FLEA MARKET RIP-OFFS

[ROCKINGROLL]

Somebody was asking $5 each for Atari 2600 carts at the flea market this weekend. The best part is that they were all common! When she told me the price, I just walked away shaking my head.

 

What's the most outrageous prices you guys have seen at the flea markets/thrift stores?

[lesboulez]

I've seen numerous 5 dollar thrift store commons. Mostly at Mom and Pop type stores. If you talk to them a bit, you can many times get the price down quite a lot. Also saw a Sega Gen, just the console, a few weeks ago for $35!! You could by the closeout in a box not too long ago at Toys R Us for 19.95.

 

But the thing that irks me is when employees of the store don't put the stuff out.

 

I went to a thrift once and saw a box full of video game parts, games, etc. I asked the cashier what it was and he told me it was for "Todd" So I asked who Todd was and he told me "Todd" worked there and took all the games home himself.

 

A few weeks later, games started reappearing so I guess "Todd" got fired, or left.

[Ze_ro]

The flea markets around here aren't cheap either... for a long time, one woman in the corner used to (try to) sell Atari games for as much as $7 each! Some of them were decent prices, like $2 or $3 (most of which I ended up buying)... but c'mon, $7 for Enduro? Eventually, none of the Atari games were there... my friend and I asked about them, and she said that they'd been taken back to their house in the country. If she'd only lowered her prices by a few bucks, I'd probably have bought most of them... but now she gets nothing.

 

As a side note, my friend has been trying to get a Nomad for quite some time, but they're not cheap, so he hasn't been able to find one in his price range yet. He once asked the woman in the corner booth if she'd even had a Nomad around, here's the conversation:

 

Brian: "You don't happen to have a Nomad, do you?"

Woman: "What's a Nomad?"

Brian: "It's like a hand-held Genesis"

Woman: "Oh yeah, I have one of those at home"

Brian: "I'll give you $100 for it"

Woman: "Oh, I don't sell my systems"

 

Yeah, right... as if she has one of these. I'm sure there's a ton of almost 60 year old women working in flea markets who love their Nomad's so much that they wouldn't sell them for $100. What a load of crap.

 

--Zero

[Osbo]

well that happends to me a month ago, I walked the whole friking flea market, and two boots before the exit, a woman was selling a bunch of s**t and she had like 5 2600 carts (one of them was Smurfs Rescue in gargamel castle) but she wanted like $5 bucks each... I just walked away... In the other hand, I used to find bags with 4-5 2600 carts in the thirft for 0.95 cents (including Atari Jaguar) I did found like 40 carts, with almost no doubles

 

OsBo

[Ian Primus]

There is a local thrift store that has outrageous prices on everything. Not only do they (attempt) to sell 2600 carts for $5 each, but there are numerous other bad prices ...

 

beat up old 13" color TV with knob channel changers - $45

45 RPM records - $1.50 - c'mon, they weren't that much new!

old record player - $40

original 8-bit Nintendo - $35

Sega Genesis - $45

Nintendo carts - $10

Super Nintendo/Sega carts -$15

Super Nintendo - $45

 

Needless to say, I don't think I have actually ever seen anyone _buy_ anything there. I tried to talk her down on the Atari carts, but she said that they were old and rare now. She says she sells lots, and that $5 is a good price... I checked back two months later, and not even a single cart had moved! She still wanted $5... I only wanted two carts, and they were only uncommon. The rest were combat/pac-man/asteroids, etc.

 

Ian Primus

ian_primus@yahoo.com

[ratfink]

Not so much classic games, but I have come across old computers, like C64's and Apple II's, for $200+!!! It's like these people figure "hey, it's a computer so it must be expensive." Or else you find people selling their old C64 and they remember paying $400 for it new plus another $400 for the disc drive so they figure by selling you both for $100 apiece you're getting quite a deal! So sad...

[videotwit]

I'm with you, Joel. I don't mind paying 4 or 5 dollars for a cart, and it does keep the riff-raff away. Maybe I don't mind it, however, because I so rarely ever find anything in the thrifts that I actually need.

 

Actually, this week I payed $4 a piece for Pitfall II, Skate Boardin, and Wabbit, and those are just for my trade bin.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I have to admit...Ihave found some really good deals at the thrifts and fleas myself.

 

This week for instance has been a very good week. It started with my going to a place I visit here in town which deals only in old comics and games. They have 2600-PS2 there. Anyway, I was casually looking over at the 2600 stuff which hasn't changed in over a month and then noticed something. It was face down...and had the label turned to the back so you couldn't see. Which told me that somebody else knew what it was. I picked it up...and low and behold it was Track and Field!!! I quickly noted the price expecting it to be semi high (The place tracks Ebay prices and has a copy of the DP guide in store.) And would you believe that it has a .99 cent sticker!!! Needless to say that cart is in my possession now.

