My Generous Neighbor, an INCREDIBLE find.

[FxMercenary]

Ok, the following is a 100% True story, none of it is made up.

I moved into the neighborhood 5 years ago, into my grandmother's old house, she moved up to ohio to be closer to old friends and her home town. I didnt grow up in the neighborhood, but visited alot when she lived here, so I know all of the neighbors, they are all still living here, most of them in their 60s ant 70s now.

About a year ago, my next door neighbor's husband passed away from cancer after a grueling 20 years of housebound due to various sickness. I never knew it until recently, but to pass the time, he played nintendo games. Given he was older, his tastes were more in depth.

Last month, she decided to have a garage sale, her garage is massive, and at the time she had the sale, she only went through about 10% of the stuff she had.

A few weeks ago, I made a post about how I had stumbled onto a copy of Earthbound for .25 cents, this was the place I got it, but little did I know, it was just the tip of the iceberg...

I knew what Earthbound was worth, so I felt a little guilty about it, even though I had absolutely no plans on selling it, so I befriended her a little in the "Tech Support" kind of way, helping her hook things up to her TV, setting up her HD, VCR, DVD player and other odds and ends, a couple weeks later she mentioned that there might be more of that "old video game crap" her husband used to play and said she would do some digging in the garage. What she found... was astonishing... A pile of RPGs for the NES, SNES, and N64.

The following is the list, total cost, 25 cents, and being neighborly.

-SNES-
Earthbound w/guide
Chrono Trigger Boxed complete w/strat
Secret of Mana Boxed Complete w/strat
Act Raiser
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
FF Mystic Quest
E.V.O. Search for Eden
Populous
Brain Lord
7th Saga
Ultraman
Lufia II Rise of the sinstrals
Sim City
Secret of Evermore
Breath of Fire
Illusion of Gaia
Wanderers from YS III
Mystical Ninja
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Mario World
Super Mario All-Stars
Battletoads / Double Dragon
Aladdin
Samurai Shodown

-NES-
Zelda
Zelda II
Super Mario / Duck Hunt
Mario 2
Mario 3
Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior IV
Dragon Spirit
Rad Racer II
Star Wars
Star Tropics
Vegas Dream
Othello
Maniac Mansion
Friday the 13th
Jaws
Gauntlet II
Mega MAn 3
Solstice
Dr. Mario
Silent Service
Wizards and Warriors III

-N64-
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Zelda: Majora's Mask
Mario 64
Mario Kart 64

An N64 3 Rumble Packs, Memory Packs, Controllers, SNES controllers, NES Controllers etc, and a massive collection of Nintendo Power Magazines and Strategy guides that are in mint condition.

In fact, Everything is spotless, no dirt, gunk, not even scratches on the game stickers, its amazing.

Theres more to the list, but I mixed them into what I have and would have to look more.

The bizarre thing is, the day before I bought earthbound, I had a dream that I found it at a garage sale. I would have never of walked over there either, but my mother needed help loading a dresser she bought from her into my dad's truck to take home. All that and this was on a sunday afternoon after some of those games were sitting out in the open for sale for 2 days.

I cant believe my luck, I never get lucky EVER! I just thought I would share this incredible story with you guys.

Keep on hunting and asking around, you would be amazed at where games are just laying around.

[cityside75]

Congrats on the awesome find. It's kind of nice to think that this poor man who suffered at least had these awesome games to take his mind off of things. It's good that they are going to someone who will appreciate them!

[FxMercenary]

Congrats on the awesome find. It's kind of nice to think that this poor man who suffered at least had these awesome games to take his mind off of things. It's good that they are going to someone who will appreciate them!

so true, and when I have a kid(s) they will too! ( under close adult supervision of course, no access to the boxes or manuals tho for them! )

Whats crazy, is that she said there are more in her garage somewhere, and she will keep bringing them to me as she finds them, its like an adrenaline rush every time theres a knock at the door.

Yesterday she brought the NES games over, who knows whats next!

[Videogamerdaryll]

Yes,Congrats on the awesome find!!!!!

Thanks for telling about it...

[evil_genius]

All my neighbors ever gave me was dirty looks

[boatofcar]

Pics please!

[PapaStu]

**shimmied to What's it Worth forum**

[Kevincal]

Did you not let this lady know that she was basically handing you over a thousand dollars worth of goods? :/ Sorry but hooking up some crap for her doesn't exactly sound like thousands of dollars worth of work. If she's rich, fine. But otherwise, that's just wrong not telling her what it's worth!

