Pumped for flea market season

[mailman187666]

Looking good to find some good deals.this year on the east coast. Anyone around the Northern MA, Southern NH area? Hope to see some good finds in the June/july/aug finds. Lets get those saturn, sega cd, and turbo grafx 16 finds this year!!!

Just trying to make a positive game collecting thread. This is the year we all get good finds!

[Lucifersam1]

Do you ever hit the Rietta (Hubbardston) flea? I have found some good stuff there once in a while. I generally hit up Grafton, though (not usually good deals, but a friend of mine lives out that way, and we sell there sometimes as well -- generally non-video game stuff).

At both locations there are dealers that sell stuff for OUTRAGEOUS prices (I guess the same can be said for any flea?). It's always fun when I go, however.





Looking good to find some good deals.this year on the east coast. Anyone around the Northern MA, Southern NH area? Hope to see some good finds in the June/july/aug finds. Lets get those saturn, sega cd, and turbo grafx 16 finds this year!!!

Just trying to make a positive game collecting thread. This is the year we all get good finds!

[PizzaKat]

Same here although I never find anything and Im usually too tired to get up early. If I find a crappy NES common I'd be happy with that.

[Az]

To start the season I ran across the first good buy at a yard sale in probably 10 years (most stuff locally is either pure garbage or outrageously priced). Picked up a clean, non-yellowed SNES with 2 first party controllers, 1 3rd party, a Super Game Boy, and about 20 games. The games were all sports trash with the exception of SMW, MK 1-3, Battletoads & Double Dragon, and .... The Ninja Warriors! This for the whopping price of $20!

[FullmetalHeart]

A few of what I picked up this and last month

Sega Genesis with 2 oem 2 propad and 1 power player controllers - 32 games $25 (street of rage 3, Sonic & Knuckles, etc)

Nes and Snes with gold zelda 2 and Sonic Blastman $30
Archer flight joystick for nes

Snes $20

7 Nes 3 Snes controllers $1 each

Snes Cartridge Storage $5

I could probably get a Sega saturn for $10-15 but I don't rly want.

[mailman187666]

Do you ever hit the Rietta (Hubbardston) flea? I have found some good stuff there once in a while. I generally hit up Grafton, though (not usually good deals, but a friend of mine lives out that way, and we sell there sometimes as well -- generally non-video game stuff).

At both locations there are dealers that sell stuff for OUTRAGEOUS prices (I guess the same can be said for any flea?). It's always fun when I go, however.

Yes, Rietta is my favorite one to go to. I find good stuff here and there, but you gotta go early. Its not quite the same as it used to be there, where you'll see people mostly setting up thier stores there. I still love going there, cuz I'll always walk out with at least 1 thing that was worth buying. Its also just a fun place to go to.

Can't say I've ever been to Grafton though, I have a few that I also like to hit up in Southern NH that are fun, not quite the same as Rietta though.

[Tanooki]

My area is a crap one for games, it's more the annoying on that because there's not even a large glut of dickery playing resellers here. The thing is in my town there are a few stores, been around going back into the 90s that are appreciated and visited by people due to being locals and take stuff there, then you have half price books too who used to be good but in the last year turned into ebay buy it now books which has soured the pot for all to keep up. People still take stuff there, little ever shows up on craigslist, and flea markets today or even 10 years ago get few to little games, nothing regular at all even from random pull ups, just a few indoor resellers who are what they are (close to ebay so pointless unless you're saving time.)

I still go, it's fun when you do find a thing here or there but it's not consistent and plentiful at all and I also fill my fun out seeing all the excellent old antiques and the old 1930-80s toys which I do collect a bit so it adds to the fun! Garage sales around here are just as much with shooting blanks, so I tend to do the big community wide yard sales and often I'll find each week they're going (few months a year) I'll find one house with a nice hit with a few good things cheap so that's inspiring. This saturday will be a bitch, due to rain and holiday(and ky derby weekend) all them have compressed their sales into a big weekend thing all up this big street my house is off of so I'll have to pick and choose which neighborhoods to hit and hope for the best as it's too many houses. Usually it's like 1-3 a weekend.

[bb_hood]

The Raynham flea market in Mass sucks for games. There are about 3 dealers who set up shop and ask stupid prices. not only that, they get there before opening when people are setting up and they buy everything new. So unless you wanna pay 45$ for mario kart just stay away. There are no good deals to be found at the Raynham flea.

