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The Official "Thrift finds" Thread


Happy_Dude

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I'm going to preface this with the fact I've been back in KY for a little over 4 years now. In all that time, video game wise, I've seen a little more than I picked up, but in one store in particular they do get boxed up systems and ask 2-2.5x ebay so I never bothered. Other than that kick in the teeth I've only had 5 pick-ups in all that time, one was a year ago, and the others were all 2 weeks apart at 3 goodwill locations in town starting on December 23rd. In every case you can figure out how much of a steal it was.

 

The first location was the one that blew my mind and made me the happiest from the newest location in town. Sega Dreamcast, all cables, 1 Sega controller, 1 VMU, 2 Sega ext cords, 1 Madcats programmable pad (translucent blue), and 2 high frequency rumble packs all nicely bundled in some wine box. Price=$6.

segadreamcastlot_zpsafmhncwt.jpg

 

A day or two later I went to others, hit the ripoff store...surprisingly for not a ripoff found 2 sets of Dreamcast Controllers with VMUs for $6/ea. I bought one, left the other, but came back 5 days later and got the other as no one else did.

 

Then and I have no pictures of any of this stuff either I go to that store I said I found stuff a year ago in the past before once. I spot a big clear plastic bag and inside was a ton of cables, games, controllers, realized it was a N64 setup but the system appeared missing, but then saw a cable hanging down. Followed that, ended up finding the system and it had the 4MB ram expansion inside. Ultimately it was that, an OEM gray, gray and black controller, than a black knockoff, a 4x 3rd party memory cart, and then 10 carts (1/2 were sports, but also Banjo, Goldeneye, DK64, WCW/NWO and Fighters History worth mentioning.) All for just $20. (A year ago and this store charges the wall price of 2.25 a game still oddly) found 10 N64 games with DK64, Majora's Mask, Ocarina of Time, Mario64 and kart, and other stuff.)

 

The last hit was back at the DC location, found 2 N64 OEM controllers with tight sticks for $5 together green and yellow.

 

 

Outside of that thrift shops around here get almost nothing other than ebay priced Wii systems in or out of the box, left over PS2 parts or questionable xbox 1 or 360s and it's more rare than anything. I probably burned my luck with goodwill for another 4 years unless something is turning around in this area but I doubt it. That one shop with the DC has been very good to me in the last year. I paid $15 for 4 tubs of lego a year ago or so, ended up getting around $500 in mostly/complete sets plus a lot of spare parts on top of that. I sold some stuff off, kept others and used the funds to get the missing bits. :) Also pulled a mid 80s Sony sound system rack with a tempered glass front from there for $10 I have my uverse box and my consoles mostly inside of it now. I often hit that store as it's fun just to browse but I get something there more often than not, even if it's a $5 item as it's a good place. Just today for $3.50 found a red tub of Lego from around 1987 missing maybe 10 parts, happened to be the wife's set as a kid and she went nuts when she saw it at home.

 

As I said super jacked about the Dreamcast, wanting one again for years (lost the last one to bad luck 12 years ago.) I've picked up around 20 games for it on the cheap so far and enjoy using it once more. I intend to get a nice library of titles as it really was the best of the era even if Sega floundered and it died young. The only Sega system I ever bought new and when it was alive.

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I intend to get a nice library of titles as it really was the best of the era even if Sega floundered and it died young.

Haven't been thrifting in a while, and I finally got to check Goodwill today...picked up NBA 2K B)

 

They also had a copy of the Dreamcast Web Browser, still sealed, but I don't know what I'd do with it so I left it.

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Haven't been thrifting in a while, and I finally got to check Goodwill today...picked up NBA 2K B)

 

They also had a copy of the Dreamcast Web Browser, still sealed, but I don't know what I'd do with it so I left it.

 

Pretty sure it had a neat little matching game on it, depending on what version. But if you remorse over passing it up, it's super cheap on Amazon.

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I think that same game is on Sega Smash Pack, isn't it?

 

But the whole point of buying a sealed game is to keep it sealed, and I'm not really one of those people =) Hopefully someone else finds it?

I was kidding around but actually the browser shows some 'new' from sellers. I bought a sealed chu chu rocket for like 10 bucks a while back. It was fun to open a Dreamcast game in 2016.

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Pretty sure it had a neat little matching game on it, depending on what version. But if you remorse over passing it up, it's super cheap on Amazon.

Yeah it has Sega Swirl, but it was also included with the Sega Smash Pack (which I have) so it's kind of useless unless you still find a way to get your DC online over dialup(or simulated) but the browser won't be very happy with most pages.

