2018 Yearly Finds

[Niku-Sama]

I haven't found squat in months.

the real reason I am sharing that is because when ever I do I come across something shortly after...

[Steve W]

I haven't found squat in months.

the real reason I am sharing that is because when ever I do I come across something shortly after...

It's like washing your car and it almost inevitably rains the next day, breaking a dry spell. I totally get it. Good luck!

I went to three different flea markets this weekend - one was such a bust that I was the second car in the entire parking lot - I did find some things. One was this group of Super Famicom carts, from a seller that always has baskets of them for $4.99 each. The second pic is a bunch of Tomy toys from the days before all these newfangled vidya games got so popular with the kids. $13 for the three of them. The two wind-up ones work, I haven't tried out the battery operated one yet.

[jb143]

It seems having my wife go out to yard sales by herself works best for me, since I rarely find anything. This week she came back with a couple GameCube games and one of those giant cloth Legend of Zelda posters.

[Slate]

Steve W, how often do we find imports in the wild? I can think of two instances for me, once being in this thread with the NGPC games; the other time is when I found a Virtual Boy, the stand, controller (with hard buttons from someone spilling soda into it; probably the reason why it was donated but it was easily fixed) and one baseball import for $3 at a Goodwill back in 2005 or 2006. Then again, I'm in rural Pennsylvania over 50 miles from Pittsburgh.

I haven't found anything game related lately, it's all just a bunch of PS2 or PS3 generation games in the stores so I'm keeping my eye open for various games from those generations. My Atari generation coaxial cable adapter arrived from eBay, however, and Father's finding non-gaming items to resell.



I'm surprised I never bought one of these 12 years ago.

- Austin

[Steve W]

Honestly, back in the late "aughts" I used to find imports all the freakin' time in the wild. Seriously, I've come across a couple Japanese Mega CD games (no discs in the case and the flea market vendor didn't speak English so I couldn't get any info where the discs went to), a Japanese Dreamcast (only realized that later because there was a blank cover instead of a modem), many European games for all sorts of consoles, and those are just the ones I've passed on. Nowadays I rarely ever go looking in the wild since there's no point but in the recent past I have bought a bunch of imports just because I know it's something I can't find normally (and especially if it's cheap). The Super Famicom games I bought down in Lafayette, Louisiana at a flea market but I generally find imports around Dallas. I'm always amazed when I come across any of these things. How did a boxed mouse for the Japanese NEC PC-88 line of computers end up in a flea market in Texas? It's only $4? I'll take it, just in case I come across a use for it. These things just seem to flow into this area, and I have no idea why. Do I need a PS1 that's UK only and has a SCART output? No, but it's pretty cool to own it and the games that were donated with it. Especially if they're being sold cheap. I did have to visit all four locations of this local thrift store chain just to find all the games and pieces of the system.

A lot of stores around Dallas have imports, too. Most of the retro game stores have at least a few of them. When the PSP and Nintendo DS hit the market, a chain called Fry's Electronics fluffed out their shelves with Japanese imports for them. That was cool. It's shocklingly easy to come across imports in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

[Slate]

Huh. I suppose you have many more people interested in imports in your part of Texas than I do here. The second time I found imports, I only got them off a fellow from Arkansas who was moving out of his apartment.

Today, I just found:

1 Slim PS2 (no controllers, memory cards or wires; )
1 Wired 360 Controller (Translucent, missing second part of cable; )
1 Wireless 360 controller (Black, missing battery pack.)

Paid $7 from a small thrift store.

- Austin

[Slate]

Nothing spectacular; everything here's loose.

Atari 2600:

Keystone Kapers - $1

Colecovision:

Mouse Trap - $1
Venture - $1

NES:

Super Glove Ball - $3

Plus tax. I bought these from The Exchange in Monroeville. Not really good enough to be considered a "find," IMHO; they're low priced commons. At least I have something that can use the power glove now, however.

As a footnote, this is the first day I've seen CDI Games in person; I also saw a 3DO game, a Turbpografx-16, Lynx games and four different NES Power Sets all within 2 miles of each other. Nothing, however, was "in the wild."

Edit / Update: I'm heading to a flea market tomorrow, the 25th. Maybe I'll find something at least lower than eBay pricing.

- Austin

[Gameguy]

I saw the discussion of Goodwills and Salvation Army stores in the last page. I can't speak for what it's like lately outside my little part of Pennsylvania, we all know 2003-2006 or so was a golden time in yard sales (and I had a good finds in both stores then) but I'll keep the subject in mind for future replies.

- Austin

I could go on a bit more for the Salvation Army when it first opened in the new location. Before it opened it needed to be full of merchandise for sale on opening day, but because it wasn't open yet it couldn't accept donations. To fill the store they got the merchandise from another location further north, specifically it was extra donations that were stored in that location's basement for many years. As everything was donated many years earlier, it was better stuff. The first few days after it opened were really good, I found a really good game on opening day which I'm quite happy with.

Steve W, how often do we find imports in the wild?

