February 2010 Finds

[ScourDX]

Where is the delete thread function?

Things I picked up today

- Bioshock X360 Limited Edition from CL for $40

Value Village
- Picked up Master System Boxed $20
- Lands of Lore III $2
- Advanced D & D: Descent to Undermountain $2
- San Francisco Rush N64 - $1
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[rpepper9]

I did not want to start a new thread, but I wanted to see what you (Digital Press Members) thought about something. Here is an example of what I find in my local Goodwill (see it kinda fits into this thread).

Saturday, I walk into Goodwill and see a clear green (atomic green?) N64 on the shelf with a black and a clear purple controller. There are no games, cables or power adaptor. I am interested as I do not have a N64. Turn it over to see the price, 19.99! Huh, kinda high, but maybe if I scrounge around I can find the AC adaptor and the AV cables. I grab both controllers and that is when I notice that they both have individual price tags on them for 9.99 each! Jaw drops, N64 goes back on the shelf. 40.00 for a N64 with two controllers and no way to hook it up to your TV or even power it on, no thanks. Keep walking....

.... I now find myself standing in front of the glass case that Goodwill uses to lock up the items that deem "to valuable" to have just sitting on the shelf (I have been to 3 Goodwill and they all seem to have this same setup). Look in side and what do I see? Another N64! Ok, lets try this again. It is the standard black N64, it has two controllers, both 1st party controllers. It also has the power supply and the TV hook ups. As a bonus it also has Mario 64, ok cool, how much? Glass shelf so I look up from the bottom to see the price.....79.99! Wowza McTrousers! Eighty bucks for a N64 and one game?

Now my question, am I over reacting? Are these the prices you are finding to be constant at your local Goodwill or thrift stores? I am not trying to play the "it was a donation, I should be able to buy it for next to nothing" card, but 80.00 for a N64, seems pretty high.

Your thoughts?

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Each Goodwill prices what they believe it to be worth. My Goodwill used to price games $2 for retro and $3 for Playstation+, but now everything's $4 base. I've seen prices range from $10 for a barebones PS1 to $60.

Those are pretty high for N64s, but it's not uncommon. You could always try to talk down the manager if they haven't moved in a while.

[Gameguy]

Your thoughts?

Seems normal to me, I rarely buy anything from thrift stores now. The thing is people are more willing to overpay at a thrift store than to just regular people. I remember the Value Village near me had an N64 in a generic EB Games box for $30 in the display case, it just had an RF switch and some woman was interested in buying it. I mentioned to her that I had an N64 that I wasn't using anymore and she could have it for $20 if she wanted, she told me "no thank you" and bought the system for $30 that was untested and came with an RF switch.

Don't even bother to try to talk them down, N64 systems aren't that hard to find and you can probably find them cheaper off craigslist or at a yard sale. Most of the managers I've talked to wouldn't budge anyway, or they still wouldn't reduce it enough. Even with stuff that they would just throw away like an empty box, they would either sell it to you or throw it out, not give it away. I came across an empty box for the King's Quest Collection, they told me they would just throw it out, but I could buy it for $3.99 if I wanted to.

And I should mention that if it's Value Village, most of the stuff they sell aren't donated. They buy stuff from actual charities and resell it for a profit. If you bought something from an actual charity for $2 and sold it on ebay for $70, you're helping charities the same way Value Village is.

[ottojello]

I was at Goodwill two weeks ago and in the case they wanted $12 for one of the gold cart Zelda games for NES, and $20 for the Hobbit game new for original Xbox, it'll be a while before I go back there.

