Archive of category "thrift store"
This really isn’t a disaster but more of a tale about a genuine lapse in judgement. Recently one of the thrift stores I frequent had a 75% off sale in preparation of installing new carpet and such. I was unaware of the sale until I actually showed up to the store during me weekly visit. The place was a disaster but there was a huge stack of NES games available. Almost all of them were sports games and many were in deplorable condition. A woman told me everything was 75% off which is cool because the games were $3 each making them only 75 cents after the discount.
Like I fool I walked away with only three titles. I felt the others were in too shabby condition to keep. That evening the more I thought about it the stupider I felt for not getting the others. I’ve posted on here before about making new labels for games that have their’s ruined and why I didn’t jump on that opportunity or why I ignored it I’ll never understand. The next morning I went back to the thrift store if by the odd chance they were still available I was ready to take them. Goodbye Championship Bowling, RBI Baseball 3, Tecmo Bowl. You and your bretheran are now in the hands of someone else. Sigh.
More than 20 years later the adventures are still fresh in my mind. And I do believe everyone needs adventures from time to time.
Im on vacation right now and I wanted to spend time thrifting in this foreign land. I have a theory about thrift stores that the best items and bargains are found in old neighborhoods. This neighborhood is about as old as any and its sparse population leads me to believe that there are treasures out there.
I visited two thrift stores yesterday, the first was a Goodwill and it only had some SEGA Genesis and Master System games but they were sports games and they didn’t interest me. The second thrift store was called ARC and it had some PS2, Game Cube and a few Super Nintendo games, but nothing of any real interest.
Then a few miles down the road were Antique/Flea Market stores. I was only able to visit one so far. I’d like to say I found the jackpot even though I hadn’t bought anything. Inside there was a complete Nintendo NES with 15 games for $125. Loose copies of SMB/DH and Wheel of Fortune for $3 each. An N64 for $15. And another display case with many NES and SNES games. Had I stayed longer I’m sure I’d have found even more.
In a few days I should be going back to that high concentration of flea markets (there were more than six that I counted) and possible find a Stadium Events for $15 and a Tengen Tetris for $3.
It was bound to happen eventually… a mint copy of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for Nintendo NES at a Goodwill thrift store. It was wrapped in a zip lock bag surrounded by SEGA Genesis games. The gold case had no flaking, and no evidence of any use.
I squated down to look at the pins… they were as gold as the case itself. The edge of the board was white as snow. The label showed zero imperfections. No dents, creases, wrinkles, or finger prints. I suppose you couldn’t find a copy in this good of condition unless you bought it sealed in a box.
I thought about buying it for over 20 minutes. I wandered the store and came back to look at it one more time. The price was $9.99.
Like a fool I let it go. Part of me wonders if I returned tomorrow if it would still be there. But at work I’m training a class from 6:00am until 6:30pm… something videogame related of course, but no where neat or cool or memorable as the Zelda II treasure I let go at Goodwill thrift store.
So what were the results from The Video Game Thrift Store Adventure Spectacular?
Well, let’s see, the adventure started around 6:30 am in the parking lot of a Goodwill store that didn’t open until 9:00. I decided that shopping for retro video games is best done with some breakfast fuel so it was over to Del Taco for their BreakFiesta. By then it was still early, not even 7:30 so I drove over to Frenchman’s Mountain and studied the “Great Unconformity”. After giving up on looking for fossils the video game hunt was ready to begin.
Location 1: Goodwill store (different from the one mentioned above): I’ve had minor success at this thrift store in the past. A few weeks ago I found a complete copy of Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Today there were a couple things included empty cases to Wheel of Fortune and Madden ’95 for SEGA Genesis. But then in the display case was 8 Nintendo NES games. They were divided into two stacks of four games each and they wanted $12 for each stack. When the clerk opened the case all of the games were duds. Sure, there were a few I do not own, but being the proprioter of www.videogamepriceguides.com it would be foolish for me to purchase these titles at the prices they wanted: Rocketeer, The Goonies II, Fighting Golf, Double Dribble… so I passed.
Location 2: Salvation Army: I had some pretty good success at a different Salvation Army a week prior where I found copies of Vapor Trail and a few other Genesis games. This Salvation Army I had never been to before, and I shouldn’t have bothered. Not only did I get there 20 minutes before they opened, I killed time and walked to a convinience store for a soda. When I returned the store opened and I found nothing. NOTHING! What a waste.
Location 3: Deseret Industries: Deseret Industries is a Mormon ran chain of thrift stores. They are always neat and tidy and rarely cluttered. This thrift store was a waste too. No video games. Nothing! It was quickly becoming a disappointing day.
Location 4: Goodwill Store (different from the two mentioned above): JACKPOT! This place had a bunch of games including Shanghai II, and Family Fued for SEGA Genesis for $9 each – PASS, several Nintendo NES games including Kickle Cubicle, Ultimate: Quest for the Avatar, Super Mario/Duck Hunt, Infiltrator, and Gremlins 2. In the display case they had a stack of Super Nintendo games including Choplifter III and a bunch of sports games. There was also a boxed copy of Road Blasters and Quack Shot for SEGA Genesis. Then there were two stacks of five SEGA Genesis games for $25 a piece. None of the titles were particularly impressive except for CastleVania Blood Lines which is worth at least $20. I mulled getting it but passed because 1.) it wasn’t complete and 2.) the store had wrapped the stack of games in packing tape, and I was pretty certain that removing that tape was going to damage the labels. In my heart of hearts I know it was the right thing to do.
