May 2008 Finds

[InsaneDavid]

Crappy day with overpriced BS vendors at the flea market today. Just goes to show that I have plenty of bad weeks (but the HeartBeat Personal Trainer last week will make up for the rest of them this year).

Anyway, first pickup was from a vendor that sells everything for a dollar. He always has some good stuff, nothing super amazing but there are normally one or two things of interest for me. I picked up the World Poker Tour plug and play from him, I checked the battery compartment before I bought it and it's free of damage. In fact it even had the little plastic cover over the LCD display that demonstrates what the display looks like. Works great too. My mom bought one of these a couple years back and I'll have to say it's the best home offline video poker you can get, with a bankroll system and different tournaments to buy into and win so you can afford even larger takes.

Next up was a seller that I usually don't buy from, originally because of his prices but lately because he simply doesn't have anything. There was a rainbow Atari 2600 Jr. and eight games, two of which I wanted. He agreed to five dollars for the pair, which are Jr. Pac-Man and Solaris - both some of the top games on the platform in my opinion, and titles I wanted.

Moving on - guy with a bunch of junk, always has a couple NES games in a small box. They're usually always the same games however but this time I spotted a copy of Arkanoid. Now I've been looking for a copy of Arkanoid for a long time - ever since I picked up a Vaus controller to play around with. Of course after I got the controller I couldn't find the game. So I get the game out and look at the guy running the lot, he's sitting on his tailgate behind his sunglasses. I ask how much - no reply, he just kinda rocks back and forth. Once again, I ask how much - no reply. I wave the game in front of him, again, asking how much - no reply. At that moment I considered taking the box of overpriced games and walking off with them, damn would it have made up for all the BS I've taken from him over the years. But no, I don't do that, because I'm supposedly a nice guy. So I yell "HEY, HOW MUCH FOR THE GAMES?!" He kinda stumbles up, almost falls over forward off the tailgate and says "five each, two for nine." ...told you I should have just taken the box. Anyway, I give him a ten and he counts back a five dollar bill to me but keeps looking through his cash, and then hands me another five. At this point I'm thinking to myself "honestly dude, screw you, get plastered yesterday on your fake holiday and I'm supposed to wipe your ass for you??" but no, I stand there and wait for him to realize what's up and I give him one of the fives back. It won't happen again.

World Poker Tour Plug and Play ($1.00)
NES - Arkanoid ($5.00)
VCS - Jr. Pac-Man ($2.50)
VCS - Solaris ($2.50)



Not much until I get to another lot that I've only ever purchased one thing from that I can remember, a Saturn Stunner Arcade Gun. When I bought that the dude's wife was at the space and she endlessly said that I had to wait for him, that she didn't know the prices, that he would be back after looking around, and so on... Eventually I got her to buckle and just make a price of $4.00 (which I was trying to do all along since I knew he'd want to sell it with the system he had - which had no games that supported the gun anyway). So this time, yet again, I notice a Game Boy Camera and Game Boy Printer. I ask how much and guess what... "my husband.. he walk around, use restroom.. I don't know price" Holy hell. I suppose you want me to go find him then, and how about I wipe your mouth when you're done with your bottle too? Geez, he's never there. How freaking hard is it to ask what prices generally are before he leaves, really? And there are always a bunch of people there that want to buy stuff - but no, wait wait wait - until we all leave. I really don't understand people that are selling stuff that don't want to take money. Ah, but this time she has some crappy two way FRS radio she's trying to get him on - all panicked because someone wants to buy something. So he comes back (stepping right past me) and I finally get to asking him. He wants eight freaking bucks, or $50.00 for the box which had a GBC and some busted up PS2 controllers in it. I suppose I wanted to feel like I waited there for something important this time - so I paid him the $8.00 - dunno what came over me honestly.

GB - Game Boy Camera
GB - Game Boy Printer

Of course the printer barely shows when printing, oh and the panel that has the paper tearoff on it, well it's tabs are snapped so the paper cover holds it on.



Final stop, Shorty. I didn't see much at all but he had a huge box of loose Atari games. I went through them, picking out titles of interes at $1.00 each. It was mainly 2600 games but there were a couple 7800 titles and a few 5200 games in there as well. In a first for me one of the 5200 cartridges had an abandoned wasp nest on it - if you can believe that, gave me a startle when I pulled it out. I ended up picking out 15 games.

VCS - Amidar ($1.00)
VCS - Barnstorming ($1.00)
VCS - Decathlon ($1.00)
VCS - Sky Jinks ($1.00)
VCS - Trick Shot ($1.00)
VCS - Turmoil ($1.00)
VCS - Tutankham ($1.00)
VCS - Warplock ($1.00)
VCS - Worm War I ($1.00)
VCS - Worm War I (different title graphic style label) ($1.00)
5200 - Dig Dug ($1.00)
5200 - Joust ($1.00)
5200 - Kangaroo ($1.00)
5200 - Ms. Pac-Man ($1.00)
5200 - Q*bert ($1.00)



Other bullshit of the day, a guy that has a zillion of those Power Joy systems in the box has a bunch of consoles as well. My brother is looking for a cheap SNES, he has one "$60.00, complete system" - yeah, sure... Then he has a bunch of NES games that he hasn't had out there before, just a big box with a random assortment. Cool, so I ask how much for the games and he asks me for which ones. Great... this will be fun. So I pick out a copy of Mario Bros. with heavy label damage and a copy of Conquest of the Crystal Palace. He wants $10.00 for Mario Bros. and $5.00 for Conquest of the Crystal Palace - no thanks, he MAY have gotten $10.00 for the pair from me, but he doesn't haggle.

I did, however, find a bare SNES for my brother, they wanted $10.00 and I got them down to $5.00. I have an extra power adapter (I paid $1.00 for it awhile back, I'll sell it to him for that) and controllers so that's no big deal. It has a hole broken out of the plastic on the back but it seems fine internally. I still need to clean it up for him tomorrow. Would do it today but after I post this it's off to work.

So I guess it turned out alright today but man did I have to go through a lot of shit to turn up with a handful of VCS games.