This year, my friend and I had been going to the flea markets in our area's to see what we can and can't find when it comes to classic gaming. Now, we're both moderate collectors - get things to have that we can enjoy, or just some random oddities that we can show off to our friends and whatnot.

We've been pretty successful at the flea markets and some 2nd hand shops (thrift stores, pawn shops, etc).

Here are some of things I've gotten this year at these places:

Final Fantasy 2 and 3 (SNES) - $20 for both. Talked the woman down on price because they were carts only without any boxes or manuals. She was asking $30 a piece for them.

Secret of Mana (SNES) - $5
Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past (SNES) - $5
Some Speedy Gonzalas game for $1 (SNES)

Shining Force (SEGA) - $5 - talked the woman down from $20

N64 w/ 2 controllers, controller pack, expansion memory pack, and all the hookups - $20

Another find I had was when I went out on a mission to find Mario Kart for the SNES. I went to the flea market expecting to pay upwards of $20 or so for the cart itself, and to my surprise, I found it. I asked the kiosk fella how much for the one game, and he tells me that he's selling the whole lot for $40. I told him all I had on me was a $20 (gotta love how flea market vendors will believe just about anything). He tells me he'll let it go for $25, so my friend slips me a $5 bill and I get my game. I look in the box to really see what I had just bought - it was a SNES unit with 4 controllers, the hookups, misc boxes and manuals for games I don't have and that he didn't have either (one of them being Bible Adventures for the NES), Mario Kart, DK Country 1 and 2, Mario All Stars, Yoshi's Island, a few sports games, Skies of Arcadia for the Dreamcast, and a few others. Great find on my part. The SNES, unfortunately, only displays the games in black and white. I'm not sure if the A/V port for the alternative video and sound works, but the regular connection to the TV only plays in B/W.

Craigslist today I found a Saturn with 11 games, 2 controllers and 2 light guns for $50. I was a bit sketchy about this because the Saturn has some rattling going on in the insides of it, but fortunately, everything works 100% (though I can't test out the light guns on the TV I used as it's a HD television and I'm pretty sure it needs to be used on a CRT - I'll test that out later though). Also on Craigslist I found today was someone selling some N64 games for $5 a piece. I figured I'd get the games that I know I like and that are somewhat hard to find at that price, so for $20 I was expecting just the loose carts of Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, Golden Eye 64 and Zelda Majora's Mask. To my surprise, I got all of them in the boxes (except Mario 64), so I was quite content with that. The boxes are beat pretty badly, but it's still a nice addition to my collection. The games are in perfect condition.

Things I hate at the flea markets (this is the worsts part of the title) - vendors who put individual price tags on games, or ask eBay's higher end prices on games - even loose carts. I have noticed an abundance of sports games flooding the flea markets as of late as well...

I saw at a flea market an original pong set up for $130, not in box, and unsure of working condition. My friend offered the guy $30, and he whipped out the ebay prices. Why do people thing they can rape flea marketers on their prices? And why are NES's going for $75 to $150, not in boxes?

Anyways, what good finds have you found this year at flea markets/thrift shops/etc?