Thrift Stores? How do you do it?

[downfall]

How do you guys find such good things at thrift stores? Do you just go every day or what? I have approximately 12 thrift stores (Salvation Army and Goodwill) within an hour of my house, and I go to all of them at least once each week, and go out all day on monday looking, but there's rarely a single thing there.

I've been looking at these shops for about a year, and I've only found the following:

Donkey Kong Country - $2
Sonic 2 (complete) - $2
An old Commodore Monitor - $3
Game.com with two games - $3

Nothing else. The only other things I've even seen are 4 Saturn games (which are apparently just not going to sell until I buy them, as they've been there ever since I've started going), a ton of Genesis Sports titles that are way overpriced, and one NES system with Amagon and Kung-Fu Heroes, which were also way overpriced.

So how do you do it?

[Darth Sensei]

I've given up on them. There are a few DP'ers in my area who scour them so often that I never find anything. Oh well.

D

[IntvGene]

I hit the good ones maybe twice a week. Some of them just don't get anything in, but I still go to them, hoping for something good.

It seems like the thrifts are even drying up on good stuff. I think that there are a lot of inside jobs, or people getting a shot at the stuff before it hits the floor.

[The Collector]

I go every day M-F (now and then a sat), but usually not on the weekends because there are so many people you find very little. Its on my way home from work so a quick 10-15 min scan of the place is all i need. I would say almost 50% of my collection came from there .

[NintendoMan]

Same here. I NEVER find a damn thing at the GW's by me. Every time I go in I find things in bad condition that are way over priced. I gave up pawn shops too. I just stick to flea markets, and some garage sales. x_x

[Chunky]

I tell ya it's fricken hit or miss. I scored tons and tons of tg-16 games one day and nothing ever again from one place. Same with others and 2600s and that. One day and entire collection of games and system for 12 bucks. the next week 2 more. and that was 2 months ago, nothing since.

i still want to put signs on their storefront saying "We TAKE your old VIDEO GAMES" this summers project.

[ubersaurus]

Too many dpers in my area to ever find anything good. I think in the past 2 years, I've found a couple intellivision, a couple nes, a channel f game, and a couple playstation games.

I've done better with the yard sales, and those are pretty bad too.

[den68]

I go everyday. I've got a few routes home from work so I can hit a couple each day. As Chunky said it's hit or miss. A particular thrift may be dry for months then you walk in to find a stack of 30 or 40 carts.

That's the nature of a thrift store, there's no telling what will be in there. If you want to find anything you've got to often. Even if most stops yield nothing it's always worth a look.

I guess it would be frustrating if you're only looking for games. I pick up lots of other things at thrifts. Beta movies, Laserdiscs, Viewmaster reels, Kids videos for my daughter. So most times I find SOMETHING even if it's not a video game.

[Ze_ro]

It's all complete luck. I go to some thrift stores 2 or 3 times a week, and I usually find nothing at all... but every couple of weeks I find something that's worthwhile and keeps me coming back.

Lately all I've been finding is the odd stack of Gamepro's and EGM's... but I'm going back today, so hopefully I'll at least find a cartridge or two.

[Edit: They had two Genesis' (one in a badly beaten box), the usual pile of Genesis sports games, and a handfull of decent SNES games that were unfortunately priced at $15 each. Needless to say, I bought nothing]

--Zero

[§ Gideon §]

Lately all I've been finding is the odd stack of Gamepro's and EGM's...

Hmm... I don't think I'd go for the mags; they could've been read on the crapper. That's bad karma.

[ubersaurus]

I go everyday. I've got a few routes home from work so I can hit a couple each day. As Chunky said it's hit or miss. A particular thrift may be dry for months then you walk in to find a stack of 30 or 40 carts.

That's the nature of a thrift store, there's no telling what will be in there. If you want to find anything you've got to often. Even if most stops yield nothing it's always worth a look.

I guess it would be frustrating if you're only looking for games. I pick up lots of other things at thrifts. Beta movies, Laserdiscs, Viewmaster reels, Kids videos for my daughter. So most times I find SOMETHING even if it's not a video game.

See, this is why I ever find anything

[Kejoriv]

I would say i find something 50% of the time. Whether it be a game or a system. Usually a game. I try to go twice a week.