 

Then I visited the big Flea market they have here every weekend and found another gem!! A 4 port 5200 with one controller and another broken controller. It had the power supply but was missing the RF box. No biggie I figure. I ask the guy what he wants for the 5200..and he states "Oh that. Yeah I am trying to get rid of it for a buddy of mine. I'll take 2 bucks for it."

 

Needless to say...that too is now in my possession. He also had a pair of CX2400 sticks that were in good shape that he let me have for a buck each.

 

At another booth in this market I grabbed a copy of Turmoil for a buck.

 

Then at another I found a large stack of 7800 games! They only wanted 4 bucks each for them! So I now have Commando, Summer Games, Ninja Golf, and Scrapyard Dog (Which is a dead cart it turns out). This guy also had many 5200 games, 8 bit carts (Is Gyruss for 8-bit rare?), and even TI and Intellivision. Most of these were around the 1-3 dollar each mark!

 

I only grabbed the 7800 stuff from him but that was enough.

 

Then the next day I went to a local shop that only deals in older electronics and has many many 2600 commons and etc...to look for the RF box for the 5200 and perhaps pick up a 5200 game or two. Well..he didn't have the RF box but he did have many games which I left because of something else he had. I noticed a complete Intelli model 1 off to one side and asked him how much. This is where my story begins to fit into the topic.

 

Need to know some history before I start this story:

 

A month ago I came in and he had another Intelli Model 1 that he seemed awful anxious to be rid of. He wanted only 10 bucks for it and was gonna throw in 2 games of my choice. Good deal...but I was there for something else that day and so I let another kid (he was like 12-13) grab it since he really really wanted it. The guy thought that was nice and stated that he would hold off the next nice Intellivision for me and give me the same offer. Great I thought!

 

A month passes and here I am looking for the RF box and games...and I ask about the Intelli. He says: "I had to raise the price of all my systems to 15 dollars..." I reminded him of his little pact with me a month ago and he says: " I know but the systems cost me more to get them and I have to make money off of them!" I said okay and that I would have to be sure that it worked well. So he hooked it up and I played some DragonFire and Night Stalker to be sure the Exec rom was good. The controls were good but would need some cleaning on the disc side of things. I asked about the games and he says" The games are seperate and will be 2-3 dollars each depending on the game." I again thought this rude considering the deal I had made more or less a month earlier. He again reminds me he makes no money from the systems at those low prices. I said that I would take some 2600 stuff instead and hold off on the Intelli if that was how it was. He then changes the price and says" Okay I will let you have just the console for 10 dollars but I spent 14 for it and the games it came with last week!"

 

I stated I still wasn't sure and would think about it. He then says and this was my favorite part!!! "I will increase the price of the systems on October 1st to 20 dollars each so if you want it you better get it now." I said I would come in later in the week and give it another look. He then says..."If you come in tomorrow it will be 20bucks."!!!! WTF!!! Well, it was getting late, I was tired and getting pissed off...so I bought just the console and have it here now where I am currently cleaning it.

 

Oh well, I can't complain...I did get a decent 5200 for 2 bucks and Track and Field for .99 cents.

 

Oh...BTW...picked up a CIB Chrono Trigger for my SNES for the cost of one complete 7800 in a trade a while back. Also I was looking today...and found me a Super Mario Kart for the SNES for 3 bucks. Not a bad haul over the past month or so.

 

I am worried that the guy I have been getting my stuff from is starting to get hip to the popularity of the systems again. I had planned to get an 800xl from him in the future as he has several complete ones. But at 20 bucks...I think not.

 

Good luck in those finds.

[videotwit]

Wow, Crossbow! Those are some decent finds. I wish my thrifting outings would be as productive as that! Congrats.

 

I went out today on a "3-hour tour" since I took this week off because it is my birthday, and I have extra time off to burn (I turned 32 on Monday). I was hoping to get myself a nice VCS cart as a present (preferably a rarity!). In literally 3 hours, and probably a dozen or so thrifts, all I saw was one boxed Intellevision Dragonfire game. That's it! Oh well. I'll try again on Thursday, I think.

[bcprs1]

There is a video game store around me that has a box of about 100 2600 games. The guy use to sell them for $3 each, but decided to raise his price to $5. Since I started going there about 5 months ago, I have only seen about 5 games sold. I went in last Sunday and he said he just got two boxes full of 2600 games. Man I was so excited until I saw one box full of pac-man, combat and asteroids. The other box had another bunch of commons. The only thing is was able to pick up was Dark Chambers and Radar Lock both sealed. The funny thing is the guy has the nerve to tell me that a lot of his games are "one of a kind". I don't know what he was looking at because I didn't see any Halloweens or Waterworlds in there.

