Goodwill Hunter
12-09-2005, 10:16 PM
The most unreal incident in my collecting life happened a little after 5:00 tonight….but first a little background (okay, after typing this out…it’s a lot of background!):
I’ve been unofficially trying to complete a number of Sega collections this year, with a fair amount of success…down to needing 47 Genesis titles, 8 Saturn, 8 SMS, and after starting the year at 15, today I was down to needing my last Sega CD game - Keio Flying Squadron.
I’d never seen this game in the wild, never seen it in anyone’s tradebox, and the going price on Ebay for a complete copy in good shape was $130-$150, the few times one has been up this past year. I’m too cheap to pay that much for a game, so I tried coming up with an attractive trade option. I had found a complete 32x Spiderman Web of Fire for $1.99 at Goodwill a few months ago, and posted the offer on the B&S forum for an even up trade of it for Keio.
Got a few purchase inquiries at first, but no trade offers. My post quickly fell off the first page and I forgot about it. Then a few weeks ago, Play2win sent me an email asking if I was still looking for Keio. I replied yes, and he said that he had a line on a copy. Long story short, we traded messages and pictures for a while and finally set up a trade.
We agreed to ship at the same time, but because of circumstances, it worked out that I was able to ship on Monday, and he was able to ship on Wednesday. We both shipped priority mail with delivery confirmation, and he got my package on Wednesday. I was hoping his package would arrive today…and sure enough, a check of the DC# this morning showed it was delivered to my workplace at 8:23 this morning.
The first mail run of the day was a bust…no surprise there. But when the second was also empty, I knew something was wrong. I called the mailroom, and was horrified to hear that no packages had come in from USPS today, only letters. They checked the warehouse, nothing there either. I started to panic, sent an email to Play2win to get a package description and verify the address, and started to think I was in trouble.
Fortunately, the mailroom supervisor had contacted the post office in the meantime, and found out that they still had my package there for some reason. She called with the good news, and let me know that I would get it on Monday, unless I could get to the P.O. by 5:00 tonight. So of course I left work promptly at 4:30, and ran right into Friday traffic. This post office is tucked into a residential neighborhood near the lake, and having to travel a bunch of snow-covered side streets, I barely made it there by closing time. At first they couldn’t find my package, but finally a manager came up with my coveted cardboard box.
I tossed it in the car and tried to speed home, but the traffic still sucked. My route took me near a thrift on the east side I hit from time to time, so I decided to duck in since I was already late and going nowhere fast. I went right to the case where they put games, and saw a 3DO Dragon’s Lair for $4.00 and some sort of a longbox game hidden under a Harry Potter PC game. Fridays are half price at this thrift, so I called an employee over to unlock the case. Dragon’s Lair had no book, so I passed on it. I picked up the PC game, and literally did a double take at what was underneath. Any guesses as to what I found?
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/1662/keio1gz.jpg
That's right, Keio Flying Squadron, mint and complete, marked $3.00….UnFreakingBelievable! A game prior to today I had never seen in person, I was picking up twice within twenty minutes. I had found games in the wild shortly after buying or trading for them before, but never so quickly, so cheaply ($1.50 afer discount!), or for a game so rare!
My head was spinning as I paid for the game and went back to my car. If the post office hadn’t screwed up, I’m sure I wouldn’t have had the chance to make this find! I carefully opened the package from the post office,…almost expecting the Keio I had just bought to vanish Twilight Zone-style as I did. But nothing weird happened, and as the photo shows I am now the proud owner of 2 copies of Keio Flying Squadron, a complete Sega CD collection, and one of the most unlikely collecting coincidences I have ever heard of.
Rich
I’ve been unofficially trying to complete a number of Sega collections this year, with a fair amount of success…down to needing 47 Genesis titles, 8 Saturn, 8 SMS, and after starting the year at 15, today I was down to needing my last Sega CD game - Keio Flying Squadron.
I’d never seen this game in the wild, never seen it in anyone’s tradebox, and the going price on Ebay for a complete copy in good shape was $130-$150, the few times one has been up this past year. I’m too cheap to pay that much for a game, so I tried coming up with an attractive trade option. I had found a complete 32x Spiderman Web of Fire for $1.99 at Goodwill a few months ago, and posted the offer on the B&S forum for an even up trade of it for Keio.
Got a few purchase inquiries at first, but no trade offers. My post quickly fell off the first page and I forgot about it. Then a few weeks ago, Play2win sent me an email asking if I was still looking for Keio. I replied yes, and he said that he had a line on a copy. Long story short, we traded messages and pictures for a while and finally set up a trade.
We agreed to ship at the same time, but because of circumstances, it worked out that I was able to ship on Monday, and he was able to ship on Wednesday. We both shipped priority mail with delivery confirmation, and he got my package on Wednesday. I was hoping his package would arrive today…and sure enough, a check of the DC# this morning showed it was delivered to my workplace at 8:23 this morning.
The first mail run of the day was a bust…no surprise there. But when the second was also empty, I knew something was wrong. I called the mailroom, and was horrified to hear that no packages had come in from USPS today, only letters. They checked the warehouse, nothing there either. I started to panic, sent an email to Play2win to get a package description and verify the address, and started to think I was in trouble.
Fortunately, the mailroom supervisor had contacted the post office in the meantime, and found out that they still had my package there for some reason. She called with the good news, and let me know that I would get it on Monday, unless I could get to the P.O. by 5:00 tonight. So of course I left work promptly at 4:30, and ran right into Friday traffic. This post office is tucked into a residential neighborhood near the lake, and having to travel a bunch of snow-covered side streets, I barely made it there by closing time. At first they couldn’t find my package, but finally a manager came up with my coveted cardboard box.
I tossed it in the car and tried to speed home, but the traffic still sucked. My route took me near a thrift on the east side I hit from time to time, so I decided to duck in since I was already late and going nowhere fast. I went right to the case where they put games, and saw a 3DO Dragon’s Lair for $4.00 and some sort of a longbox game hidden under a Harry Potter PC game. Fridays are half price at this thrift, so I called an employee over to unlock the case. Dragon’s Lair had no book, so I passed on it. I picked up the PC game, and literally did a double take at what was underneath. Any guesses as to what I found?
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/1662/keio1gz.jpg
That's right, Keio Flying Squadron, mint and complete, marked $3.00….UnFreakingBelievable! A game prior to today I had never seen in person, I was picking up twice within twenty minutes. I had found games in the wild shortly after buying or trading for them before, but never so quickly, so cheaply ($1.50 afer discount!), or for a game so rare!
My head was spinning as I paid for the game and went back to my car. If the post office hadn’t screwed up, I’m sure I wouldn’t have had the chance to make this find! I carefully opened the package from the post office,…almost expecting the Keio I had just bought to vanish Twilight Zone-style as I did. But nothing weird happened, and as the photo shows I am now the proud owner of 2 copies of Keio Flying Squadron, a complete Sega CD collection, and one of the most unlikely collecting coincidences I have ever heard of.
Rich