 

I hit flea markets every weekend with 50s for a low weather and not wet on weekends, and during the week whenever I go out just to get some walking in I'll hit a few resale stores -- goodwill, other thrift, half price books. You never really know. If I didn't bother I'd probably stay home most the time unless I had to go somewhere which is no good.

 

I need to get a replacement battery for the thing as it's long dead though I saw it's a bit of a pain to crack it open. If I did the effort I'd get a battery holder and then a new rechargeable battery for the thing as having to set the clock sucks. As of lately, every day is default boot up day for the save games.

 

I'm considering snapping up Pier Solar for the DC even if I did get it for a couple bucks on extreme sale with GoG.com awhile back. I think it could be fun and it's currently back in stock on their site so no ebay scalper pricing for now. Just not sure if I want to as I can't really say if the update is worth it or not, plus i really wish they had a more reasonable priced guide other than $50 for a book.

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I was talked into going to a flea market today by a co worker. I did not want to go, but did not have anything else to do so I decided why not. I did not think there would be anyone selling their wares outside, but since the weather has been pretty mild in Cincinnati the past couple of days there were quite a few vendors set up. I was looking for my usual lot of stuff video games, wrestling figures, 80s toys, and records. While I did not do any good on toys or games, I did manage to get about 30 or so good to great 80s rock/pop albums for a whopping 8 dollars. We finished up and went inside (a waste of time). I was ready to call it a pretty good trip happy with my record finds. We were walking to the cars when walking towards me was a guy with what looked like a 2600...I stopped to get a look and while I did HE THREW IT IN THE TRASH CAN. Less then a nanosecond later I was reaching in to pull it out to see if it was what I thought it was, and sure enough it was a vader, with two controllers and original power supply. My co worker was horrified that I had reached into the trash for it, but I told him that even if the console was bad I could never have enough joysticks or power supplies.

 

anyway I got it home, cleaned it up....and ....FLAWLESS...

 

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post-46681-0-86487200-1485030768_thumb.jpg

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Stupid people doing stupid stuff, and tossing that was an epic moron move. Even if you don't like atari, someone would appreciate that thing. Good eye saving something that didn't need pitching.

 

I hit the flea market today too, paid for all what I got, but it came out quite nicely. Not in the mood for doing pictures so a list.

$5 - Super Magnetic Neo for Dreamcast (complete, disc has scuffs but very shallow I buffed it out a bit (value $30)
$10 - New Classic Controller Retrolink USB PC/Mac (N64 Black Controller)
$2 - Broken sadly, tossed it, SNES ASCII Pad (wasted hour cleaning it, still sketchy)
$5 - Busted box top, but new TMNT Turtle Van Funko (value $10 used, $25+ new)
$3 - Happy Meal Toy bagged up(I opened it) Koopa Troopa SMB3, also a SMB3 Racoon Mario pvf standing toy dated 1989
$10 - Tub of 'Friends' Lego sets, at least 4-5, most with manuals (worth a good bit, but keeping for my daughter)
$25 - Hubley Farm Truck, excellent condition/restored, no damage, appears repainted by a pro in car paint blue, trailer there too same with brown paint for wood trailer fencing (1950s toy)

Not all games, but all fun stuff to play with at the least.

 

I'm just southwest of you in Louisville and hit the county south of here for this stuff.

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Excellent score, Jdubya. Digging into the trash for a fully functional Atari 2600 is nothing to be ashamed of. I can't help but think I would willingly dive into a McDonald's dumpster to rescue an Atari. Maybe it depends on how far I'd have to dig. Ahem. Anyway...

 

I acquired some interesting bits this weekend and last...

 

post-6115-0-43304500-1485060218_thumb.jpg

 

My own store had a nice assortment of portable consoles and games waiting for me today. Several of these will be up for grabs soon.

 

post-6115-0-65682300-1485060269_thumb.jpg

 

Another '80s Yamaha keyboard to fawn over. This was one of the first models with 100 different sounds to choose from. The PSR-6 is basically the full-size-key variant of the PSS-170 which is almost the same as the PSS-270, which was my very first keyboard back in the day. I still have a working PSS-270, so this one will go back to the store for sale. Still, it's a nice one, and it's fully functional!

 

post-6115-0-49597400-1485060851_thumb.jpg

 

At another usual stop, my roommate and I were rummaging through a box of comic books when this popped up. I took it out and stared at it a moment, when he said, "You know you're going to buy it." So I did. I haven't read it yet, but if it's anything like Prince's music, it'll probably be a bit pretentious, a little narcissistic, hard to follow at times, and very compelling.