[GamerTheGreek]

I notice at my local flea market there is less worth while stuff even for flip. One deal has crap and then over charges for these broken incomplete items. Another guy charges eBay prices for his stuff. Good quality but your paying for it. Another guy has nice gaming items boxed 2600 or boxed sega and wanted 240.00 nothing special. A few other resellers are good but it's really hit or miss lately. My friend found a supervision handheld for 7.00 but it doesn't work.

That's NJ for ya.

[mailman187666]

The Raynham flea market in Mass sucks for games. There are about 3 dealers who set up shop and ask stupid prices. not only that, they get there before opening when people are setting up and they buy everything new. So unless you wanna pay 45$ for mario kart just stay away. There are no good deals to be found at the Raynham flea.

You are right about that. My brother and I USED to get good game deals there. One guy thats set up at the end of one of the isles had a bunch of gamegear games, unmarked. I asked him how much they were, and he said they ranged from $3-$7. I picked out maybe 4 games and asked how much they were, and he was like "$8, $10, $10, and $12". So much for the $3-$7. The dealer in the back corner of Raynham sells mostly newer games at a discounted price. Thats the only good game seller in that place. I'll stick to Rietta and other Southern NH fleas.

[Tanooki]

BB: Back when I returned to CA for 3 years I hit the oceanside, ca swap meet and it was the same there. You aren't allowed in until technically 8, but you can squeeze in early if they don't care, but what's worse is dealers/pull up sellers can go in over an hour early there too. There's these two scumbags a mexican in the back corner and a chinese guy who is on that side too a few rows closer to the gate and they'll roam the place before opening or as it does. The chinese guy will look about 30-60min early and scoop up stuff if he can, and if it's solid enough he won't even setup shop and just goes back to his retail shop and post the stuff up on ebay that day for huge price increases, and the other guy he'd walk it as the doors opened for people. I made it a pattern to piss the guy off by powerwalking to the back where he was and ghosting him a row or half row ahead looking for anything good and snapping stuff up. I didn't do it at first but after he actually took an item out of my hands and bought it from a pull up guy who also was mexican and they both spoke spanish it was ON at that point until I moved away. He at least didn't go to ebay, but he'd talk people down super cheap, then ask ebay or 2x ebay for it at the flea until the sun would wreck stuff, yet he was so dumb he didn't know stuff like megaman 1 and 5 were money (wanted $5/ea) but a Mario or other notable title or any bootleg multicart was like a $20+ for convenience or a dollar a game. People like that should be stopped as it ruins it for those who come there to shop for deals.

Eventually this other dude ruined the entire flea market permanently on prices. He showed up one week an dhad his family fan out for the first hour grabbing anything, then he'd mark it well over price at a big setup near the door. (Contra then was a $10 game he'd mark $25, and Mega Man 6 was the same for example.) Everyone got pissed and started asking ebay, it never went back down much at all if any. Even after 3 weeks of it drove the guy away, it stayed up.

[Gatucaman]

The Raynham flea market in Mass sucks for games. There are about 3 dealers who set up shop and ask stupid prices. not only that, they get there before opening when people are setting up and they buy everything new. So unless you wanna pay 45$ for mario kart just stay away. There are no good deals to be found at the Raynham flea.




BB: Back when I returned to CA for 3 years I hit the oceanside, ca swap meet and it was the same there. You aren't allowed in until technically 8, but you can squeeze in early if they don't care, but what's worse is dealers/pull up sellers can go in over an hour early there too. There's these two scumbags a mexican in the back corner and a chinese guy who is on that side too a few rows closer to the gate and they'll roam the place before opening or as it does. The chinese guy will look about 30-60min early and scoop up stuff if he can, and if it's solid enough he won't even setup shop and just goes back to his retail shop and post the stuff up on ebay that day for huge price increases, and the other guy he'd walk it as the doors opened for people. I made it a pattern to piss the guy off by powerwalking to the back where he was and ghosting him a row or half row ahead looking for anything good and snapping stuff up. I didn't do it at first but after he actually took an item out of my hands and bought it from a pull up guy who also was mexican and they both spoke spanish it was ON at that point until I moved away. He at least didn't go to ebay, but he'd talk people down super cheap, then ask ebay or 2x ebay for it at the flea until the sun would wreck stuff, yet he was so dumb he didn't know stuff like megaman 1 and 5 were money (wanted $5/ea) but a Mario or other notable title or any bootleg multicart was like a $20+ for convenience or a dollar a game. People like that should be stopped as it ruins it for those who come there to shop for deals.