[cityside75]

Some interesting finds this week:

Gamestop is clearing out a bunch of loose PS2 discs in many of their stores for between $0.99 and $2.99. Most are old sports games, but I did find a few keepers in the piles at two stores including:

Silent Scope - $1.99
Splashdown Rides Gone Wild - $2.99
Sega Superstars Eye Toy - $1.99
Zone of the Enders - $2.99
Timesplitters & TS Future Perfect - $1.99 and $2.99

At Half Price books I picked up:

Midnight Club 3 Remix (Complete PS2) - $2.00
NFL Blitz (PS1) - $1.00

And my most interesting find came at a local Goodwill:

Infocus DLP Projector - $24.99
This thing was stashed in its carrying case upside-down in the glass case so you couldn't see what it was unless you had an employee let you in the glass case. As soon as I spotted the Infocus logo I was intrigued, as was another guy watching over my shoulder. An employee and I took it across the store to test it, and I noticed this guy tagged along. As soon as I saw it worked, I payed for it immediately and took it out to the car despite the employee's offer to hold it behind the counter. I figured this guy might try to weasel his way into snagging it. The projector worked great for the hour or so that I played with it last night, and the status info claims the bulb has over 500 hours remaining on it. I can use this for work as a presentation projector and I'll also look into figuring out a way to slip this into my theater room on a non-permanent basis for some extra big screen games and movies!

Edit - OOps, almost forgot the Atari 2600 4-switch I picked up at another Goodwill for $2.99. It even came with the original AC adapter (a rarity for anything at my local goodwills).

[HurricaneAndrew]

I was in a Goodwill a little over a week ago that had a box of probably 30-40 loose Atari 2600 games. They were mostly commons and duplicates but there were a few good one that I could put in my collection or resell. I took the box up to the front of the store and asked if they would sell the whole box for a $25. They said that they weren't allowed to do that, and that several people had come in wanting to do that, but they had to tell them the same. So I asked what they were supposed to sell them for, and I was told $4 each. They acted kind of aggrivated because of the fact that the games had sat for so long, but couldn't take any offers on them. I cherry-picked the few I needed that were in the box and paid the asking price.

The whole ordeal makes me wonder where they get their prices or who is marking the decisions as to what price something is marked.

Edit: The post above this says that he found an Atari 2600 system for $2.99 at a Goodwill, yet I was asked to pay $4 each for Atari 2600 games... This just reinforces my point.

[Blitzwing256]

sometimes it helps if you are a regular and you are nice and polite, not arogant and obnoxious when you try to negotiate there, they get tons and tons of creepy ebay resellers in any of those stores dayly and they generally don't care to deal with them much (as they can be pretty fucking obnoxious over the difference of a dollar or two) but once they realize you actualy enjoy the games instead of just flipping them, you'llfind they'll be more open to negotiations. and if you are one of those anoying flippers well....TOO BAD! ;-)

[Famidrive-16]

Since I'm off school and I have some time at the moment I've been getting back into game searching. I was at a thrift store today which usually doesn't have any games, but lo and behold I walk in and there's a pile of Playstation and XBox games right on one of the counters.

All complete, in pretty good condition:

Cool Boarders 2001 - PS1
SSX 3 - PS2
SSX World Tour - PS2

All the rest were sports games, which I didn't really want to deal with.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I was in a Goodwill a little over a week ago that had a box of probably 30-40 loose Atari 2600 games. They were mostly commons and duplicates but there were a few good one that I could put in my collection or resell. I took the box up to the front of the store and asked if they would sell the whole box for a $25. They said that they weren't allowed to do that, and that several people had come in wanting to do that, but they had to tell them the same. So I asked what they were supposed to sell them for, and I was told $4 each. They acted kind of aggrivated because of the fact that the games had sat for so long, but couldn't take any offers on them. I cherry-picked the few I needed that were in the box and paid the asking price.

I know what I'm doing next time I find an obnoxious Goodwill employee:
Dropping off a box full of Combat cartridges.

[Ye0ldmario]

I was at Goodwill two weeks ago and in the case they wanted $12 for one of the gold cart Zelda games for NES, and $20 for the Hobbit game new for original Xbox, it'll be a while before I go back there.

That's because it's REAL gold, remember?