The only other place I use to go for games was flea market near my house. Unfortunately the place had a major fire at it and is closed indefinately.

 

A few weeks ago at that same flea market, I set up with some stuff my parent wanted to get rid of. I took a big box of my extra 7800 games. None of them were that special and I was only asking $1-$2 each depending on the game and if it was in the box. The only good ones I brought were 7800 Rampage and Ikari Warriors. Well, you would have thought I was asking $100 a game by the way people reacted to my price of $20 for Rampage and $30 for Ikari Warrior (keep in mind that both had perfect labels). I had one guy offer me $25 for both of them. I had another offer me $50 for everything. After a while, I got so pissed that I just put the box back in my truck and later sold a bunch of it on ebay and here. The only way to get a deal at a flea market is with someone who doesn't care and DAMMIT I care about my 7800 games :-)

[bcprs1]

P.S- I ended up getting $55 for Rampage and Ikari Warriors

[StanJr]

I spent all last week making the rounds here in the barren Louisville thrifts and managed to find this gem: One 2600 joystick! that's it!!!

 

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH

 

The Flea will be in this weekend. I'll try that, I guess.

 

Frustrated Stan

[Klove]

All I came across was a Congo Bongo for $2.00 w/ Manual, and a lady selling off a couple of Bandai Pippin's "In the box".

 

Didn't ask her how much though.

 

A couple of weeks before that, anothert lady had 3x3 foot box full of used Lynx's.

 

Passed on those as well.

[Mot]

I don't know where they get their prices. Sometimes they are wrong the other way: I found a Commodore 128 (in box w/manuals) for $5 and the disk drive for $2. (I went to electronics shop for the cord to connect the two $8!!!).

I saw a dart board for $3 on one side of the store and the other side $10?

On a related note: I say an ebay item, here in Colorado, with combat, asteroids, and pacman. (Someone's name on one of the carts modestly written.) Starting bid: $75. What did he think he had gold!? I had to open this one up once-in-a-while, just to laugh.

[Joel D. Park]

Call me a greedy jerk but,

Now that most of the games I need are quite rare, I like the idea of thrift stores charging 5 dollars for their games.. That keeps non-collectors who are just buying games to play them from picking up those really rare games just cause they are another cheap game. The really rare ones usually aren't much fun anyway.. So everyone is happy.

[ElvisDJ]

Here's a bit of an annoying story for you all...

 

Here where i live, most of the thrift stores have certain colored tags that are half price each day. The tag colors that are half price rotate daily, and usually 2 out of 4 colors are half price at any given time. Some stores, though, have 1/2 price days on all colors, depending on the day.

 

There used to be a time when you could get great deals on classic game stuff on half price days, (I once found 40 boxed 2600 carts, including SQ: Waterworld for 45 cents each on a half price day), but now, most classic stuff is behind the glass counters and it's usually marked at a higher price ($25 for a genesis, etc). Thus, I try to go on half price days to get the better deals.

 

One day I had my eye on some NES carts that were going for $5 or $6 each. They had yellow tags on them, but yellow wasn't half price that day, so I kept stopping my on the way home to see if yellow was on sale...sure enough, one day it was, but they had changed the tag color to blue! You could still see the yellow tags underneath...so much for everything being half price!

 

A similar thing happened to me with a watch I wanted. I saw it on a Sunday and it was $10. Since Monday was half price on everything day, I figured I could wait to get it. On Monday I returned, and yes, the watch was half price, but lo and behold, someone had changed the original price from $10 to $27!

 

I hate when that happens!

 

Bryan

[ElvisDJ]

Here's a bit of an annoying story for you all...

 

Here where i live, most of the thrift stores have certain colored tags that are half price each day. The tag colors that are half price rotate daily, and usually 2 out of 4 colors are half price at any given time. Some stores, though, have 1/2 price days on all colors, depending on the day.

 

There used to be a time when you could get great deals on classic game stuff on half price days, (I once found 40 boxed 2600 carts, including SQ: Waterworld for 45 cents each on a half price day), but now, most classic stuff is behind the glass counters and it's usually marked at a higher price ($25 for a genesis, etc). Thus, I try to go on half price days to get the better deals.

 

One day I had my eye on some NES carts that were going for $5 or $6 each. They had yellow tags on them, but yellow wasn't half price that day, so I kept stopping my on the way home to see if yellow was on sale...sure enough, one day it was, but they had changed the tag color to blue! You could still see the yellow tags underneath...so much for everything being half price!

 

A similar thing happened to me with a watch I wanted. I saw it on a Sunday and it was $10. Since Monday was half price on everything day, I figured I could wait to get it. On Monday I returned, and yes, the watch was half price, but lo and behold, someone had changed the original price from $10 to $27!

 

I hate when that happens!