Eventually this other dude ruined the entire flea market permanently on prices. He showed up one week an dhad his family fan out for the first hour grabbing anything, then he'd mark it well over price at a big setup near the door. (Contra then was a $10 game he'd mark $25, and Mega Man 6 was the same for example.) Everyone got pissed and started asking ebay, it never went back down much at all if any. Even after 3 weeks of it drove the guy away, it stayed up.

I Keep Hearing Story after Story of THAT being the current reality in all of the Flea Markets and Thrifts Stores there in the US, and i cant believe no one has ever tought on putting some damn regulation for christ sake!.

Maybe the original sellers (the ones that originally had teh games) should forbid people from buying stuff earlier before those damn places open up, or just be educated and tell Ebay to fuck himself, the point of the 2nd hand market was to help people who cant pay up for stuff in new shape and for poor people as well, as an alternative, but man oh man, it was all because of what i like to call, "The Redneck Scalping Orgy", thanks to those fake programs from the "History" Channel, done by fake rich rednecks, they have bastardize the core idea of the 2nd hand market, by ripping the progimo and satisfying the greed fetish.

[bb_hood]

I Keep Hearing Story after Story of THAT being the current reality in all of the Flea Markets and Thrifts Stores there in the US, and i cant believe no one has ever tought on putting some damn regulation for christ sake!.


Well, its just the way it works. Gotta let the sellers in first to set up their stuff, and when they are in early they wheel and deal and get first shot at the new stuff.
I can deal with that, but the thing that really bugs the hell outta me is when collectors get the idea that the best places for finding older games are flea market vendors. When these collectors show up and see that there are only 2-3 vendors who offer mediocre selections of games at poor prices, they think thats what everyone is talking about when people say flea markets are the place to find older games. Good deals can be found here and there, but if you are going to be buying used games from a dealer or vendor at a flea market chances are you wont be getting a good deal. Ive seen many instances where flea market dealers ask and get higher prices than the said games would normally sell for on ebay. In many cases people dont have computers to use ebay or other online marketplaces so they think that paying 50$ for zelda, mario, contra etc is a good deal because they are 'rare'.

[mailman187666]

Its not really just about finding good deals, for me. I like being out in the sun (at least at the place I mainly go to), The have pretty decent food to get there, its in a beautiful area...hell, they even have a full bar at Rietta, if you feel like drinking in the morning. I do get bummed when I don't find any deals, but I never feel like it was a waste of time. Thats why I'm pumped, just a good way to get outside.

Do any of you feel that way about any flea markets you go to, aside from finding game deals?

[Tanooki]

Gatucaman: I agree with the sentiment but it just wouldn't and can't work in society. Flea markets are free market places for anyone with or without a business license to pull up, pay a fee for the spot until they're gone, and they can peddle any legal goods for whatever rate. The only way to technically stop it would be to have the flea market groundspeople forbid sales before customers appear and set it in the rules, but good luck enforcing that at all because they won't pay for a goon squad to watch every space. Original sellers need to have the honor not to sell to scumbags before they're open, but the thing is, if they're just that stupid or don't care they're being taken advantage of, it will just keep happening. Your redneck theory is kind of cute, I get that with those hayseeds on the Dickering program, and then even that other one wher epeople bring stuff to an auction house and can be bought out by the reseller or gamble more on the floor. Even I suppose Pickers is to blame even if that's kind of a different beast, but I do know a majority of it is in fact not history channel, but their parent company A&E with those Storage Wars shows. I lived out in CA and knew someone who ended up on one of those programs recorded to TV, and I've even bumped into that dickbag Dave who got kicked off the show twice and Darryl(he's ok) once. That brought a heap of people to storage lockers and made them aware you can find gold and not have to be someone with a full blown business like those History channel shows. People in the storage business for flips have been hit hard by that crap as nothing is cheap anymore but the hottest of turd lockers.


mailman: Agreed, even after it got shitty out in CA I still went every week no matter what short of rare rain. I work from home and had then a baby on my hands and Sunday from 7-12am was my out, escape, sun, exercise, some friends I made there, and I'd hit one or a couple looking for goodies and I'd walk them twice to see all the cool junk. I prefer them out here in KY for the cool stuff to see, the south/midwest just has a lot more older antique toys, furniture, art, signage, and so on to see but damn near dick for games. I never really risk the food other than at one of them around here where they have this badass soft serve machine I get a big chocolate in waffle cone for 2.50 as a treat. I never really find it a waste as I love seeing all the weird crap, but I will get bummed if the old 'junk' vendors play up wanting ebay prices (a few do, majority don't) looking for a chump since it's literally right on a major freeway (I65.)