Her husband would be rolling in his grave if he knew she gave that stuff away for free!!! Probably cost him A COUPLE thousand if he bought that stuff new...

[Eric Dude]

Lighten up, Captain Morality. Obviously it's worth nothing to the lady, and you don't know the situation. Maybe she feels better giving it away to a neighbor than she does trying to hock all of her late husband's old stuff. Think before ye judge.

[Kevincal]

No SANE person just gives away $1000 worth of stuff! ESPECIALLY IN THIS ECONOMY!!! Not even FAMILY MEMBERS give each other $100, let alone $1000... I would put money on the fact that she probably had no idea how much the stuff was worth. Maybe she knew what it cost new, but didn't realize most of those games held their value over the years INCREDIBLY well. And I'm sure she knew some RPG strategy guides go for $50-100 ... Get real. She got took. I would never do that to anyone unless they were filthy rich.

She probably thought the stuff was worth $50-100 at most...

[Eric Dude]

No SANE person just gives away $1000 worth of stuff! ESPECIALLY IN THIS ECONOMY!!! Not even FAMILY MEMBERS give each other $100, let alone $1000... I would put money on the fact that she probably had no idea how much the stuff was worth. Maybe she knew what it cost new, but didn't realize most of those games held their value over the years INCREDIBLY well. And I'm sure she knew some RPG strategy guides go for $50-100 ... Get real. She got took. I would never do that to anyone unless they were filthy rich.

She probably thought the stuff was worth $50-100 at most...

First of all, if you're going to use a trite argument along the lines of "NOBODY GIEVS AWAY THOUNDSAN OF DOLLARS OF VIDEOGAMES IN THIS ECONOMY!@@!", then I'm going to counter with "Nobody is paying top dollar for vintage video games in THIS economy." I certainly know I'm not on eBay looking to pay the "going price" for sought after games.

So that brings me to my next point: They're only worth that much if you have the connections and/or know-how to sell them at your collector's estimated value. There is NO SINGLE PLACE ON EARTH short of eBay where she would've gotten $1000 for that stuff. Any used game store would give her peanuts without thinking twice about it. And to a lot of people, selling things on eBay is a huge pain in the ass.

So yeah, lighten up and stop being overly judgemental. What do you do, go around to garage sales, and tell people "Oh dear me, that item is worth much more than what you've written on this little bit of tape here! Let me just fix that!".

[Kevincal]

NO, any yahoo can throw that stuff on ebay and make $1000 EASY, even in this economy.

And are you kidding? EBAY IS THE STANDARD for videogames and has been for YEARS now! EVERYBODY knows about eBay, even old people..

And I don't give a fuck if I come off as overly MORAL. IS THAT SO WRONG? TO BE FAIR? My god, no wonder our society is FUCKED... Everyone thinks like you guys, its OK to rip off old ladies, cus everyone else is ripping everyone else off.... RIGHT? And no I never go to garage sales and if I did and someone tried to sell me this stuff for a FRACTION of what I KNEW it was worth, I'd be HAPPY to tell them and infact would work out a deal with them where I sold the stuff on eBay and kept a small portion for myself and gave them what their stuff was worth!!!

Basically I fucking hate how everyone thinks its ok to rip people off these days. It's happening more and more. I EARN my money by doing WORK. There's too many damned people out there doing jack shit and making loads of money. That's why our economy is so screwed. The biggest corporations at the top have royally screwed things up and its all worked its way down...

[The 1 2 P]

All my neighbors ever gave me was dirty looks

Thats better than a restraining order

[Dark_Sol]

Amazing deal!
And yes it's just a deal. Same deal could be bought off ebay for example when some noob lists a tonn of rare games with a low BIN and someone jumps in and buys within minutes. So the moral question is all off-place here.

[Tupin]

Amazing deal.

[The Shawn]

Um yeah, Pics please.

[Sailorneorune]

Not a bad deal - you helped her do something she couldn't do on her own, and in return you got some games that no one there would play.

[smork]

Great find!

I'm not sure what's up with Mr Wet Blanket above. Nice old lady wanted to give some stuff to her kindly neighbor --it's great to see people aren't just mercenary and thinking of profit all the time.

