I have had a few small scores at the goodwill before. There was the time I picked up a super NES and an NES for 7 bucks each. There was the time I found two boxed Zinger joysticks and a few boxed colecovision games. There were other times when it may have been just a few NES games or a few Sega Genesis games, even a few boxed intellivision games, but nothing in my history of treasure hunting could compare to what I came across last week:
I had just been to the Augusta ME goodwill the week before and I found a box and instructions to Nintendo's Tetris on the shelf. There was no game in it and when I took it up front to ask how much they wanted for the box and instructions the lady told me I could have it for free. That was cool and I came back later in the week and there was nothing new. So when my girlfriend suggested we go look and see if we could find any games at the thrift storeds I was not expecting much. We first went to the Salvation army store. It was my first time there and they had absolutely nothing! So we went from there over to goodwill.
At the goodwill I first looked in the cases because once in a while they will put something good in there. I still regret not picking up the sega game gear system I once saw in one of the cases (which of course was gone the next time). Seeing nothing in those cases this visit, I headed to the shelf where I was most likely to find video games. They are usually mixed in on the same shelf as the VHS tapes. Nothing particularly caught my eye right off just the usual sea of really bad children's tapes and Richard Simmons like excercise tapes. For some reason I felt the need to take a quick look around the room and then I saw them.
On a stand there was a wicker basket with some familiar looking clear plastic cases. Yes! I hollered to my girlfriend and she spun around and we were just drawn to the stand. But wait there was another stand and another basket brimming with 8-bit gold! Yes, this was to be a glorious day on the hunt! By now you are saying on with it Tommy what did you find in dem' there baskets of goodness?
All of these titles were marked 99 cents:
Here are some games I already had but they had instructions so I could hardle pass on them for a buck a piece:
Dr. Mario w instructions
Championship Bowling w instructions
Super Mario Bros 2 w instructions
Ballon Fight w instructions
Jordan vs. Bird w instructions
Yoshi w. instructions
I'm sure none of these are blowing your collective skirts up yet but I'm far from done...
how about Mario is Missing w instructions and map
Kirby's Adventure cartridge only
Mega Man 6 cartridge only
O.K. not too bad right? Well I have not listed the games that I did not already have yet!
StarTropics cartridge only
Rollerball cartridge only
T&C Surf Designs cartridge only
Vice Project Doom cartridge only
M.C. Kids cartridge only
Battletoads cartridge only
And it only keeps getting better from here on out:
Break Time The National Pool Tour w instructions
The Simpsons Bartman meets Radioactive Man w instructions
Little Nemo Dream Master w instructions
Yoshi's Cookie w instructions
Race America w instructions
Mario's Time Machine w instructions
DayDreamin' Davey w instructions
Oh yeah this is gettin' good! Maybe you'd like some late run Taito goodness?
How about Panic Restaurant cartridge only
Little Samson cartridge only
And there it was the holy grail, and the thing that really made my afternoon!
Ladies and Gentlemen Bubble Bobble part 2 w instructions. No I am not talking about Rainbow Islands. The real Deal Bubble Bobble 2 right there for 99 cents.
I also went back to the VHS shelf and was glad I did because I also picked up a copy of Rad Gravity Boxed with instructions.
Not too shabby for a days hunting. It was my first really big score at a goodwill and hopefully not the last.
It was a milestone setting score, as it bumped me to well over the 250 mark for NES and also pushed me above 500 total games listed here. It also was too good to go undocumented so it gave me a great excuse to finally start posting here, so this was my very first post, hopefully of many more to come. |D
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