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The Official "Thrift finds" Thread


Happy_Dude

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Contrary to popular misconception rain/water wont necessarily ruin electronics as long as they have no power. Ive cleaned a couple of items with soap, water, greased lightning etc. I even dissasembled, simple greened, and lightly power washed a 90s era Packard Bell computer monitor.

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Finally had a chance to go to Sierra Vista earlier today (yesterday now, but you get the idea). It's always fun to go since the selection in SV's thrift stores and pawn shops is so much better than it is here. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of money to play with, but I did manage to get these goodies...

 

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Okay, so it was nothing earth-shattering, but there were a few good catches. One highlight was Space Invaders Extreme for the PSP, still in the the shrink wrap. The Saint Vincent De Paul had a lot of PSP games, except half of them were just cases with no games inside. I would have left with those empty cases if I hadn't had the foresight to pop open one of them before I made the purchase. :P

 

The movies, well, I guess the movies are self-explanatory. They were in pretty good shape, though, which isn't something you can always say about movies bought at thrift shops. I just watched The Addams Family, and have every confidence that the others will work just as well (especially since The Goonies is still in shrink wrap). The biggest surprise was the speaker in the jam jar. I got that for two dollars, because SVdeP wasn't sure it would work. Oh man, does it ever work! After a couple hours of charging, it connected to my Amazon Fire just fine, and delivered mighty sound, utterly humiliating my crappy-ass iHip Cube speaker. Deffo worth the price, which was less than the cost of an actual jar of jam.

 

Some other things not shown in the picture include a Dollar General screwdriver (I needed this for my gamebits, and thankfully they fit perfectly into the slot on the top), the film Pirates of Silicon Valley, and 2020 Super Baseball for the Super NES, which I needed to test the system's Mode 7. (By the way, yeah, it's hosed.) Some things I didn't/couldn't purchase included a Bose iPod dock for sixty dollars, a Western Digital streaming player for eight dollars, a graphic tablet for the Wii for five dollars, and various GameCube games at seven dollars each.

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Contrary to popular misconception rain/water wont necessarily ruin electronics as long as they have no power. Ive cleaned a couple of items with soap, water, greased lightning etc. I even dissasembled, simple greened, and lightly power washed a 90s era Packard Bell computer monitor.

 

I used to work in a Fluke Electronics service center. They repaired a lot of expensive equipment like calibrators and oscilloscopes and such. Anyway, they were often from locations that were pretty dirty. And like computers, if they're in a dirty environment, that environment is going to be inside and all over the boards. We had a dishwasher in the shipping area that some of the techs would use to wash some of the more grungy boards. It wasn't often, but it did happen.

 

Reminded me of a story... not related to using water to clean electronics, but just about the kind of stuff we got in. We would sometimes get in things like thermometers (Fluke 51 or 52 usually) that had been used at Jack in the Box restaurants that were covered in rancid grease. They smelled terrible. But the worst was when we would get something in that had been used at a water treatment plant and smelled like sewage. Anyway, one time we got a unit in and I unpacked it (I worked in shipping/receiving) and was immediately hit by a new smell. I told my coworker, "Hey Danny, come smell this one." He responded with, "Get the F out of here, no way..." I had to laugh, because this unit, this expensive Fluke calibrator (I think it was a 5500, which is probably about 30 to 40 thousand dollars depending on options) smelled like chocolate. It was from M&M Mars company and had been there long enough to smell like the product.

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You guys saw the video of The 8-Bit Guy restoring an impossibly ratty VIC-20, right? It was missing keys and covered with an unidentified oily substance. He did manage to resurrect it, but it must have taken many hours of work. I think he had to swap out a few chips, too, since some of them were destroyed.

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You guys saw the video of The 8-Bit Guy restoring an impossibly ratty VIC-20, right? It was missing keys and covered with an unidentified oily substance. He did manage to resurrect it, but it must have taken many hours of work. I think he had to swap out a few chips, too, since some of them were destroyed.

That Vic20 was used in an industrial setting and was covered in old machine oil and grease.

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I always wanted it and got lucky at the Goodwill of all things for a dollar yesterday, but I got the Tiger Handheld VRT-X Sega Daytona Racing. This is one oft those few rarer style handhelds that have a hologram background and have a pop up dual orange/yellow LED lamp on it too for night play. The game is fairly complex compared to most those static screens. You have 3 difficulties, 4 gears with the shifter on the unit, and then gas/brake and turning on the left. I think you have X laps and have to pass 40 cars to take the top win on it. It runs pretty smoothly and gives good indications, not very stiff and limiting feeling like many.

 

The one I had the sticker was lifting around most the sides from old glue, and had a few superficial scuff and rub marks. I successfully laid the entire sticker flat again and cleared up the rest so it went from something many may ignore to a nice one thankfully.

 

This is a pic of it but not mine.

595px-DaytonaUSA_TigerLCD.jpg

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Not the best deal in the world. But it was complete and in excellent shape (not a scratch on the disc) for $6. I had been wanting more old, older racing games and this seemed like I was getting a "twofer". I didn't know the disc also had several videos for upcoming games like Shenmue II, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and others.

 

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It’s rare I find stuff at thrifts anymore yet yesterday for a dollar at goodwill I got the rarer to get Tiger VRTX Daytona racing. Then today which I can not remember last it happened but 2 for 2 thrifts found this stuff. LEGO PC game not shown aside from Star Wars being $8 all else was $3 and complete. Oh and GameCube games had evil GameStop stickers I got off with work.