Location 5: Salvation Army (The one where I bought the SEGA Genesis games the week prior): After finding a copy of Madden ’94 for SEGA Genesis I found a JACKPOT here as well: Complete in the box SEGA Dreamcast for $25. I currently don’t collect Dreamcast games so I passed.
Location 6: Goodwill (the one I started at at 6:30am that wasn’t opened). I’ve had plenty of success at this Goodwill. Multiple SEGA Genesis’ and Nintendo NES’s. What did I find this time? A complete ORIGINAL model SEGA Genesis with two controllers and Sonic 1…. in a SEGA Genesis Model II box! A cool $15, but Fridays are discounted if you have a previous Goodwill Receipt (which I did) brining it down to around $11.
All in all it was a pretty productive day. I hit up all but one of the stores I wanted to go to, and I didn’t leave empty handed. After the SEGA Genesis is cleaned up you’ll be able to purchase it if you are interested from the SalzMafia Retro Game store…
Below is the map of what will be my Video Game Thrift Store Adventure Spectacular this weekend. More details are available: here. There is plenty of places including four Goodwill Stores and at least 2 Salvation Armys. All of these have the potential for some retro video games for cheap!
There are a number of posts here on www.salzmafia.com about finding retro videogames from a thrift store. For me specifically I’ve found more hardware and hard to find games in thrift stores than from any game store. For example, in the past year I’ve found:
- 2 SEGA Genesis: 1 complete with two controllers, and one with a licensed and an unlicensed controller
- 1 Dreamcast: Two controllers
- Countless PS1′s
- Atleast one PS2
- One yellowed Super Nintendo
- 1 complete Nintendo NES
- 2 loose Nintendo NES’s
- 9 complete SEGA Genesis Games (included game, case, and manual)
- 15 loose Nintendo NES games
- Several Guitar controllers
- Several Steering wheel controllers
- A metal DDR dance pad
- And probably a lot more that doesn’t come to mind
About 12 years ago I lived in Hayward California and there was a thrift store that I frequented. I know I picked up atleast five Atari 2600s over the course of a few months, a few Nintendo NES Advantage Joysticks, and more. There was a classier thrift store in Alameda that had an endless supply of Atari games it seems. Many of which were in their original shrink wrap still.
The good news is that after all of these years I’ve gotten a pretty keen eye at finding games in a thrift store. These are the tips I follow:
- The best day and time of the week to go thrifting is Friday mornings. It’s been my experience that all thrift stores are mad houses from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. Generally it seems that by Friday afternoon you’re going to be hard-pressed to find anything valuable. It also seems that during the week the thrift stores will put more of their nicer merchandise out on Thursdays and Fridays for the weekend rush.
- Older thrift stores in low-income areas will have better finds then a newly opened thrift store in a newer neighborhood.
- There are four key places you want to search when you’re in the thrift store. Generally all thrift stores will have a display case with more expensive nicer items, an electronics section, a toy section, and a VHS/DVD section. The display cases will mostly have complete game systems and cartridges if there are any to find. The electronics section will generally have consoles, but no power supplies or RFU adaptors, etc. This is also where you’ll mostly find controllers. Although rare, the toy section will occasionally have boxed games or systems (I’ve found at least 2 complete Nintendo NES, a complete Magnavox Odyssey, and a complete Atari 7800). The VHS/DVD section will have the occasional PS1, PS2 and XBOX game stashed there, but you can frequently find SEGA Genesis games stashed there as well. The SEGA Genesis cases kinda look like the plastic clam-shells that special (mostly family) VHS movies came in. They will often get tossed into this section. Genesis cases are a little bit shorter, but wider. Their cases are always black. When scanning a huge shelf of movies I concentrate around the top two inches of the cases on the first pass, and the bottom two inches of the second pass.
- If I find any video game merchandise, such as a system, or controller, or even a game, the first thing I always ask myself is “where is the rest of it?”. When people donate to a thrift store they usually donate a bunch of stuff at once. Sure, a piece or two might be missing from a system, but it seems unlikely to me that if someone was donating gaming merchandise they would donate just one piece. Items do get scattered pretty easily so if you do find a single item you may want to do a couple more passes before you leave.
- It is of my personal preference but I’d cautious of any videogame system that is disc based, is missing screws, has yellowed, smells of cigarette smoke or pet dander, or any system that appears to have any sticky residue. Sticky residue = roaches.
- When it comes to games I’m really only interested in games I don’t have, or that I know are of significant value. I’m not going to buy Anticipation for Nintendo NES. I will buy a copy of Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt however (I can always put it with a system I find and therefore have a complete Nintendo to sell or give as a gift).
- If you find loose cartridges that do not have a price make sure you tell the cashier that you found them in the VHS or book section. Some stores will come up with a ridiculous price for unmarked merchandise. It doesn’t hurt to act annoyed. Thrift stores are often ran by religious organizations, and therefore employ soft-hearted people. They will avoid confrontation. If you have no morals there are two other “tricks” you can do for a reduced price. The first is scratch the label off before you get to the counter and hope that they will give you a lower price. The other is two chew gum and apply it on the merchandise and act offended at the counter.
- And finally if you have a willing partner bring them along. A second set of eyes never hurts.
Cheap PlayStation Controller
Clear Green Nintendo 64 With CastleVania and Kirby