[MarioMania]

My area is a crap one for games, it's more the annoying on that because there's not even a large glut of dickery playing resellers here. The thing is in my town there are a few stores, been around going back into the 90s that are appreciated and visited by people due to being locals and take stuff there, then you have half price books too who used to be good but in the last year turned into ebay buy it now books which has soured the pot for all to keep up. People still take stuff there, little ever shows up on craigslist, and flea markets today or even 10 years ago get few to little games, nothing regular at all even from random pull ups, just a few indoor resellers who are what they are (close to ebay so pointless unless you're saving time.)

I still go, it's fun when you do find a thing here or there but it's not consistent and plentiful at all and I also fill my fun out seeing all the excellent old antiques and the old 1930-80s toys which I do collect a bit so it adds to the fun! Garage sales around here are just as much with shooting blanks, so I tend to do the big community wide yard sales and often I'll find each week they're going (few months a year) I'll find one house with a nice hit with a few good things cheap so that's inspiring. This saturday will be a bitch, due to rain and holiday(and ky derby weekend) all them have compressed their sales into a big weekend thing all up this big street my house is off of so I'll have to pick and choose which neighborhoods to hit and hope for the best as it's too many houses. Usually it's like 1-3 a weekend.

What part of KY are you in?

[Tanooki]

Louisville. I head out of town a county over to the flea markets they have as town is a dry well unless you want to pay full blown ebay rates because the formerly well priced ma n' pa chain (bme) went sour deciding to compete who can charge more for stuff with half price books. Mostly though I just find antique toys which I like to collect.

[Steve W]

As of late when I go flea market shopping it's more for the chance to get out of the house and do something outdoors rather than finding stuff. The Dallas area has a ton of resellers so I tend to go well outside the area. Last week I went up to Bonham, TX for their monthly trade days, then across to Paris, TX for their local flea market. I think I need to range even farther away from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I'm still not finding much. The only problem right now is that my allergies go off the scale this time of year, I'll be glad when the cottonwood pollen dies down.

[peeingas]

There are other flea markets in SE Mass than Raynham, but most have not games at all or have such a small selection (that never changes) that it isn't even worth going.

[GamerTheGreek]

This past week was really good for finding items. I got a lot of boxed complete sega master items a few intv games a colecovision power supply and a light 6xer 2600 with 3 games (pitfall2 with manual included). And some magazines ( old gamer informer from 91 and a Nintendo fun club with Zelda on the cover

[Tanooki]

I got lucky (for me) big time over the weekend. Saturday was some community yard sales, all but one were crap but the one was nice. And then on Sunday the first flea that usually treats me nice enough was junky other than one little thing, but then I restless left and drove to another county over to another and got some nice little (to me) long lost treasures.

Saturday netted at a cost of $34 to me. The prices in the (brackets) are what I know they're worth.
Gameboy Games $1
($25) Pokemon Red
($8-10) DKC GBC
($5-8) DK GB
($4-6) Tetris DX
($2-3) Tetris

($15) NDS Lite, no stylus or charger with ($1/ea) kung fu panda/icarly 2 loose, ($5) Thrillville cib, case <-- all for $11

($15 and $5-7) New SMB and Cooking Mama $2(1/ea)

($10 and $5) GC Black Memory Card 251, 8MB Sony PS2 card $2(1/ea)

($40) iPad Nano 4th Gen complete in plastic shell w/added unused mount and headphones with matchbox fold out toy set together for $15

Travel Connect Four for $1 (larger size, not the teeny pocket one.)

Coloring books(5) and pencil crayons $2 <-- I have a 2 1/2 year old girl this stuff I got for her and the pony/lion king stuff.
My little pony + 3 lion king toys $1


Sunday got me an original 8" UFO Catcher Pocket Monsters Nyarth w/tag still (Meowth) in a clear rectangular plastic cube for $10
And then at the other flea market...
4 Tiger LCD handhelds, all in bags with the manuals, first was free, the others $1 each (Baseball, Football, Castlevania 2 and Karnov)
...and also for free a nice hotwheels semi truck that folds out with 2 car launchers for the kid (she likes hotwheels/matchbox stuff.)''