[Doonzmore]

Unfortunatly for me there are no thrift stores around here and i rarely go into town so i mostly rely on my local video store or scour ebay or simply bug the hell out of my friends to sell there games.Garage sales are good to but there only during the summer and most of the time the sellers are old people who have lots of crap but i have found lots of Genesis and Nes games for around 50 cents each (complete).

[sisko]

See, this is why I ever find anything

Funny. I figured I could never find anything because you always got them first.

I've been thrifting for 6 months and I only scored big at a thrift once (at least anything worth buying at a cheap price).

It's rather discouraging. :/

[Pantechnicon]

I go thrifting 2-3 times a week to that same amount of shops, all conveniently located along one large thoroughfare here in Albuquerque. It's not all that time-consuming because I've got a fairly good idea of what I'm looking for and where the stores will keep it, assuming it's there. Average visit to each shop lasts five minutes or less unless there's a find.

As many in this thread have already stressed, thrift stores are purely hit or miss. Today, for example, I missed bagging one of those spiffy gaming monitors with the folding speakers by a matter of less than a minute (the other guy wasn't carrying a 3-year-old, as was I). But last summer, I found a Playstation2 at Goodwill for ten bucks and the luck of being in the right place at the right time.

Come to think of it, I've now been going to that same Goodwill at least once a week for the last nine years . So I can say with all certainty that tenacity at the thrifts will always be rewarded in the long run.

[kainemaxwell]

I occasionaly go to my local Salvation Army shop and they sometime shave 2-5 random NES, genesis or SNES carts. Occasionally complete ones.

[PackratMarty]

I go 5-6 days a week, and since I am currently not working, I am going 2x a day to at least 2 stores.Its very competitive here, but I also buy alot more then games.I prefer garage sales, but my best scores have been at thrift stores.

[Pantechnicon]

A couple more thoughts on the subject:

Two other keys to good luck at the thrifts, in my experience, are timing knowing which thrifts to hit (location).

Timing - The quality of selection at the thrifts has a lot to do with what time of year it is. Garage sale season (April-September in my part of the country) always means better pickins'. whereas winters tend to be dry and scarce. Very easy to get demotivated about thrifting in the winter.

The best days I find to visit the thrifts are Tuesdays and Wednesdays using the following rationale: Garage sales tend to conclude on Sunday afternoon. What is not sold is dropped off that day or Monday morning at the latest. Allow one full day for the store to process the donations and put them out on the floor, and there you go; thrift in the early-to-middle of the week, never on weekends.

Location - The best finds are going to be at the thrift stores either in, or on the periphery of, the middle-to-upper class established neighborhoods. By "established" I mean neighborhoods that have been around for twenty-or-so years, not to be confused with new (less than ten years) subdivisions full of houses that all look the same. The people in the established neighborhoods are the ones with the disposable income to indulge in the trendy tech toys (consoles), as well as attics or basements which need the occasional purge. Donating to the thrifts also gives them a false, but harmless, sense of altruism. Poor neighborhoods, on the other hand, have thrift stores utterly devoid of electronic goodness. All they've got is clothes, yard tools and half-spent prayer candles. Stick to the upper-crust (keyword being "crust") thrift stores.

Did I manage to equally insult the rich and poor alike here? Good...Just want to be fair about this.

[Cmosfm]

As said above...timing and knowing where to go. When you first start to go, go a lot and hit them all. You eventually learn which ones are worth hitting rapidly and which ones you should hit once every 2 weeks at most.

I usually find good stuff at mine, I always find SOMETHING....you also need to know where to look at in the store. For instance, you may check out the electronics section all the time...but lots of them keep every game related item in the front case due to people stealing them.

It's all about knowing when to go, where to go, and where to look at inside the store. Good luck, keep hitting them!

[eze]

I make sure and hit up at least 2-3 thrifts a day, 6 days a week. I've got all of Los Angeles mapped out based on thrift store location.

I've had incredible luck over the past 4 years (wouldnt believe some of the stuff ive found) but mainly because im in the center of everything, aka hollywood. Within a 30 minute radius there are 4 chains (goodwill, salvation, out of the closet, and council) consisting of about 20 individual stores total.

Not much competition around here when it comes to video games but records are a different story. A couple of the stores around here get new records almost daily so theres plenty of vultering going on. I almost got into a fight once cause some kid tried talking some "get outta here this is my dig spot" lol.