The Official "Thrift finds" Thread

[CGQuarterly]

Picked up a NES Power Pad for $3.29. I don't have any games that use it, but now I can buy some.

 

Rip-off of the week: Original Playstation with 1 controller, AV cable and power cable all Saran-wrapped together for $50 at the Salvation Army. Obviously I didn't buy it.

 

Chris

and it will still be there tomorrow.

 

Yup. At least Salvation Army discounts their stuff as time goes by, so although it is $50 now, at some point it will drop down to its proper price point and be purchased by someone.

 

Chris

[Bruce Tomlin]

Yup. At least Salvation Army discounts their stuff as time goes by, so although it is $50 now, at some point it will drop down to its proper price point and be purchased by someone.

I got my current main couch as a triple half-off at a SA. That's 87.5% off.

[orangest]

Picked up a bunch of loose Game Gear games (with cases) for $.50 each at a thrift today:

 

Junction

Micro Machines

Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six

Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse

Captain America and the Avengers

Solitaire Poker

Batter Up

Pac-Man

Tom and Jerry: The Movie

Mortal Combat

Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble

[Ghost Soldier]

^Nice haul

[+thegoldenband]

I recently picked up a lot of twelve Intellivision carts including three boxed games (two CIB) and most importantly, a loose Tower of Doom. I also got loose carts of Bible Adventures and Action 52 for the Genesis from the same seller.

 

Total cost was a little more than $30 shipped. Considering that loose carts of Tower of Doom go for $20 and up, and Action 52 averages between $20-25, I'm pretty happy.

[Malc74]

Haven't posted on here in aaaaages, but this is well worth it.

$3.99 each from Value Village, the bottom 5 are all gatefold boxes and are in fantastic condition. The only game missing its manual is Breakout, but as a bonus Star Ship and its manual had been stuffed inside the Space War box.

I had a scout around the store in case there was a heavy sixer hiding somewhere, but I wasn't that lucky!

[Malc74]

Wow! I was just looking through the Video Olympics manual when the original receipt for the Atari console fell out! Ordered from Eaton's in Hamilton on the 7th of November 1977 and picked up on the 15th. Total amount of the purchase $288.88.

I'm definitely going back to VV tomorrow - it would be super cool to find the actual console that this receipt belongs to!

[tz101]

Dreamcast:

 

Crazy Taxi $2

Soul Caliber $2

NFL 2K1 $2

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six $2

 

 

Saturn:

 

Daytona USA $1.99

Madden 98 $1.99

 

 

Atari 2600:

 

Mouse Trap $1

Commando Raid $1

Super Breakout $1

Pele's Soccer $1

Frogger $1.99

Popeye $1.99

Activision Tennis $.50

Warlords $1

Solaris $.50

Stampede $1

Tele-Games Breakaway $1

Enduro $1

[TI99Kitty]

Haven't posted for awhile, so I decided to write a novel... ^_~

 

At a thrift store near where my mother lives, I found these for $1 each. Haven't tested any of these yet:

 

Prime Time NFL Football (Genesis, loose)

NHL '96 (Genesis, loose)

NBA All-Star Challenge (Genesis, in box, no manual)

Space Channel 5 (Dreamcast, complete, former Blockbuster rental)

NFL 2K (Dreamcast, complete)

NFL 2K1 (Dreamcast, complete)

Myst Soundtrack CD

 

From Goodwill, four Genesis games for $5.95. They all work:

 

Bio Hazard Battle (complete)

NHL '94 (no manual, box is torn, missing insert)

Sonic the Hedgehog (pack-in, has box but no manual)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (pack-in, complete)

 

Also, though not a thrift store find, I recently purchased, for $67:

 

Sega Dreamcast, with four controllers and a handful of loose game discs (need to see if I can get some of them resurfaced)

PlayStation (model 7001), with a controller and some loose game discs (same note as above)

Nintendo 64, with one controller, RAM expansion and two variant labels of the same SNES (wtf?) game