I used to come across import stuff pretty regularly years back, there's a large Asian population around my area(being near Toronto) and being a heavily populated region in general also helped quite a bit. Platforms include Famicom, Super Famicom, Mega Drive, Master System, Gameboy, Game Gear, PC Engine, Playstation, Dreamcast, etc. Even UK releases, not just Asian imports. I found plenty years back, including Virtual Boy as Japanese games were sold locally in Electronics Boutique back when the system was being cleared out. It's mostly died off though as finding anything game related is becoming difficult, but it still occasionally happens.


I also managed to find some games recently so I thought I'd take pictures. First from the local Salvation Army on the 23rd, they're complete and were priced $3.99 each but I was able to use a $10 off coupon so it cost $13.94 total. I don't find games worth buying here too often so it was a nice surprise.




And here's some stuff I found earlier from Value Village on the 21st. It's really rare to find any game stuff this old there, I'm especially happy with the hint book and that puzzle. I don't know if I have the hint book already or not, I know I have the game boxed with instructions but can't remember about the guide. For those who can't tell from the picture what that puzzle is, it's the Nintendo Challenge Dice originally from 1969. Really surprised to find it, but sadly the case is cracked and two of the pins are missing the coloured discs so it's not perfect. Interestingly, the instructions with it are in English and call it the Challenge Dice, this was mostly known as the Chaotic Cube outside Japan so it appears to be a rarer release(or at least the instructions are). I really wish the original box was included as it could be different from what's currently known to exist.

More info;
http://blog.beforemario.com/2011/08/...dice-1969.html
http://blog.beforemario.com/2012/01/...e-western.html

[Steve W]

Wow, that Challenge Dice puzzle is a seriously cool find. I'd never even heard of such a thing, but now I'm pretty impressed that you found one and that the only things wrong with it are that two color stickers fell off and the plastic case got brittle and cracked during its nearly 50 years of existence. People generally don't treat things like that very well, let alone hang on to them for half a century instead of just chucking them in the trash. I'm totally jealous right now. Are there modern reproductions of those things? I really want to play with one now.

[Slate]

Is anyone on here in the Columbus, Ohio area? I saw this on Craigslist; a very yellow SNES, a Genesis and PS2 all in unknown working order + a bunch of PS2 games for $30 but I'm not gonna go 250 miles just to pick it up:

https://columbus.craigslist.org/vgm/...681909902.html

There's also a Genesis 2 and Sega CD 2 with no wires or controllers for $40 in the same area; that's an easy way to disguise non working systems, however:

https://columbus.craigslist.org/vgm/...671205573.html

Whensoever I look on CL in my area lately (though I expect it to change) I see mostly nothing but the same old stuff at eBay pricing (and, occasionally, ridiculously higher) that just sits, sits, sits, sits, sits, sits and sits. If I just buy a SNES or some lot like the $30 lot I'll be pleased with it.

Oh and my finds lately? Not much although I am grateful that I got anything:

Atari 2600 Light 6er (Paper inside says "August 1980")
2 Joysticks
Paddle Controllers
Asteroids
Pac-Man

The system needed me to spray contact cleaner through the reset switch. It's OK now.

$20

Game Boy: Bass Fishing
SMS: Hang On/Safari Hunt

$2.12

I just wanted something to test systems with in event I find anything. I picked up these last two at The Exchange on 2973 W Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh where I (unusually) saw a few more common Jaguar CD games for the first time. There was also a $10 CDI title.

- Austin

[Gameguy]

Wow, that Challenge Dice puzzle is a seriously cool find. I'd never even heard of such a thing, but now I'm pretty impressed that you found one and that the only things wrong with it are that two color stickers fell off and the plastic case got brittle and cracked during its nearly 50 years of existence. People generally don't treat things like that very well, let alone hang on to them for half a century instead of just chucking them in the trash. I'm totally jealous right now. Are there modern reproductions of those things? I really want to play with one now.

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with finding it too. I'm not sure if there's a modern release of the puzzle, I do believe Nintendo re-released their Ten Billion Barrel puzzle somewhat recently as a Club Nintendo item. I'd just like to point out that the coloured pieces aren't stickers, they seem to be metal discs glued to the pins. Honestly I think it was dropped at some point which cracked the case and knocked the discs loose from the glue that held them. It might have just happened in the thrift store but I couldn't find the pieces anywhere and I did search for them as best I could.


Also I decided to check out the Salvation Army again earlier today just to see if anything new turned up, no worthwhile games but I did end up getting some DVDs. The Rurouni Kenshin Premium Box sets 1-3 being the most notable. I remember watching the OVAs and a few episodes years ago so I felt picking up the sets were worthwhile. I should mention, the packaging for these sets are incredibly cheap and the discs are in stiff sleeves which tend to scratch the discs, I just wish it was better quality. Everything pictured cost me $30.95 total after using a couple coupons. I also remember watching that Myths and Logic documentary ages ago and liking it, so now I have a legit DVD of it.