I've mentioned this before, but it ought to go in the Lore section anyway.

One weekend back in 2000, I was wandering the narrow fire-trap aisles of the (likely-long-defunct) Dracut Flea Market, as I often did back then. I was passing one of the tables I had passed so many times before, when what should I spot but an odd black TV-looking thing. I went to look at it, and saw that it was, in fact, a Vectrex.

I had vaguely heard of it, but knew very little about it. It didn't have any overlays or cartridges with it, but was running the built-in Minestorm game. I gave it a whirl, and was instantly hooked by the vivid vector graphics (aren't we all? ) I asked the seller about the price, and was told that it was all of $10. Unfortunately, that week, I didn't have $10 with me. I begged my mother to lend me the money, but she refused, and ended up leaving without it.

The very next weekend, I returned triumphantly with $10 in hand, only to find that someone else had scooped it up before I could get to it. I went home and searched eBay for them, only to see that they were going for around 10x that much, which made me feel even worse. I tried several different emulators, but they failed to fully recreate the experience of playing a real Vectrex.

Fortunately, around 6 years later, I finally managed to find a Vectrex of my own through a friend. Granted, it seemed to be broken for the first year that I owned it, but has recently brought itself back to life, so I can finally enjoy Minestorm in my own home. Plus, I believe I used that $10 to buy a boxed Commodore 64 from another vendor at the same flea market, which enabled me to finally get a fully-working C=64.
-Adam