2 NES consoles, with three controllers and two games

2 Sega Genesis 2 consoles, with three controller and two games

(games) (DC)

Crazy Taxi (not working)

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 (not working)

Pen Pen Trilcelon (not working)

WWF Attitude (not working)

Hydro Thunder

NFL 2K2

Power Stone

Sega Rally 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (locks up after selecting skater)

Trick Style

Ultimate Fighting Championship

(PS)

Battle Area Toshinden (not working)

Resident Evil 2 (both discs, not working)

Tomb Raider III (not working)

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (not working)

Loaded

Olympic Summer Games

Ridge Racer Revolution

(Gen)

George Foreman's KO Boxing (with box, no manual)

ESWAT (loose)

(SNES)

Super Mario World x 2

 

No cables, but to make a long story short, it all works. I decided to keep one of the NES's and one of the... Genesises? Genesii? I sold the Dreamcast, PS and one Genesis (with the ESWAT game) for $40. As soon as I get another 72-pin connector, the other NES is going on eBay. The N64 has a problem with the power switch (more of an annoyance, really), so I'm keeping it... for now.

Edited January 8, 2010 by TI99Kitty

[madhatter667]

Not exactly a thrift find, but I stopped in at a relatively new game shop near where I live and grabbed two R4 NES carts.

It's pretty rare that I find something for the NES, or the Atari that I don't already own when sniffing around shops.

Shockwave by American Game Cartridge

Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land by Wisdom Tree

While I am not religious in the Christian sense, I find a certain sense of campy-ness in their games. Plus I have a thing for unlicensed and pirate games/consoles. AND it filled holes in my NES collection. One of these days I'll get the whole library. Call it a collecting goal. I have long resigned myself to the fact that I will never complete any of the Atari console libraries (though I may get close to getting the Lynx sooner or later).

[gulag picture radio]

I saw a laserdisc player at a thrift shop for $120!!! Are they insane?

 

Not in the least. A good player can still run you in the thousands. Mine was originally priced at $160, but since it sat there so long (shockingly) it was marked down to just $40 when I got it. I guess no one saw it or realized that it could play the slew of Genesis titles that had to have come in with it.

 

You're tlaking about having found a LaserActive, right? Yeah, those are special. Other than that when I see an LD player at a thrift, they are usually $10 or less. I think they assume that these are CD carousels and price them accordingly. I have 7 or 8 in storage (the one that I bought in the 90's when I was a teacher in film school is finally giving up the ghost), and I think out of those perhaps one didn't work. I'm surprised since the motor has to move such a heavy platter so fast, and the two sided players have that moveable laser... I figured that more would be worn out by now.

 

Of course the other fun thing about finding an LD player is to look among the LP's to find the discs that probably came in with it. These are frequently misfiled with records, so you can buy a movie for a quarter. Iv'e even gotten Criterion edition boxed sets for a buck or two.

[SRGilbert]

First time out thrifting in a while and came home with something nice. I was walking around a thrift that doesn't usually have much and was shocked to find a perfect condition M-Network Tron joysitck sitting with the old PC joysticks! I also picked up a Quickshot 2600 stick, also in really nice condition. I got the pair for $5, $3 for the Tron, and $2 for the other.

 

I'm pretty happy, I've always wanted the Tron stick!

Edited January 9, 2010 by SRGilbert

[CGQuarterly]

I got:

 

Donkey Kong Country $6

The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare $3

Test Drive 5 (PSX) $2

NFL 2k2 (Dreamcast) $3

 

Chris

[shadow460]

I saw a laserdisc player at a thrift shop for $120!!! Are they insane?

 

Not in the least. A good player can still run you in the thousands. Mine was originally priced at $160, but since it sat there so long (shockingly) it was marked down to just $40 when I got it. I guess no one saw it or realized that it could play the slew of Genesis titles that had to have come in with it.

