Author Topic: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?  (Read 4540 times)

gngtiger

I found Luigi's Mansion (Disc only) for the GameCube for one dollar at a yard sale.

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2022, 07:11:36 pm »
Nice, I personally haven't found anything too notable. Mainly some complete PS1 games at a thrift store for $3 each.

I noticed a trend though in the past 2-3 years that thrift stores have actually started to research video game prices before displaying them on the shelves now. Few years ago, I'd see Wii consoles for $5 but now they'll sell these for like $30 which is ridiculous.

I'm sure other people's experiences will vary though, maybe it's just my area.

Warmsignal

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2022, 08:11:35 pm »
Not that I'm trying to boast, but there's just so many from back in the day. There's great versus what you were getting for the money, and then there's great because it's your favorite thing in the collection.

Years ago, I found a Vectrex with some boxed games, I think I paid $20 for it all. It was probably the rarest thing I've ever found, I almost didn't buy it at first, because I didn't know that it was a game system. I found a huge lot of ex-rental NES games with their boxes, think I paid like $3 a piece. I used to find top tear N64 and SNES games at yard sales for like $2 each. I found Sword Quest Water World for like $3 once. I used to pick up retro consoles for maybe $5, often times with games included.

It was the golden era, it was just a lot of stuff. I'm sure that I'm forgetting a lot of finds from back then.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2022, 08:13:40 pm by Warmsignal »

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2022, 08:33:27 pm »
My best was years ago, like...early to mid 2000's, I went to the pawn shop in town and was looking at the games and then noticed there was some games in a bag behind the counter that hadn't been put out yet, and realized they were CIB SNES games, in top quality condition.  It's a small town, I know the owner enough as a regular, I asked if I could look at them, and yeah...Final Fantasy 3, Super Metroid, Mega Man X.  I don't know how I got them, but I got them all for like 20 bucks each.  I thought about keeping them, but at the time I needed the money more, so I sold them on Ebay for what seemed like a nice price at the time, I don't remember exactly, like it was maybe a 120 bucks each or around there.  Wish I kept them, because I remember they were like the most perfect boxes I'd ever seen, they almost seemed new.

Another that was cool, was maybe 6 or 7 years ago, I was browsing thrift shops, and I hit a Salvation Army and they had a stack of Dreamcast games, I never see those in the wild.  Was like 7 or 8 at least and all for like a couple bucks a piece. Nothing crazy rare in them, but it was a great deal and a neat find.  When to a different Salvation Army the same day, they also had a stack of Dreamcast games and by the end of it, I had like 15 to 20 Dreamcast games all still in their cases and reasonable condition.

Got Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for a buck at a thrift shop that use to put the Playstation games with the CD's, at the CD prices, though they've changed the prices for them these days unfortunately.

And a fun one, even if it isn't worth much, was I was at a Goodwill, thought "Hey, is that Banjo-Kazooie?" and sure enough it was, not the boxed N64 game, but one of those promo VHS tapes for it which was a great, random, find as that's just as cool as finding the actual game to me to have some old school promo material.

Haven't been finding as much great game deals lately these days.  Goodwill never gets games in, the Salvation Army's around here mostly shut down and the one left in the area doesn't have much, and the one regular thrift I go to every week has pretty higher prices these days compared to what they use when I could get deals, like the PS1 games, or once I got like Super Mario World and a couple other games for like 5 bucks each.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2022, 09:04:07 pm by kamikazekeeg »

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2022, 08:49:45 pm »
I used to find top tear N64 and SNES games at yard sales for like $2 each. I found Sword Quest Water World for like $3 once. I used to pick up retro consoles for maybe $5, often times with games included.

Roughly the same for me, though I never got consoles quite that cheap.  Several NES, SNES, N64 bundles at no more than $5 a game and as low as $3.  Stuff like Mega Man 2, 3, Super Metroid, Super Mario RPG, Mario Party 2 & 3.


Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2022, 08:57:44 pm »
I think two years ago now I saw Obscure at Goodwill and passed on it not knowing what it was at the time and thinking the title was too on the nose to be something valuable.

For one I actually bought: MS Saga: A New Dawn.

gngtiger

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2022, 12:52:06 am »
 Goodwill never gets games in, the Salvation Army's around here mostly shut down and the one left in the area doesn't have much, and the one regular thrift I go to every week has pretty higher prices these days compared to what they use when I could get deals, like the PS1 games, or once I got like Super Mario World and a couple other games for like 5 bucks each.

I understand. It was as COVID was starting that I got into game collecting, and I honestly couldn't have picked a worse time. Games are so expensive, and literally every game I check at price charting.com has a sudden spike that starts in March or April of 2020 and usually doesn't go down (I blame the chip shortages, people bored at home, and people who grew up with GameCube games wanting to revisit their childhood) I forgot to mention I once found an entire Xbox 360 at Goodwill for 20 dollars (which I did not buy), though if I'm buying a game there now, it's usually to harvest it for its shell to replace a damaged case for a game I own. It's almost exclusively early-mid 2000s EA sports games, Kinect games, or Sims PC games, and not a one priced over ten dollars.

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2022, 08:07:08 am »


tripredacus

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2022, 09:31:06 am »
There have been many. For a garage sale I think it would have to be a Sega Nomad with battery pack for $5.
Thrift store is not something that immediately comes to mind. I have mostly gotten PC games from there but there have been so many that nothing really stands out to me.
Flea market would be the Judge Dredd promo cart.
Back in the 90s I had found a NES and about 40 games in the trash.

brothertuc

  • Guest
Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #9 on: January 28, 2022, 10:26:20 am »
Probably Garfield: Saving Arlene for the PS2. I know what it's worth (around $200 as of now)...
I picked it up at a flea market for 20 danish crowns, which is around 5 US Dollars. Can't be too unhappy with that  :D

koemo1

PRO Supporter

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #10 on: January 28, 2022, 11:50:57 am »
Probably Zelda the Wand of Gamelon for 50 cents
Currently playing:
Rogue Trooper [xbox]
Days Gone [ps4]


burningdoom

PRO Supporter

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2022, 01:06:37 pm »
A Commodore 64 for $20 at Goodwill.

And I found CIB copies of Castlevania and Contra on NES for $10 a piece at the same Goodwill.

Those days are over, now. They don't even put out video game stuff anymore.

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2022, 01:21:20 pm »
Those days are over, now. They don't even put out video game stuff anymore.

Goodwill's auction site has utterly destroyed it as a thrift shop.


soera

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2022, 01:33:21 pm »
2 I can think of. One was army of the dead for the Saturn for $4. The other was the Zelda board game with all pieces for $20.

wimpod

Re: What was your greatest game-related find from a yard sale/thrift store?
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2022, 03:16:15 pm »
not really /my/ find but a few years ago i went to a garage sale and as I arrived someone was buying all their cib pokemon games for a dollar each  :'(