 

There was a third thrift got the Star Wars plush a buck a piece and Memory board game for my daughter for $2 and a Smithsonian walking Dino kit for a dollar too.

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I had a great find today- I got an OEM PS2 memory card for $5!

 

.... and it came with a sliver slim. :-D

IMG 0001

 

It's pretty scratched up, and the controller doesn't work, but the system itself is fine. It also came with the AC adapter, but not the A/V cable... but since I just got a new 50 cent component cable last week, that's not really a problem. I'll get it cleaned up a bit after PAX, and fiddle with the controller- luckily PS2 controllers aren't too uncommon around here, so push come to shove I can swap the shell onto a different one to keep a matching set. And then- I get to figure out what to do with it. I already have my original fat ps2, and I don't really want to replace it. I'll think about it.

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Don't waste your time with that POS. Ps2 controllers are basically not fixable. I tried to fix like 5 last week to have none of them work. Those plastic membranes inside are complete shit and the traces break inside them.

 

Still yet $5 is a good deal.

Honestly, that's part of why I want to fiddle with it- I like seeing the inside of different controllers & how they work, but I don't want to risk screwing up one that works. This way I can satisfy my curiosity & if somehow it comes back to life, so much the better.

 

One question though- do you think swapping the shell is a viable idea, or are they delicate enough that even that is too much?

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You should be able to swap a shell. I was just talking to the local game store about this last week as well. He says ps2 controllers have so many variants you can barely swap analogs on them. He hates ps2 controllers as well. He said he will not even take a non-working ps2 controller.

 

They are really no different than other controllers except instead of having a hard pcb that have some plastic shit the traces run inside that goes to a wire harness which then goes to a small pcb. Some have a screw holding down the controller inside the shell, some use just a post.

 

They run the same principles as other controllers. Rubber meets contact pads and they get dirty, except cleaning them generally is not the problem, the traces breaking is. I took the rubber and pressed it against the contact pad while the controller was apart and still couldn't get the damn thing to work, basically means the trace is bad.

 

After ripping apart 5 controllers and everyone not working after I cleaned the rubbers and contacts I finally said screw it.

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Myself, I had bad luck trying to replace a PS3 controller's battery, Which I guess can be done if you are exceedingly careful,...But if you come in guns ablazin' like I did, especially on a controller with a stripped screw that can't be turned, Parts just spring out like a booby trap, and you will never get them back together properly...

 

As far as PS2 controllers, I must be lucky! I take care of mine and have owned most of them since new, with a couple used ones that worked fine (I once bought a silver slim PS2 with a nicely working silver controller too about 10 years ago) :) Anyway unless I am forgetting something I've never had a problem with them.

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My experience between PS2 and PS3 controllers are that when they get old, you really can't fix them for the reasons ice said. I don't even bother, and they're a pain in the ass to put back together too with how they're laid out and all the springs and things. They're just not worth the effort given they're likely completely dead if something isn't making contact. I have no idea how worse or not PS1 (dual shock or original) are or the PS4, but the PS4 looks like it would be even worse to work on with that redesign and added parts cramped in there.

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So I'm in the thrift store today and just kind of absent-mindedly going through the DVDs when, surprise surprise, there was a video game! It was a PSP game with the case. Jikandia: The Timeless Land. I had never heard of it so I looked it up. It got kinda mediocre reviews. I checked out the UMD and it looked pretty clean... scratch free and put it back in the case. I debated for a while and decided to ask about the price. They said they'd do $1 on it, and I figured I'd go for it for a dollar. Even if I don't like it, it was only a dollar. I get home and I'm about to put it in the PSP to try it out when I take a closer look at the UMD. It's not Jikandia. It's Star Wars The Force Unleashed. Oh well. I had never played either one of them. I mean, I still haven't played one of them, but either way it's a new game for me.

 

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So I'm in the thrift store today and just kind of absent-mindedly going through the DVDs when, surprise surprise, there was a video game! It was a PSP game with the case. Jikandia: The Timeless Land. I had never heard of it so I looked it up. It got kinda mediocre reviews. I checked out the UMD and it looked pretty clean... scratch free and put it back in the case. I debated for a while and decided to ask about the price. They said they'd do $1 on it, and I figured I'd go for it for a dollar. Even if I don't like it, it was only a dollar. I get home and I'm about to put it in the PSP to try it out when I take a closer look at the UMD. It's not Jikandia. It's Star Wars The Force Unleashed. Oh well. I had never played either one of them. I mean, I still haven't played one of them, but either way it's a new game for me.

 

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Your story so reminds me of when I used to buy pawn shop DVDs all the time...

 

For a while I wouldn't even check them (and if they've re-shrink wrapped them I should be good to go)...But many times I'd get home and look later (or Way Way Way later) and find God knows what...My friend couldn't believe I hadn't seen Wall Street...So I said not to worry I've got an 80's Oliver Stone collection...I open it and Wall Street is missing, but it has movies like Troy (which is not by Oliver Stone) and Alexander the Great which came later haha...

 

Another funnier example was when I bought a DVD collection of horror movies (4 or 5 movies on one disc I think), but I bought it 45 miles away in Fort Collins, CO and when I got home and finally put the disc in, it was 4 or 5 Different movies then what was on the box! It was still a horror collection, just the wrong one haha...

 

In fact even now my collection has some DVDs I bought years ago that for all I know may have the wrong movie inside :)

Edited by GoldLeader
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