 

You're tlaking about having found a LaserActive, right? Yeah, those are special. Other than that when I see an LD player at a thrift, they are usually $10 or less. I think they assume that these are CD carousels and price them accordingly. I have 7 or 8 in storage (the one that I bought in the 90's when I was a teacher in film school is finally giving up the ghost), and I think out of those perhaps one didn't work. I'm surprised since the motor has to move such a heavy platter so fast, and the two sided players have that moveable laser... I figured that more would be worn out by now.

 

Of course the other fun thing about finding an LD player is to look among the LP's to find the discs that probably came in with it. These are frequently misfiled with records, so you can buy a movie for a quarter. Iv'e even gotten Criterion edition boxed sets for a buck or two.

 

That's the curse of the LaserActive, though. It could come in with movies, or it could come in with ultra common Genesis sports titles and no movies at all. Yep, I'd say the LA qualifies as my best find by far. My other good one was about four months prior when I got a CIB Quest for Quintana Roo by Sunrise for the 2600. It cost me $1.67.

 

There were some mis filed movies at Golden Goose today. I looked through them and picked out E.T. and The Pelican Brief. Each cost $5. The vendor picked out more, including a Beatles video. They had a copy of Generations. Like mine, side 2 is CAV so you can have several features on nearly any player.

 

I'd like to find a second laser disc player so I can hook it up to my wife's TV. That way I can veg out on the couch and watch. I have the RDI Halcyon in mind, but I want something to tide me over until I have that awesome find. Dunno where I'll put it, though. They say it's twice the size of a LaserActive, and the LA is one big beast as it is.

Edited January 10, 2010 by shadow460

[nightwheel]

Todays gets

 

- Jackal for NES (works): $1

- Logitech GameCube Racing Wheel with force feedback and Pedals set with boxes: $4 (Can't seem to get it to work. I'm going to try other power adapters. For some reason it needs a power adapter.)

- Game Elements GGE909 Recoil Gamepad for PC (works): $2

 

Edited January 10, 2010 by nightwheel

[RickHarrisMaine]

Nice little goodwill score today....

 

Picked up an indigo Gamecube, power supply, memory card, microphone, video cable, Gameboy Player attached, start up disc inside it, and 4 CIB cames

 

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

Karaoke Revolution Party

 

Included in one of the games was an Action Replay DS disc, shame no card though.

 

All for $18.99

[Bruce Tomlin]

Of course the other fun thing about finding an LD player is to look among the LP's to find the discs that probably came in with it. These are frequently misfiled with records, so you can buy a movie for a quarter. Iv'e even gotten Criterion edition boxed sets for a buck or two.

I think it's usually the hub clamp surface and door opening belts that are most likely to go bad in an old LD player. The motors had to move so much mass so fast that of course they're heavy-duty.

 

I got the two LAs that I have from Famous Brand Electronics back when they had the 7800 sets for sale, and later got a karaoke module at a pawn shop (it was sold separately, and the LA/sega were sold together). I have one set up, but I use a DVL909 as my normal player, mostly for DVDs.

 

One of my LAs has a crosstalk problem on some discs, possibly because it had been a returned unit and not shipped properly. (The head assembly doesn't park properly unless you 1: remove module, 2: turn player on, and 3: use remote control to turn player off, so you have to be careful about that with a Laseractive.) The discs it has problems with are 3M discs. 3M/Imation used true CLV rather than the stepped CLV of the other disc makers, making them more prone to crosstalk if the laser is not focused well. The main company I know that used 3M/Imation was AnimEigo.

[AtariLeaf]

Got a free Dreamcast in the mail with one controller, vmu, all cords and nba 2k1 from a youtube raffle.

[shadow460]

Saw a Dreamcast in a thrift today, so I got to looking at the price. What I saw next made me totally forget the Dreamcast. Sandwiched between the DC and a stack of PS1 consoles was a controller with some markings and a $3.98 price tag. It says "As Is" on the controller.

