RF Generation Message Board

After a Facebook and Ebay finds forum page. It is time for a thrift store finds forum page.
Thrift store finds are a lot cooler anyways.
You can find games for € 1,- or cheaper. That way you also buy AND play games you would never buy at a gameshop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPkw7FdcNDQ

Whats are your thoughts and best finds at the thrift store ?

For thrift stores I either:
A) Find sports games for $5+
B) Find worthwhile games for $10+
C) Find nothing, as the store sells the games in an online storefront instead

Thrifts stores have nothing in my area of the state. Nothing. Seems like Europe, from anecdotal evidence, hasn't run into this problem yet of all thrift stores selling video games online for higher profit margins.

I once saw a boxed Wii in a charity shop here. When we asked about it, they said they won't sell it because they're going to put it on eBay.
Some other charity shops do the same thing.

Yeah, but that's $30. I'm talking about $3 games. The only things that slip through are sports games that won't sell, and children's PC games.

In the UK you at lucky to find any games in a charity shop. Theres sometimes some common ps2 games available.

But it's not just cus the charity shops are selling the stuff on eBay. There is also less games to go around anyway than from what I've seen is the case in the states

Thrift store finds have been pretty dry for me too over the last few years. My last good find was a couple years ago in Earthbound, but since then I have noticed every game being priced at $6.99 across the board, with most of them being worthless titles; and if I do get lucky to find something mixed in with the $1.99 CDs instead of being put with the other games in the case, it is almost always a sports title or a game worth less than $10 anyway.

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I don't do thrift stores. If I had, had to compete with the guys locally, I would be driven to homicide.

Sounds like we're competitors, as I live in the Jersey Shore area, too.  In my experience, flea markets are where it's at around here.  Thrift stores can provide great scores, but typically only once.  After that, repeated visits yield diminishing returns.  Thus, there's a few thrift stores I hit when convenient, but I don't go out of my way.  It's just not worth the time.

LOL , Please explain  :-)

North new jersey is a bloodbath of resellers . Young kids trying for the retail store prices and more.  But I tap the central and south nj scene when I'm home.   I don't hunt much of what people are after since I got all the nes snes n64 items I'm really after and I don't usually buy to flip .  A 5.00 smash on n64 sure I'll buy but a 35 or 40 priced one I probably would leave.  So I guess more people in y area on the boards to watch for.  Hmm maybe I smell a new youtube video on my channel if anyone here wants to hunt.. just sayin

thrift stores in my area used to be pretty decent but now we have 4 or 5 game stores in town for the past 3 or 4 years, and they tend to grab everything at the thrift stores, i almost never find anything worth grabbing. i'm heading out of town later this week for a day trip and plan on hitting up some thrift stores over there, hopefully i get lucky.

Thrift stores are horrible here.  Goodwill, when they have anything, is usually all sports titles or so insanely priced it's not worth going in them any more.  Except for last week.  When I posted I got Windwaker for $2.  That happens so infrequent, though.  Maybe once every 6-9 months.  I have this big debate in my head that goes on, is it better none with the thrift stores so barren and high priced because of the internet, or was it better before the internet got popular and everyone donated there items to thrifts and everything was under $5.  On the one hand much cheaper and more to find in the wild, on the other everything expensive but you have the internet to locate non-local items and you makes some buddies on the forums.  I am torn.

i don't think it's even the internet's fault, because ebay was around for quite a few years before prices started skyrocketing. i think there's just been a general spike in interest surrounding all things "retro" and nostalgic over the past 5 or 10 years. top that off with video games becoming more accepted as a mainstream form of entertainment.

Don't forget the kids who don't work or have job but capita zing on the market by buying everything up they can.  I want game crash to happen so they all get burned

If the internet wasn't around things wouldn't be priced so high and people wouldn't think their games are so valuable and thus being so overpriced.  Every game would most likely be under $5.  Think about Goodwill prices before the internet, $2 or $3.  After the internet, I've seen some as high as $50, if you see anything at all.  Most of them are taken out of the store and auctioned off.

I am a shift worker, with a pattern for how my work days and days off line up. Most of the "super thrifters" around here, will get up at 6AM and try and beat everyone else, on weekend garage sales. When and if, I do go to garage sales, I am usually looking for every kind of collectible EXCEPT for games.

I've been having a bit of luck with thrifting to find decent cassette players, I found a sony walkman that supports type IV tapes and a cool Texas instruments program recorder. My biggest find (literally) is when I found a wollensak 3m 4775 cassette deck for only 30 bucks, not a bad price. This is it pre clean up, it sounds great but the record head either needs realigned or just more cleaning.

There are about half a dozen charity shops within a short walking distance of my home and week after week they yield nothing of interest. But today, in one of them, I picked up five PS2 games, all CIB, and a boxed as new PS2 light gun.

All for just under £10 (about 14 USD).

Don't know what I'll do with the gun - I don't have a CRT TV!

Just curious, are CRTs plentiful in charity shops over there?  They have pretty much all but disappeared in my area. Nice finds on the PS2 stuff. Don't give up, good stuff will eventually show up for you. :)

No, they are quite rare. Many charity shops, especially the smaller ones, don't sell any goods powered by mains electricity at all - I believe this is because they don't have the means to test them for electrical safety first.

BTW, the PS2 games I picked up were Robot Wars (based on the BBC show), Star Wars Racer Revenge, Kessen II, Gladiator Sword of Vengeance and Dynasty Warriors 4. Not particularly rare games, but better than nothing.

I just found a Nuon game (Ballistic) at a thrift shop. No Nuon, though.

CRTS are slowly filtering out of my local shops, as well, but recycling centers and Facebook/Craigslist are still full of them.