--- Is it just me or has Collecting gotten harder? ---
Some time around 2009, my collecting slowed down to an almost non-existent crawl. The only additions were mainly new releases and the random game/console given to me from a friend or co-worker. Family life had taken up most of my free time and tracking down yard sales and searching thrift shop after thrift shop on a daily basis was just not going to happen like it used to. Now the want to collect never went away and of course it only takes one good find to get things going again.
That one good find happened a few weeks ago. While on my way to my parents I decided to stop at a thrift store that was on the way. Immediately upon walking in I saw it, right there in front of me with a very friendly price of $19.99... A Pioneer LaserActive with the SEGA PAC-S10. A console I have had near the top of my want list since I first saw it as a kid and of course near the top of my want list as a collector as well. Now I know I could have just spent x amount of dollars and purchased one of these through E-bay or craigslist but I wanted to "find" one and made it a collecting goal of mine.
Now as you can imagine this has fueled the urge to collect and I have been doing just that. I realized that during my commute to work I pass through three counties (Yeah, I drive a lot) and found several thrift stores and pawn shops just off the freeway(s) I use to travel. So on my way home I've been dropping by a few and seeing what I could come up with. Boy o' Boy have things changed! It would appear that almost every thrift store has gone "Ebay mad" with their pricing. $100 for a yellow NES, $60 for a Genesis 2 and if they have the box forget about it. A lot has changed in 4 years.
Now my local Goodwill doesn't even put game related items on the shelf! According to the manager they all go to their auction site... What??? Needless to say, I was taken back a bit with the current pricing trends and lack of availability. As a result my newly re-fueled collecting has taken a different approach. No longer will I hold out for the big stuff or less common. As long as the price is fair, I don't already have it and it's not complete junk... well I'm going to buy it. I'm still going to buy the good stuff too, but now I'm going to Start picking up the small stuff along the way. I will be keeping track of my weekly findings from thrift stores, pawn shops and yard sales.
So lets get started, For the week of 04/28/2013 - 05/04/2013 
All PSX games were $1.95- Coolboarders
- Coolboarders2
- Coolboarders4
- Demolition Racer
- Wipeout
- Air Combat GH
- Motocross Mania
- Sesame Street Sports - Sealed (Remember, No Restraint! LOL )
- Final Fantasy GH (Only disc 2&3) - $6.00 Yard Sale
- Silent Hill disc only, no case - $FREE (Found inside the Final Fantasy case)
- $2.99 PS2: Persona3
- $1.99 PS2: WRC Evolved, New-Sealed(PAL)
- $2.99 PS2: Colin Mcrea Rally (PAL)
- $1.95 PSX: Sa'i (NTSC-J)
- $4.95 Mega Drive: Altered Beast (NTSC-J)
- $1.99 Dreamcast: MDK2
- $1.99 Dreamcast: Typing of the Dead, New-Sealed
And something I never thought I would see at a Thrift Store
- $14.99 PSX: Playstation Debugging Station (Heavily discolored)
- Not pictured is a 360 controller that I got at the flea market for $10
Weekly TotalsGames = 16Hardware/Accessories = 2Other = 0 Overall, not a bad week. Most of the games came from Thrift Stores, Final Fantasy VII / Silent Hill was at a Yard Sale. The biggest surprise was the DTL-H1000 Debugging Console. It's not nice and blue like it should be and the drive doesn't work (yet) But still something you don't expect to see at a Thrift Store.