 

It's a Dual Analog Pad! It's the US version, SCPH-1180. It's very dirty and the wire is split, so I will need to replace that. I will use the wire from the donor pad I take the rumble motor from. The best part is that yesterday when I was chatting with another collector here in OKC (he doesn't post on AA to my knowledge), he said he'd just been to that thrift. We chatted about my LaserActive since we were in the store where I purchased it. I beat him to the LA, and for some reason he left a DAP that I picked up!

 

I also picked up an old computer for $4. It has a GeFarce (I'm a Voodoo fan) 4 440 MX and some Ultra ATA cables which are worth $4 by themselves. It has two strips of 128 x 133 SDRAM and a giant CPU cooler whose fan I can probably snag for one of my machines. I do not know what CPU it has. I expect it to have either a Spitfire or a Thunderbird. If it's a 'bird, I'll mothball it and keep it (especially if it's either of the 1.4 GHz chips). Looking at the cooler, though, it's probably a Spitfire or it's dead. You really needed copper to cool a 'bird back then. Too bad that card couldn't have been a 3Dfx Daytona Voodoo 5 prototype or a Napalm based Voodoo 4.

Edited January 13, 2010 by shadow460

[CGQuarterly]

Cool pickup on the analog pad. I actually bought one of those when they came out, because PSM magazine ran a piece about them. If you don't mind the absence of rumble, they are nice because they are a little bit bigger than the dual shocks, and the sticks are concave instead of convex.

 

Today I got Super Street Fighter II for SNES for $6 and Cyborg Justice for the Genny for $2, both loose.

 

Chris

[shadow460]

Cool pickup on the analog pad. I actually bought one of those when they came out, because PSM magazine ran a piece about them. If you don't mind the absence of rumble, they are nice because they are a little bit bigger than the dual shocks, and the sticks are concave instead of convex.

 

Today I got Super Street Fighter II for SNES for $6 and Cyborg Justice for the Genny for $2, both loose.

 

Chris

 

Absence of rumble? Why, whatever do you mean?

 

The CPU above turned out to be a Thunderbird 850 with a 266 MHz FSB. With volt mods and some ingenuity, I bet it could hit 2GHz, but I'm not going to try that. I'm done overclocking.

Edited January 13, 2010 by shadow460

[I'mGettingOld90]

Newbie Here

 

I was just reading some of the older posts and I'm wondering how often do you guys actually find something you want. I've been to dozens of flea markets and garage sales but usually find nothing but gunk filled systems and sports titles. And do you guys have any method in terms of the way you look for certain things.

 

Thanks

 

BTW some of the findings are actually pretty cool.

[AtariLeaf]

Cool. Three more Tandy coco games found their way into the collection:

 

Reactoid

Springster

Tetris

 

and I got a drivewire cable so my PC becomes a virtual server for the coco.

Edited January 13, 2010 by AtariLeaf

[doubleminor]

Bought a copy of Duke 3D for Sega Saturn the day after Christmas. It was CIB and had all the extra little leaflets that come with most games. Also inside was a receipt from when the game was purchased at FuncoLand.

 

Original receipt: 12/26/99 5:37pm

My receipt: 12/26/09 10:37am

 

Freaky, eh?

 

I do have a picture I'll work on getting up here later.

Edited January 13, 2010 by doubleminor

[CGQuarterly]

Bought a copy of Duke 3D for Sega Saturn the day after Christmas. It was CIB and had all the extra little leaflets that come with most games. Also inside was a receipt from when the game was purchased at FuncoLand.

 

Original receipt: 12/26/99 5:37pm

My receipt: 12/26/09 10:37am

 

Freaky, eh?

 

I do have a picture I'll work on getting up here later.

 

Dude that is awesome. 10 years to the day. The real question is what was the original buyer doing buying a Saturn game in December of 99 when the Dreamcast had been launched 3 months prior?!?!

 

Chris