound and determined to sell that stuff for $3. I quickly came to the conclusion that keeping my mouth shut was the best way to come out ahead in this situation. Figuring that she needed more room in the garage for her old kitchen stuff (that no one would ever buy) to collect dust I gladly gave up the cash and drove away with a big grin on my face.

 

I hit a few more sales after that and saw a 2600 with about 15 games for $25. That was for everything--no individual games for sale there. I didn't have 4 of the games (commons) but I couldn't justify spending that much so I moved along.

 

Figuring I already used up my garage sale luck for the day anyways I then went to the flea market and found "The Wizard" movie for $2 and some controllers--a Suncom Slik Stik and a 5200 controller for $1 each and a Wico Command Control for $3.

 

Ok, so the controllers and the movie from the flea market weren't headed for the trash bin immediately--their owners likely would haul them around for years subjecting them to harsh treatment and inclement weather. That's just slow torture....

 

A nice outing on a fine fall day and some good finds and less than ten bucks spent. All in all a good day.

 

Who else turned up anything this weekend? Let's hear about it.

[MegaManFan]

Let's hear about it.

 

I got a Starcraft 64 in the box for $20. Well actually, $17, since Blockbuster was having a $3 off used games sale. Well actually, $16 since it didn't have the instructions and I talked him into knocking another dollar off the price.

[sdstuff64]

Well I went to EB and got a free Nintendo dvd and winter book thing.So eat that!I wish I could find good things...

[VideoGameFreek]

On Friday I came acrossed these guys:

7800

Food Fight

Super Huey

 

2600

Homerun

Hangman

Skydiver

Champion Soccer

Space Jockey

Chopper Command

Centepede

All these for $3.00!!

 

David

[NE146]

Don't you have to wake up real early to go to garage sales? I've never been to one in my life

[sdstuff64]

Don't you have to wake up real early to go to garage sales? I've never been to one in my life

 

I have gone to every one I can go to.And have found close to nothing,accept for a G&W which was pure luck I guess.Damnit all.

[AtariLeaf]

Must be nice to live in a part of the country where yard/garage sales go on year round. Up here in the great white north, you basically have between May and September, sometimes October depending on the weather.

No flea markets around here either so its just thrifts for me.

[DeV0]

We have oppurtunity shops here such has st vincent de'pauls and the salvation army.

 

I live about 5 minutes away from the salvation army central depo, This is where all of the trucks come to sought out what is going where around the state.

 

Every Sat morning im there early and never come home with empty hands. This Sat they had 10 Sega saturns, I think they are all ex demo as they have all the cables, I bought 2 of those, A boxed frogger for 2600. this is my worst find to date. On top of this my stoopid citroen's starter engine died in the car park, gggrrrrrr.

[Lifeguard]

About that thrift which acts like a central depot collection point, it's my understanding that some of those act as auction houses where people can buy a cart (that's the generic term for a lot in that industry I learned) full of stuff, be it clothes, electronic stuff or whatever. The guy I talked to at a shop says a cart can be had for 5-10 dollars. That's how a lot of smaller thrift shops (and perhaps some electronics shops that have old stuff) get inventory I imagine. So maybe going to some of these auctions and leaving word that you're looking for certain things with some of the people buying the carts might turn up some goods.

[Witchfynde]

Must be nice to live in a part of the country where yard/garage sales go on year round. Up here in the great white north, you basically have between May and September, sometimes October depending on the weather.

 

It's hot down here in Houston, so we have them...well, many more months other than May through September, that's for sure.

 

Also, in the neighborhood that *I* live in, we have a yearly neighborhood sale. They started in '94, but every year less and less people participate, since most of them sold their crap years ago. We've had several new neighbors in the last year though, so maybe next summer's (if I'm still here, I plan to move to Dallas) will have more junk.

 

I never saw any Atari games though, although with the tons of cars that come through it's not worth it to drive at all (unless your car as air conditioning), but much quicker by bike. A couple of years ago I got a flat, though, and never replaced the tire, so I missed the last few. The only computer-related thingy I saw I had no idea what it was; my guess it was for an Apple computer or something (I'd give a description but I don't really remember what it looked like; it was a small pad, only a couple of inches wide by a couple of inches tall, white, and that's about it). A senile old lady asked if I knew what it was so she could label it, I said I didn't know, then she proceeded to tell a friend that was helping her out that I was thinking of buying it. Huh?

[maibock]

Had a rough weekend.. woke up Saturday morning planning to go to a "HUGE moving sale" or at least that's what the paper said. As I was getting ready, both my kids wanted to come along, no problem. We stop by Wawa and get a coffee and 2 hot chocolates. It was cold and rainy out.

 

We get to the intersection where the sale was and there were absolutely no signs what so ever. After driving around for about 20 minutes, I break down and call the wife to get directions off the internet.

 

So we find the place around 8:30 (most sales around here start at 8:00) and there's no sign of life at the house. No big flourescent signs, no stuff in the yard or garage, nothing.

 

So, call the wife again and say we're heading back, and she mentions the sale start at 9:00. Great... We mess around for 1/2 hour and finally make it back. There's an old guy in the garage cleaning and I inquire about the moving sale. He points to a pile of "stuff" on the ground which he's just placed and says that's it, plus the tractor.

 

I ask if he has any old video games, to no avail. Cold, wet and pretty pissed off, we head back home.

 

Later that day I passed by 2 thrift shops right next to each other, which I've never seen before, on the way to a house I had just bought. Zilch again.

 

rough weekend

[AtariLeaf]

I know how you feel. I hate it when you see these ads in the paper for "HUGE" yard or garage sales only to find some little old lady and her card table of old coffee mugs

[King Atari]

Found nothing, of course.

[eldunko]

This weekend I made my first trip to Value Village where they had stuffed in the back corner, a commodore vic-20 and 19 games, for about 10 bucks... only 1 double out of the whole lot, so i was pretty happy plus I managed 2 master system games but that's not really atari related... Well neither is a commodore but... Feeling daring proud I poped into Goodwill and managed to get 2 atari 2600, which at the time I had no clue what they were... Journey Escape and Lock 'N' Chase.

[AtariLeaf]

Wow, thats a good price for Value Village. They have been notorious for being overpriced lately, at least in this area. I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago how they wanted $80.00 for an intellivision with a few common games.

[DeV0]

I am happy to say that the most you will pay for a cart of any description for any console at the central salvation army depo is $1,

 

Every sat there is always somewhere to go for me, If i dont find something i just move on to the next. I probably won't find 100 + carts again but still i'm always sure to get something.

 

I dont have a master system but could get a milk crate or 2 of carts, Does anyone know if this is a good sytem??

[MegaManFan]

I dont have a master system but could get a milk crate or 2 of carts, Does anyone know if this is a good sytem??

 

It's a WONDERFUL system, and more games were released in AU, Asia, Brazil and Europe than are available in the U.S. -- but the best thing about them is they're 99.5% compatible with the U.S. system; no conversion necessary! As a result I already own all 110+ U.S. releases and about 30 different ones from overseas.