I was recently telling another collector about the time I found a lone Atari cart : Boing! at a decrepit flea market. It was located in a dark corner of a very run down converted textile mill (yeah there were still pulleys and cogs and stuff left over), among a whole pile of old IBM monocrome monitors.
Another gamer I deal with in Florida found a Mangia' in the basement of a partially flooded junk store. I knew of a guy who found a bunch of rares in the attic of a slum dwelling being demolished.
Do you have any tales of rescuing Atari games from less than stellar surroundings?