The kicker, on the way out I spotted this really sweet basically new Radio Flyer All Terrain Wagon(steel, wood upper walls, air filled tires) and it sells for $150-175 new, bought it for $65! :D


The iPod I'm using on myself, had a 6th gen which I hate to death I'm going to sell (touch panel was always getting bumped), the handhelds, the kids toys and the wagon. The rest I'll ebay or something, I don't have a game budget really so I need to do that to get things sadly. I used to find stuff weekly in CA, so sadly stuff randomly spread out like this feels like a victory instead of routine here.

[spman]

Good luck, I find that as a rule, tag sales and flea markets are way too much effort with little or no reward. With the cost of gas these days, it just isn't worth it to spend several hours on a Saturday morning for the hopes that you might find one halfway decent score. There's also way too much competition out there, and if you aren't an early bird knocking down peoples door at the ass crack of dawn, you're going to miss out. It seems lately I see more people reporting more overpriced mediocre finds from these things, so I really can't get too excited.

[Tanooki]

I totally agree with that sentiment, it's why I changed how I do stuff and also I do it just to get outside for a few hours and get some exercise too. Here in KY isn't like CA when I had to be up at 7 and there before 8 or it was basically over due to flipper shit heels who would even pilfer stuff from people there to take back to their booths before or as the place opened. In KY people don't get out early, even on Saturday you're fine finding stuff at 9-10am or later, and Sundays being the edge of the bible belt new people still will pull up at one of them around 10-11am. I find looking for games is a joke and disappointing as people here just don't deal in it due to better avenues to dump stuff in local stores or they just take it to ebay, though usually mostly if it does show the prices are more classically set. With garage sales, I won't do them unless it's a community as I know I will get something no matter what due to volume of houses and the flea I go not just really on games but I love vintage/classic toys and other random antiques among other random cool stuff I can get cheap in really great shape so I don't strike out but rarely.

You just have to be smart about it or just don't do it at all. And also keep in mind the environment even with the internet is local like I noted before that you could get something any week in CA at least an item or two, but out here maybe one a month or two at the flea. It's just a mix of what could be there and if you have a lot of online craigslist/ebay flippers or not.

[phil_consollection]

Good to hear some of you guys are still able to get some classic flea market deals. Over here in Europe, or at least in Germany, it has become almost impossible to get those typical "I'll sell you my Saturn with 5 games for 10 bucks"- or "Atari 2600 games 2 bucks a piece"-deals since a few years. The market seems overheated, especially Nintendo games' & goods' prices are crazy. Often enough, you find a game, ask for a price, seller mentions a crazy price "becaus he checked on ebay" and found some useless "buy now" offer for a generic game without box for 30 bucks which should be worth 10. Furthermore, professional sellers are ruining the fun, as they tend to grab the few good bargains even before the market opens and resell for 3 times the price. Or at least try to do so, as I often wonder who will buy at those prices at all.

Of course, you can still be lucky, but especially retro videogames are really difficult and frustrating right now. It's like you have to visit 10 markets, talk to 20 sellers each in order to get one good deal.

I often went out at 5 am to come early, but still with little to no result. I virtually stopped going to flea markets 3 years ago. It is frustrating and not worth the effort, despite the possibility for a very lucky moment.

[mailman187666]

Luckily, at my favorite flea market (Rietta) there is a mix of sellers on games. Right at the beggining, there is a guy that has tons of great items. Almost every game he has, he sells it for less than you can get it for online. Sure you aren't going to find deals of the century, but I've always walked away with some good stuff for good prices from him...sometimes even 1/2 of what it goes for online. Towards the middle of the place, you have about 3-4 different tables set up with items that are Ebay prices or higher (N64 system for $75???). Then throughout the rest of the place, its hit or miss with good $3 deals and such. I've already gone once this past Saturday and found a Sega CD memory cart, Crystalis complete for NES, Center Ring Boxing and Panzer Dragoon both for Saturn for a total of $56. It wasn't a steal, but its well below what you would find it on ebay for.

Plus what was mentioned before, I got to get out into the sun for a couple hours. Got some fresh air and had a good time with my girlfriend. I'd say it was a good start to flea market season.