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...walking towards me was a guy with what looked like a 2600...I stopped to get a look and while I did HE THREW IT IN THE TRASH CAN.

Man, talk about being in the right place at the right time!

 

I might be in a similar predicament. One friend is trying to return a CRT TV to another friend, and said if he doesn't want it by next week, it's going in the dumpster. I told him it was way better than the CRT I'm currently using, and I'd love to take it off his hands B)

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These joined the pile. Does anyone know how to make a CP/M disk, perhaps using an A2 with z80 board, or a C128? Is there a flashcard for the Fairchild beast? I don't see a lot of cartridges for these in thrifts. In fact, I've never seen them anywhere ever. I'll check Game Dude but I'm not holding my breath.

Osborne executive

Fairchild channel f

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These joined the pile. Does anyone know how to make a CP/M disk, perhaps using an A2 with z80 board, or a C128? Is there a flashcard for the Fairchild beast? I don't see a lot of cartridges for these in thrifts. In fact, I've never seen them anywhere ever. I'll check Game Dude but I'm not holding my breath.

 

No Fairchild flashcart, but E5frog makes a multicart with all 27 official games (and in later versions, with his homebrew pac-man as well.) There's still some slots in the current batch- I recommend getting in on it, as they don't come around much anymore.

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attachicon.gif2017-01-21-1.jpg

 

My own store had a nice assortment of portable consoles and games waiting for me today. Several of these will be up for grabs soon.

 

attachicon.gif2017-01-21-2.jpg

 

Another '80s Yamaha keyboard to fawn over. This was one of the first models with 100 different sounds to choose from. The PSR-6 is basically the full-size-key variant of the PSS-170 which is almost the same as the PSS-270, which was my very first keyboard back in the day. I still have a working PSS-270, so this one will go back to the store for sale. Still, it's a nice one, and it's fully functional!

Well that's a nice haul of random stuff between all the handheld systems and then both the gen2 pokemon games (hope those batteries are good, mostly dead due to the RTC these days.) Stuff like those games have helped me get comfortable using a soldering iron in smaller spaces down from 8/16bit cart sizes.

 

I have an interesting request since you seem to work at that thrift. Have you ever come across the casio rom packs for their earlier 80s mini keyboards? See this to know what I'm on about: http://www.crumblenet.co.uk/keyb/packdata/rompacks.php I found one of these keyboards with the pack-in one a little over a year ago for $5. It's a fantastic little piano and the ROM packs with how the device is setup actually can help you learn to play piano by ear and prompt(initially) on the keyboard. It rates not just on accuracy but also timing and eventually memorization by the skill level you choose.

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Does anyone know how to make a CP/M disk, perhaps using an A2 with z80 board, or a C128?

I don't remember why I was reading about it, but I'm pretty sure there's a program out there for DOS that will raw copy a floppy disk image file.

 

I believe this is the site I was reading: http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/howto_cpm.html#dunfield

 

That might not be the right section, but it's in there somewhere, along with a ton of image files.

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I have an interesting request since you seem to work at that thrift. Have you ever come across the casio rom packs for their earlier 80s mini keyboards?

 

If I ever do, I get first dibs! :)

 

It's funny you mention the Casio ROM Packs. I remember when they were still sold new. $20 a pop for four, maybe five songs. Back then I used to hang out at the local Wal-Mart every Saturday, sometimes all day long. Wal-Marts had nice music keyboard displays at the time, and I would play with them all, often much to the chagrin of the employees. My first two keyboards, the Yamaha PSS-270 and then the smaller, cheaper Casio PT-100, came from Wal-Mart. In fact the Yamaha was the first thing I ever put on layaway, anticipating the day when I could pay off the $100 tab (a lot of money to a 12-or-so-year-old). That was also around the time the NES made its American debut, and that same Wal-Mart had one of those demo consoles with every first-party launch title built in, always surrounded a horde of kids fighting for their next turn. Imagine how much that thing is worth now!

 

Anyway, I never did own one of the Casio ROM Pack keyboards back in the day, but friends did, and I loved playing with them. Then a couple of years back, the thrift store where I volunteer got in a Casio PT-87 with its demo ROM Pack. I resisted buying it at first, because I actually would like to find an SK-8, one of Casio's first sampling keyboards that's also a ROM Pack keyboard. But, I believe the PT-87 is the same model those friends had owned, and finally nostalgia won out. I'm amused how the ROM Pack keyboards have to be able to play five or six notes at a time, to fully support the ROM Packs, but even then the PT-87 lets you play only one note at a time. It's a cute little piece of '80s tech despite its obvious limitations, and if I ever do find an SK-8 I'll probably keep the PT-87 anyway.

