My name is bombatomba. Every two weeks I make a run down the gauntlet of thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales in my area, dragging my 4-year old along for the ride as well as a crash course in proper hunting techniques . This is the Thrift Store Score.This is the blog entry of Thrift Store Score. I also have a forum entry
here. The link is the same entry, though without the pictures. Sorry about the quality of the pics, but this is my first time using html to do this. If you like one entry over the other please post a comment.
This week I would make my West-East Gauntlet Run, with a stop at approximately 30 garage sales for sake of the hunt. The only passable flea market around here is open on the weekends only, so I decided to start with the garage sales and drive east, then hit the thrift stores on the way home. My son and I left at 11 am with full stomachs and empty floorboards.
When I hit garage sales, I tend to pick a main road and stick exclusively to it. While I may miss many sales, this technique saves gas consumption and allows me to focus on the hunt. In the past I went with my father-in-law, either him or I riding shotgun while calling out/writing down street addresses. On these trips we would drive down several main roads long distances (sometimes as much as 20 miles). These days even hardcore garage salers generally don't bother with sales, which is no doubt due to the huge drop in item quality, as well as the almost non-existence of good finds.
For a change, I drove down Ann Arbor Trail, which is a bit more rural and twisty than I normally like, but then I never have any faith that my garage saleing will yield results. Again, there was nothing. I stopped off for lunch and began trekking east along the Gauntlet.
The first store yielded nothing. There were large bags of action figures, but surprisingly my kid wanted nothing to do with them. We left drove to the next one, which was had a nice haul. It the state of the shelves made it look picked over, but I immediately spotted two Atari VCS boxes,each marked $.99. I snapped them up and was surprised to see they were unopened! The boxes were a tiny bit crushed but other than that they were is fairly good condition. Almost as quickly I found Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for PC (CIB) marked $1.91, which I have learned is the alternative box, featuring a shot of Connery and Ford. A few moments later I found Civilization II Gold Multiplayer for $1.91, which was also CIB with the Tech Tree map and a massive booklet. I grabbed a few thinks for my kid (Charlie Brown Halloween VHS and a micro radio controller boat), paid and left.
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The third stop was mildly good, with a loose copy of Rush 2049 for N64 for $3.03 and a strange little handheld/table game called Foto-Electronic Bowling for $3.93. I didn't bother with the Rush game, but I did pick up the
bowling game. There was no copyright on it, although I guessed the date to be from 1976 to 1982 (turned out to be 1978). I also found a CIB copy of King's Quest V for PC for for $3.93 hidden behind some other games. Snap. Before I left I spotted a Virtual Boy behind the counter, which was marked $15.81. It was missing the tripod, but had six games. The problem was that I really want a Nintendo 64 system, so I passed on the Virtual Boy, paid for the other items (along with a Thomas the Train whistle for my kid), and drove to the last stop.
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For those of you not familiar, St. Vincent de Paul is a massive chain of thrift stores that will sometimes contain new items, as well as collector items. The only problem I ever had is that the prices are severley skewed. You can find loose PSX games for $3.03, but there are also PSX systems marked $59.99 that are clearly broken. There are also seventy year old typewriters ($100), junk televisions from the early eighties ($40), and very old Lionel Train sets ($250). Most gamers would do well to avoid these places, as they are really more than a waste of time. However, I remember seeing N64 systems at a local location, so I went there with a vaguely optimistic attitude. I let my son pick out a toy first (a 15-pack of Ultimate Muscle for .99), and went looking for the N64, which I managed to find. It was dirty, and both the jumper pack panel and the bottom panel were missing, but the fragments of a price tag suggested it might be about $5 (I could see 4.9). I hunted up a controller and a power pack, and hunted around for an employee. The manager told me it was $30 (!) and would not budge; regardless of the price tag, the horribly dirty shape of the system, and the possibility that the item might not work. I told her to shove it, paid for my kids toy and left. I hate that place.
So I could end this episode on a high note, I went back to the last store and bought the Virtual Boy. It works fine and the games turned out to be Virtual Boy Wario Land, Red Alarm (2 copies), Mario's Tennis, Golf, and Teleroboxer. It also gave me a headache. Oh well, still a good days hunting!
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I head to the register and pay, satisfied that another good score can go into the books. Till next time!