 

Bryan

[fsuinnc]

At the local Flea market last Sunday morning I saw a stack of about 20 A2600 games behind a bunch of junk on some ladies table. I walked around to see what she had and they all turned out to be pretty common but I noticed a copy of Sub Scan and I don't have one of those. I ask the lasy how much the games were and she said $1. I said OK, reaching for Sub Scan and she went and put all the games (22 as it turns out) and instructions for most of them into a bag.

All for $1. I later found a copy of Airlock the same day ($3)which I hadn't had until I got it off ebay the week before.

Most weekends I find nothing at that place except one old man who swears he has just about every game and unit ever mad in his storage building but just hasn't had time to get look for them. Maybe next week.

[Ze_ro]

Ah yes, two of my pet peeves when it comes to flea market people:

 

1. The people who "know" what everything is worth, so you can be damn sure you'll never get a good deal out of them... $3 for Combat is about as good a deal as you're likely to get.

 

2. The "Hey, I paid $100 when I got it new!" guys... Look, it doesn't matter what you paid for it in 1980... Electronics are not an investement!

 

Despite all that, I still enjoy the thrift stores, and I sometimes find some great stuff there. Often I'll be able to find 4 Atari games in a bag for $2 or so... though I've never found anything more rare than a 4, $0.50 is definitely a good price for it

 

My latest peeve has to do with the Sega Master System. About 6 months back, I ran across one for $5 (system only), and passed on it, since I had no source of games for the thing (They're not very common around here)... a week comes, and the thing is sold... another week, and another one shows up for $5... I pass on it again, and in another week, it's gone. Here's where it gets interesting: in the weeks to come, I start finding fairly large amounts of games for this thing, so I buy them up assuming that the system isn't hard to find... after all, I'd already seen it twice in only a couple of weeks, and for only $5.

 

Before long I had accumulated 7 games, two joypads, an arcade stick, and a light phaser... of course, now that I had all this, it's taken me months to even locate another SMS! And now that I finally found one, it's a strange price that I'm not sure I want to pay... it's in a bag together with all the connections and two joypads (Which I don't need) for $25. Normally, I wouldn't be concerned about the price... except for the fact that I twice passed up the chance to get it for $5. The more I think about it, the more I want to just get it and get it over with... of course, Murphy's Law dictates that as soon as I buy the damn thing, I'll find one for $5 (or less) the next day

 

Oh yeah, and you found a Pippen at a flea market Ken? That's a strange find! I can easily understand not buying it though, since the thing is so damn obscure (good luck finding software/hardware for it). I passed on a $30 CD-i for this reason, but now I feel like an idiot, because there's a good chance that it was actually a TurboDuo

 

--Zero

[ubersaurus]

I got an intellivision 1 with intellivoice and hook ups and 13 games all in boxes with books and overlays for 5 bucks. Bwahaha!

[Ze_ro]

I actually came across a boxed Intellivision 1 for $7... I didn't buy it though, I already have one, and I'm not an INTV collector. I already have enough clutter sitting around.

 

(As an added brag, I got my Intellivision 1 for $4 )

 

--Zero

[Malathion5]

The local Goodwill is kinda high on their price for any Atari game.....$2.00. Combat or Front Line....$2.00.

But Goodwill's gimick is their half price sales so I think that they price accordingly. They have one of these half off sales on something on a weekly basis.

[PatrickDBowlingo]

I went to a garage sale (five or six years ago when I was going out every weekend) and came across a box full of Colecovision games including the console, 2 controllers, Turbo steering wheel and the Turbo cartridge for $3.

 

Needless to say I snatched it right up

 

I did just see a bunch of boxed Intellivision games at a Goodwill store for 50 cents apiece but I passed.

 

I did pick up Real Sports Football and something else for 50 cents.

 

Ahh well.

[someguy]

I still find bargains. I recently picked up a like-new Atari ST mouse for $2, and sold it on EBay for $21.

[paulvonscott]

Ah Guy's. I feel kinda envious of you guys in the states. I'm gonna emmigrate for the thrift stores. From my English experience any type of store that sells atari games usually does it for a lot more than $5. The cheapest I have paid in a store is about $3 for loose carts and though I havn't bought any boxed ones they are about $8 and that's for really common stuff. They do get a lot more expensive. The last ones I saw in a shop were $7 each for grubby common carts. It's usually a very good day for me when I pick up some atari carts at a local car boot fair. Having just started six months ago I reckon I've started about ten years too late! I sort of understand these guy's charging what they can, it's how they make a living and it's the demand we create that fuels the prices. Still, I'm always after a bargain and I won't pay the high prices. However my pet hate is the 'Oh I've got loads more stuff in the back/van/attic/cellar/secret bunker, but I can't get to it at the moment'. From my experience that is usually a whopping big lie! All the best. Atarion.