Never Quit Looking!

[Flack]

The daycare my son attends is closed this week. That's forced my wife and I to each take two days of vacation -- we're alternating days off. On Tuesday, I took my 2 1/2 year old son to see Shrek 2, and to one of our local arcades. Today, I didn't really have a plan, so after eating pizza and playing games for lunch, I decided to drive across town and visit my mom for the afternoon.

On the way there I noticed I was low on gas, so I pulled into a gas station. While I was filling up I noticed I was next door to a thrift store. I'd been to this thrift store several times before I just gave up on them. I'd never once seen as much as a Combat cart there. Their electronics section is always filled with old 12" PC monitors and badly yellowed desktop computers. But, since I had the day off, I decided to swing in "just in case".

Most of the thrift stores around here have all the gaming stuff locked up in glass counters near the cash registers. As I walked in I saw about 10 Sega Genesis games (boxed) and about 4 NES games (open). The Genesis titles were Sonic 2, Jurassic Park, and 8 sports titles. The NES were Mario and Boxing. I figured that was going to be it.

When I started down the electronics aisle, the first thing I saw was a SNES (the later, smaller style). $8. I didn't have one of that style so I picked it up. Underneath it was a Sega Genesis. No cables, but only $2. I threw that in the cart as well.

On the computer aisle, there was a complete Apple IIe, with dual disk drives and a monitor for $1.98. Score!

I took all my treasure up to the front, and as the cashier was ringing everything up she suddenly stopped. Then she turned around to the shelves behind her (I hadn't even noticed them) and said, "would you be interested in this?" It was a complete Sega Genesis IN THE BOX. $10!!!

All of this from a place that I didn't think was going to have anything!

This isn't just another "look what I bought" thread. It's a reminder to NEVER QUIT LOOKING! Never give up the search! This particular thrift store has been dry everytime I've gone to it, but I'm sure glad I gave it one more chance! The one I went to last week where I got 22 Atari 2600 games ($1 each) is also usually dry. On the other hand, the two places that ALWAYS have stuff had nothing this week. Keep looking, keep shopping, and never lose hope -- good deals are still out there! Just because the last 20 garage sales didn't have anything doesn't mean the next one won't!

That's one of the most exciting things to me about this hobby. You never know what the next adventure will yield!

[Jibbajaba]

I totally agree. I have never found anything of interest at my local goodwill store but I still go in there every time I make the thrift store rounds. The way I look at it is that if I have never found anything at a particular store, then it is "due" for a score soon.

[Goodwill Hunter]

Amen brother!....Persistence always pays...maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually it always pays.

Congrats on the finds!
Rich

[charitycasegreg]

so true!! just 3 days ago my friend and i were walking home and i said, look a garage sale...prolly nothing. So he bolts across teh street and gets there. Im like...pfff...so i started walking off. 2 minutes later i notcie he is still there so i run over there and right as i get there a lady brings out a box of genesis games. About 30 of them. I got phantasy star 3 and 4 for 6.50 total. And we went back and got tons of nes and snes games too which i will post tomorrow.

[charitycasegreg]

so true!! just 3 days ago my friend and i were walking home and i said, look a garage sale...prolly nothing. So he bolts across teh street and gets there. Im like...pfff...so i started walking off. 2 minutes later i notcie he is still there so i run over there and right as i get there a lady brings out a box of genesis games. About 30 of them. I got phantasy star 3 and 4 for 6.50 total. And we went back and got tons of nes and snes games too which i will post tomorrow.

[sporkster]

Exactly that's why I never stop going to this one used book store even though I've never seen anything but sports games in there. (oh ya and for all the great books, CDs, and posters )

[GaijinPunch]

I almost gave up on Akihabara altogether, until I went in a few weeks ago and found this for 6400 yen. Yeah, it's more than the retail price, but about half price from the last one that was on Yahoo Japan about a year before.

[-hellvin-]

Agreed. This exact thing happened to me today. I strolled down to a goodwill that never has anything of worth and I found a complete brand new boxed nes metroid for 3.99. Funny thing is it was sitting underneath a bunch of common nes games for 6.99.....go figure. But indeed never give up. You're always going to find something eventually. Just most of the time, you won't. =D

[EnemyZero]

aw yeah, i go to 4 major goodwill/salvation army stores at least 1 time a week to check, and usually i will find a loose genny cart here, or a loose snes controller there, but last week was my big big find, ORIGINAL BOXED Atari 2600 with 20 BOXED MINT GAMES...for the low price of 10.99 i still havnt really went through all the games, but if theres anything good you can bet your bananas i will be posting it

[whoisKeel]

i couldn't agree more...there's one goodwill i always hit up and if they have any games they are stolen out of their box/case. so i'm walking out and i notice a big plastic bin sitting on the counter with about 20 loose nes games for 1.99 each. i was short on funds that week so i picked out 6 (one was mike tyson's punch out which i still needed).

the next week, i stop at another goodwill and pick up a complete clamshell case bloodlines for 1.99. (this is the goodwill that charges 24.99 for a loose no cables genny) x_x [/u]

[Jasoco]

I'm particularly jealous of the complete IIe and the boxed Genesis. Very nice.

[zektor]

Great score! The last time I found a complete boxed Genesis was for $200 at KB Toys...the day it came out!

[GunPanther]

Nice find man.


There was this one time, last September 2003, I stopped by a local Goodwill shop on my lunch break.

That was the best lunch break ever.

I looked in their 'usually dry' electronics case and found:

A MINT, COMPLETE copy of "MACROSS: Scramble Valkyrie" for the Super Famicom.

They were charging (IMO) a bit much for something that 'might' not hold any value (like Madden SNES or Genesis carts), but to me, it was a steal since I was already willing to pay about $80 + shipping for a new one straight from Japan.

Only $21.99 for the complete cart.

To this day, this cart hangs proudly on display next to my other Robotech/Macross related items.






GunPanther

[Flack]

BTW, it's a Genesis model 2, and the box looks like it was packaged with Madden '94. It's complete except for the game. The Apple IIe fires right up but I don't have any diskettes for it anymore. The SNES workes great, played a few games on it last night.

[coleco_chris]

I hit them all about once a month, & it paid off in spades about 1 month ago. I picked up a boxed NES Top-Loader (have another loose one $35 Funco/GameStop)for $4.99!!! It even had the styrofoam, & looks like it had hardly been used. $40 for 2 top-loaders. Definitely my best find in the wild.

Got a pair of unused Nike Air low-tops for $3.00, but that's for a different forum-lol