 

All of this to say, I'm looking for those ROM Packs too, but if ever happen to stumble across multiples of the same ROM Packs, I'll keep you in mind!

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If I ever do, I get first dibs! :)

 

All of this to say, I'm looking for those ROM Packs too, but if ever happen to stumble across multiples of the same ROM Packs, I'll keep you in mind!

Better than nothing I guess! Hah. Figures. Funny you mention it, I decided to go look at it for a moment and that is the one I have the PT-87 and was come by the same kind of luck too (goodwill for me.) Came with the RO-551 pack in ROM chip and a clean battery box but no power supply. It cost me all of $5 so I was totally in to grab it when I did as recent to that a 50+ year old piano I had bought the big one (couple strings popped, other damages from moving so I gave it away as repair was $100s more than it's $50 at best value since oddly pianos are disposable these days if they're not baby/grands.) Didn't want to run C cells into the dirt so I hit up ebay and found a power supply for it and it's been good since so I'm like $10 invested into it basically which is nothing for such a fun device. I also read up online it's one of the most popular keyboards to hack for note bending and other odd stuff DJs and sound types like to do.

 

Sad they were like 4 for $20 now they're like 1 for $10-20 if you're not dumb about it and go for the casio collector clickbait pricing. If you do find duplicates let me know that would be good. I'll still keep an active ebay search for little bundles as alone it would add up fast.

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The Casio PT-80 was my first keyboard.

 

post-30739-0-51179700-1485268063_thumb.jpg

 

I used this keyboard to create 3 or 4 track recordings. I would use two cassette recorders - one to record and then play the first track (usually the drums/chords) and then play the bass, melody and/or accompaniment with the same technique. It was difficult and of course by the third/fourth track the sound quality was poor but it still worked. The ROM packs were great. I hope you find some!

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Funny you mention it, I decided to go look at it for a moment and that is the one I have the PT-87 and was come by the same kind of luck too (goodwill for me.) Came with the RO-551 pack in ROM chip and a clean battery box but no power supply.

Yep, the RO-551 "World Songs" pack is the single one I own. I believe that's the one that originally came bundled with the PT-87. I didn't get a power supply either, but fortunately the barrel size and voltage are among those commonly used, so a universal works just fine.

 

I also read up online it's one of the most popular keyboards to hack for note bending and other odd stuff DJs and sound types like to do.

All those old Casios and Yamahas are popular with circuit benders, because underneath the limited interface is often a very versatile synthesizer, at least as versatile as the NES sound chip. Add in the hardware tricks the benders use, and the possibilities are endless. I remember when I discovered I could make a whole host of new sounds on my original PSS-270 by plugging in a universal power adapter, selecting a sound, dropping the adapter's voltage down to the minimum, selecting another sound, and then raising the voltage again. It was a "box of chocolates" sort of thing. I never knew what sound I was going to get. I suspect my experimenting contributed to that particular PSS-270's demise. I've been afraid to try it on my current one!

 

Sad they were like 4 for $20 now they're like 1 for $10-20 if you're not dumb about it and go for the casio collector clickbait pricing. If you do find duplicates let me know that would be good. I'll still keep an active ebay search for little bundles as alone it would add up fast.

 

Actually it was four or five songs on a single pack that cost $20. They weren't exactly cheap back in the day. But this was before MIDI was priced for the masses, and it saved parents the grief of hearing a keyboard's demo song over and over and over (remember this one?), so I imagine Casio still managed to sell a few packs.

 

The Casio PT-80 was my first keyboard.

 

attachicon.gifpt-80.jpg

 

I used this keyboard to create 3 or 4 track recordings. I would use two cassette recorders - one to record and then play the first track (usually the drums/chords) and then play the bass, melody and/or accompaniment with the same technique. It was difficult and of course by the third/fourth track the sound quality was poor but it still worked. The ROM packs were great. I hope you find some!

 

Before I got into MIDI sequencing, my biggest "production" was recreating the Andrew Lloyd Webber medley we were playing in high school concert band on a Yamaha PSS-680. That keyboard had good-for-its-time 5-track sequencer which I made extensive use of, but the final product still required some cassette dubbing and other amateur trickery, not to mention some live-to-tape playing that I didn't always bother to fix. I was pretty proud of it at the time, but if I were to hear it now I'm sure I'd bury the tape!

 

My first was the Casio PT-1, in blue. I always liked the demo song a lot, but it had no polyphony, so I didn't understand how you were supposed to play it.

You pretend it's a flute or a trumpet... even when you have it set to the piano sound. :)

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