For the most part this is just some stuff I've found in the last few weeks. All of it could just go into the "small scores" thread but I figured if it was in my blog I could feel free to post a bunch of big pictures and blabber on endlessly.
Hopefully you were sucked in by the dramatic title at the top. "What did he find?", "What is so uncommon it takes 20 years to find?", "Is it super rare and valuable?", I'm sure you're wondering. Well, since I stuck that part at the end, wade through all the lesser stuff to find out.
This PC controller I found is fairly nice as far as this style goes. Now that the picture is up, I realize it doesn't show the buttons on the front. Not only are there left and right shoulder buttons there is also a throttle control and a second left button. The second left button is placed very low, almost directly under the joystick. I have fairly large hands and holding this controller with the intention of switching between the d-pad and joystick without moving my hand would be a bit of a stretch. Probably their thinking was to position your hand high to use the d-pad with the regular left shoulder button or low to use the joystick with the lower left shoulder button. The joystick has a good firm feel, though the range of motion is a little more then current controllers. What is the connector you wonder? That is a "Game Port" connector. Try and find it on the back of your computer, I'm sure it's there. I don't remember what this cost exactly, $1-2.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7081/7380506074_d1e91b9cb6_c.jpg[/img]I got this in a trade from ReddMcKnight. Thanks Redd! This brings me up to about 22 consoles, depending on how you count.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/7380509914_d922aa2a29_c.jpg[/img]That week I got the GBA above, we went garage saleing for the first time this year. It is rare that I come across GBA games, so I had been wondering how long it was going to take to add to Super Mario Advance 4 that came with the GBA. We get to this one garage sale after not having much luck so far that day, it was maybe the 6th or 7th stop. And what do they have on the table? A zip-lock bag full of games! What was the price? One dollar! I had to ask twice because I didn't believe it. I didn't even look to see what was there, I just grabbed it and paid the dollar. Afterwards I looked closer, and you can see they aren't actually games but kids videos. Oh well, still not bad for the price and it came with the camera and link cable. $1
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7083/7380508446_63160509e4_c.jpg[/img]I got this Action Replay Max for the PSP at a garage sale for $0.50, it looks like it was never used. The Sega CD game came from a thrift store, the weird thing is I bought 4 Sega CD games there the last time I went. So I'm wondering if I just missed this one or had they not put it out yet or what? It was $1. The FF VII demo disc was at a different thrift store, we bought 3 games and a book there. After looking at the receipt, I don't think they charged me for this, so it was free. Does anyone know what this came with? It must have been a pack-in with something.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5191/7380509424_54a15a2fb1_c.jpg[/img]The next two pictures were things from thrift stores and garage sales. I think the average price per item was about $1. Nothing was over $2. Crash Bandicoot: Warped has a neat cover, its 3D.
About 12 of these games, and a not pictured PS1 mem card, came from one garage sale. They weren't priced, I don't normally bother asking if there is no price but I did this time. The lady didn't know and asked me what they were worth. That is a tough question for me to answer because in general games are worth $1 or less
to me for 99% of all games. But because I am in this hobby I also know that is not the market rate for many games. Can you get more then $1 for that Crash Bandicoot game on ebay. Yes. Is it worth that to me? No. What makes it hard is, if asked, I want to be as honest as possible. If the person wants to hold off on my $1 offer and wait for a better deal, more power to them. I have no hard feelings about that, I
want them to make as much as they can. I could tell the lady was expecting more, she countered with $15, but I knew she wanted more. I sort of backed off but she seemed okay with $15 so that's what I paid. She also made a comment about how they cost much more new, so they must have been in the family for some time. I don't know how to respond to that comment, "um, yes, games cost more when they were new. We are at a garage sale 15 years later."?
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8003/7380507964_779fb4baa1_c.jpg[/img][img width=700 height=525]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5199/7380509008_ba6b9ecf99_c.jpg[/img]I stopped off at two used video game store I drive past every week but had never been in. I bought all their $0.95 games I didn't have. Also got Time Lord CIB for $4.95. Normally I don't spend so much on NES games and I also don't usually pay more for CIB (which is why nearly all my cart games are loose). I admit, I lost self control, the box art looked so cool and, well, I'm sorry.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7232/7380507480_2ba7344ca1_c.jpg[/img]Okay, I really must have a problem. Not only am I buying cardboard, I'm now buying paper. This was all at a garage sale. I asked about 4 times if the lady had the Video Arcade II pictured on the manual, nope, just these manuals and comic books. I got all this because of the comic books and Swordquest poster, I would trade the rest if any of you want it.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8162/7380507022_b73bd07858_c.jpg[/img]This is the Grand Prize! Falcon for the PC! Many of you probably don't know about this series of games. My introduction came with Falcon 3.0 back in 1992(I think). Always a fan of military aircraft and with a new PC in our family, I spotted Falcon 3.0 at a warehouse store. My parents went on while I decided between 3.0 and another airplane fighter sim. Back in the early and mid 90's all sorts of stores had PC titles for sale. This was back when there was places like CompUSA, Circuit City, Egghead and many more. Even department stores had PC games, I remember them being all over the place. An employee at the store I was at helped me pick out the Falcon game over the other sim as he had played both.
The games in the Falcon series are very much simulators. Falcon 3.0 was something I spent many, many hours on. When Falcon 4.0 came out I got it right away, getting one of the special limited edition copies. Falcon 4.0 was a very ambitious game. They were planning on having servers set up so that not only would you be playing Falcon 4.0 with other people around the world (remember this is 1998) you would be playing with people who had simulators for tanks, ships, and other military aircraft (Falcon is strictly the F-16). All this would take place in ongoing real time "war". This would have been super impressive back then, I think they got the Tank game released but I don't know if it was ever integrated with Falcon 4.0. Also, since this was a hard core sim with high end graphics and a huge learning curve, back in a time with mostly dial up internet, if you even had it, the full vision of the "war" never came about. The Falcon games were always relatively popular, and as far as I know sold well. Falcon 4.0 has a big fan community to this day, with large fan-made updates.
With all its complexities, I didn't have a good set up for Falcon 4.0 when it came out. I played it some, but it was clunky on my machine at the time. I haven't yet gone back to play it more because by the time I had a PC it would run at a high level, I didn't have a game port on my PC, which is what all my joysticks needed. Now I have a good flight sim joystick so I should go back to it.
I did put lots of time in and got lots of fun from Falcon 3.0. I can honestly say this is one of the few games that truly cemented both my love for games and my hobby in game collecting. Since I hold the series in such high regard and started at 3.0, I've always wanted to complete the set. As far as I know there is no 2.0, there are other games between Falcon and Falcon 3.0. There is the oddly named Falcon AT, and a couple of games for the Amiga and Atari computers. I have never seen those, if fact I had never seen the first Falcon. I realize it could be found online, but that doesn't really fit with my collecting style. This last weekend, for the first time, I found it. Normally I would pay well above my $1 price point for something like this. This is one of a very tiny number of game related items I have which is also collectable to me outside of the fact it is a game. This is now one of my most prized collectables.
How much did something I rate so highly cost me? $0.50
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7216/7380506580_3efee8e01b_c.jpg[/img]How much did all of the above cost me? I didn't really keep track, but I think around $45, not more than $50. Either way it is still below my goal of averaging $1 or less per item.
But because I had so much fun with all sorts of games on the pc I have to bring them up from time to time.