Here's the deal -- when you've got the detritus of your loved one's life you generally aren't thinking of profit, you want to make sure someone appreciates it. My father had alot of stuff when he died - but my sister and I went through it all, decided to share it 99% of it with those who needed it by donating to local charities or someone who would appreciate the various items.

I can't imagine someone looking at their husband of decade's stuff and saying "let's see how much I can profit off this!" Rich or not rich has got nothing to do with it.

[Bojay1997]

NO, any yahoo can throw that stuff on ebay and make $1000 EASY, even in this economy.

And are you kidding? EBAY IS THE STANDARD for videogames and has been for YEARS now! EVERYBODY knows about eBay, even old people..

And I don't give a fuck if I come off as overly MORAL. IS THAT SO WRONG? TO BE FAIR? My god, no wonder our society is FUCKED... Everyone thinks like you guys, its OK to rip off old ladies, cus everyone else is ripping everyone else off.... RIGHT? And no I never go to garage sales and if I did and someone tried to sell me this stuff for a FRACTION of what I KNEW it was worth, I'd be HAPPY to tell them and infact would work out a deal with them where I sold the stuff on eBay and kept a small portion for myself and gave them what their stuff was worth!!!

Basically I fucking hate how everyone thinks its ok to rip people off these days. It's happening more and more. I EARN my money by doing WORK. There's too many damned people out there doing jack shit and making loads of money. That's why our economy is so screwed. The biggest corporations at the top have royally screwed things up and its all worked its way down...

Oh, so you see going to garage sales as an opportunity to rip people off by becoming some kind of broker for their stuff? Why not do that for free instead of expecting a reward? Give me a break. It's one thing if the original poster ran a store and somebody came in and asked what something was worth and he lied to get them for nothing, but as someone else pointed out, when you lose someone you love, it's good to know what they are passionate about is going to someone who cares. For example, my dad belongs to a wooden ship modelers guild and one of the first things that happens after a member passes away is that their widow typically brings their unstarted or unfinished models and all their tools (which sell for hundreds or in some cases thousands of dollars new) in to the meeting and they have an auction. The items sell for literally pennies on the dollar, but really that's the point. Even my dad who is hopefully many years away from passing talks about how he wants his stuff to be disposed of in the same way. Could I put his stuff on Ebay and make a lot more money that way? Sure, but I'd rather know that someone else is getting the same enjoyment out of it that he did.

Not everyone wants the hassle of using Ebay and not everyone is driven by money in life. It's sad that you judge other people as harshly as you do, but I guess that's your issue to deal with as I can't imagine what it's like for you to live such a tortured existence.

[cityside75]

NO, any yahoo can throw that stuff on ebay and make $1000 EASY, even in this economy.

And are you kidding? EBAY IS THE STANDARD for videogames and has been for YEARS now! EVERYBODY knows about eBay, even old people..

And I don't give a fuck if I come off as overly MORAL. IS THAT SO WRONG? TO BE FAIR? My god, no wonder our society is FUCKED... Everyone thinks like you guys, its OK to rip off old ladies, cus everyone else is ripping everyone else off.... RIGHT? And no I never go to garage sales and if I did and someone tried to sell me this stuff for a FRACTION of what I KNEW it was worth, I'd be HAPPY to tell them and infact would work out a deal with them where I sold the stuff on eBay and kept a small portion for myself and gave them what their stuff was worth!!!

Basically I fucking hate how everyone thinks its ok to rip people off these days. It's happening more and more. I EARN my money by doing WORK. There's too many damned people out there doing jack shit and making loads of money. That's why our economy is so screwed. The biggest corporations at the top have royally screwed things up and its all worked its way down...

The OP has said nothing about turning around and selling these games on ebay at all. In fact, I think he's made it quite clear that he's NOT planning on doing that. So in essence, he's done her some favors, and she's returned that by giving him some things that she wants to get rid of and he really values. Sounds like a pretty nice deal both ways to me.

By your logic, there can be no "finds" in the "wild" since it becomes our moral imperative to inform any seller of the true ebay value of the "find" and to offer to assist them in getting said value if we don't wish to pay it ourselves. Additionally, a store owner like Joe would also be immoral, as he buys games at below market value in order to turn around and make a <shudder> PROFIT.

Seems kind of twisted to me, but then I've made some incredible finds at garage sales as well without a guilty conscience so I may be just as bad as those evil CEO's poisoning our society.