Rob's Weekend Find -7/20
So this friend tells me 2 weeks ago about this store in the most hidden corner of a tiny New Hampshire town where I live. He said, "It's weird, you go down this dirt road behind a church and you'll see this beat up old house and a big metal builiding. He sells really old can's of paint and a lot of really random crap. He has shades of paint you can't find anywhere. You'd never know it was a store unless you KNEW it was a store..I mean, you'd have to just know before hand....there's no sign and it's never open. But, if you walk up to the house and ask, he'll open the store for you."
"Yeah, so?" I said
"Well I remember years ago he had these old Emerson videogame systems he was selling for like, $40."
"What, Emerson Arcadia?" I asked
"Yeah, that's it. I always tried to talk him down to like, $5 a piece for them, but he'd never budge. I was like 'Come on, Roy, just sell them. You've had 'em for 20 years.' He always told me that 'someone will buy them eventually.' I said, 'Yeah, but Roy, you're like 70 years old! And put up a sign or something. Your location is horrible. How do sell anything?' He said, 'I like to keep a low profile.'"
Well, folks, I half didn't believe my friend because half of what he says is bullshit. Today I found this hole in the wall he was talking about..It really was in th emiddle of fucking nowhere. I asked the owner, "Um....I'm looking for a store around here." He said, "You found it" and point to this shithole of a metal building. Surprised, I said, "A friend of mine said you might have some old videogame systems hanging around in your store." He was kind of ignoring me, watching a race on TV." He kind of seemed like he didn't care that I wanted to buy something from him. He said, "Oh, I don't know.....I'm not sure, I don't remember........<long pause>...........oh, old kids games, right?" I said, "Uh, yeah. I, uh, wouldn't mind buying them from you if you have em hanging around." He said, "Well, I'm kinda busy watching this race."
Then there was one of those uncomfortable silences. I mean, what the fuck do you say to that? Then a commercial came on. "Oh, a commercial!" he said.
So we wander into this store that I'm pretty sure was lit purely by one bulb (and it was a big place) and any ambient sunlight...jeez, I don't think there were any windows besides the door we came in. The place was in ruins. Boxes were piled everyewhere, Shit was strewn all about. Just masses of junk and stuff to sell was everywhere. Very random. Oh, and paint too. There was indeed paint.
So he leads me down some twisty aisles and there on the shelf were three brand new, never used Emerson Arcadia 2001 units. Still in their boxes. The boxes were all scuffed but in pretty darn good condition. One was actually torn on one corner with about 2 inches of a flap missing, but no biggie. All was intact. He had no games.
" So, uh, how much did you want for these?"
He answered, " Oh, jeez, I don't know, 10 bucks a piece?"
I said, "Yeah, Ok. That would be good....I could always use the spare parts."
I handed him $30. He was surprised...he though I gave him too much. He said, "Oh, you want all 3!"
Well anyway, that was my killer find for this weekend.
Hey, how much are these babies worth anyway? I'm quite positive I've never seen any brand new ones before, ever. Would be glad for some help on this. Thanks for reading!
-Rob
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