2015 Thrift Store Thread -- Share Your Findings Here

slowdive21 said:
I befriended a scanner and we got along pretty well for about a year. We had an understanding, he buys mostly books, I buy games. There was a vintage book score that I alerted him to (called him). When the PS1 JRPGs came in, he bought them all and didn't call me. Now we don't talk anymore.
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Screwing you out of PS1 JRPGS? Yeah, that guy would be dead to me, too. Hell, I'd probably go out of my way for payback on that one.

 
slowdive21 said:
I befriended a scanner and we got along pretty well for about a year. We had an understanding, he buys mostly books, I buy games. There was a vintage book score that I alerted him to (called him). When the PS1 JRPGs came in, he bought them all and didn't call me. Now we don't talk anymore.

I do very little thrifting now. I used to spend 2-4 hours a day at one particular store.
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When someone does that to me, I go out of my way to start picking up the main items they go after. Not because I'm interested in them. You know, just to be an asshole.

*Likes the valve core idea*

 
arsenalcrazy8 said:
Got beaten to a nice huge lot by minutes today at my local thrift. Power Stone 1 + 2, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Elemental Gimmick Gear etc etc. 3 bucks each. literally felt nauscious for missing out on that by like 3 minutes. Ugh. Its times like these that thrifting turns me off lol, what do you guys do when you miss out on lots like this? Dust that dirt off your shoulder?
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I know your pain. Happens to me now and then. In fact I just experience one last week (Wii U Set with 4 Games for $100 at GW). I'm like whatever now. I always run across some gems and rarities (most of times the game disc are stolen or missing) at my thrift stores and about half of the time, I usually leave it for the next thrifter. Sometimes I scoop it up for CAGers.

What bothers me is shoppers who stalked me inside the store. Can I please shop in peace lol.

I recalled a time when a shopper who wanted a stack of N64 and GameCube Games that I found at GW. He kept asking me if I'm planning to buy all of that and I kept on refusing him. When I was about to checkout, this guy walked up and told the cashier those games are rare and worth a lot of money and they should sell them for 2/3 times the price tag. I was like "WTH". Anyway, the cashier told him to "To leave the store".

Another time a kid who bugged me for a Pokemon game that I found. I ended up giving it to him. Later on, I met him again near the checkout and asked him where is the game that I gave you. The kid said he left it somewhere in the back. So I went back to get it and to my surprised, the cartridge was missing lol.

 
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postaboy said:
I know your pain. Happens to me now and then. In fact I just experience one last week (Wii U Set with 4 Games for $100 at GW). I'm like whatever now. I always run across some gems and rarities at my thrift stores and about half of the time, I usually leave it for the next thrifter. Sometimes I scoop it up for CAGers.

What bothers me is shoppers who stalked me inside the store lol.

I recalled a time when a shopper who wanted a stack of N64 and GameCube Games that I found at GW. He kept asking me if I'm planning to buy all of that and I kept on refusing him. When I was about to checkout, this guy walked up and told the cashier those games are rare and worth a lot of money and they should sell them for 2/3 times the price tag. I was like "WTH". Anyway, the cashier told him to "To leave the store".
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Damn I would have loved to find that wii u what GW are good in the OC I rarely go to them now

 
lakers714 said:
Damn I would have loved to find that wii u what GW are good in the OC I rarely go to them now
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Ask your local goodwill what days they get their Target shipments. Mine is usually every Tuesday and Thursday.

The Wii U set was from Target (It's either red sticker label or salvage sticker).

Pretty much it's all luck. I usually hit up a few GWs after work (about 10 to 15 a week).

 
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I used to go to some in Santa Ana months ago but I always saw people waiting by the doors waiting for items to come out and they would come out like vultures 

 
lakers714 said:
I used to go to some in Santa Ana months ago but I always saw people waiting by the doors waiting for items to come out and they would come out like vultures
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one of my goodwills is like this where its not a store displaying the goods. Its all in wagon crates that they bring out 20 at a time to 20 people at a time.

It's in a bad neighbood so it gets all the vultures.

Last time i went there was a line of like 30 people and every time i been there before its junk clothes and broken accessories. I didn't even bother waiting around even if you find a game worth $20-$30 for five bucks the time needed barely justifies it.

It's cheaper to buy whatever you want online vs crossing fingers to find something. Most of my scores could have all be gotten online for very similar prices when you factor in all my busts of going hunting.

What has always payed off the most for me is craigslist because for the most part you know where you're going and what you are getting. Sellers can flake but its no where near the risk of actually hunting games in the wild. That is gas money every mile you're going and time invested.

I play video in my spare time refresh craigslist 50x a day while taking brakes from games and get 2-3 scores a month.

I'm also given up on yard and garage sales. Goodwill and thrift stores i check while out and about running errands but won't go out of my way just to look for games at them.

Only thing I really look forward to for hunting in the wild is a flea market i go to about 2-3 times a month. its a 40 min. drive one way so travel expenses, wear and tear on your car, putting on 50 miles to go round trip to the flea market all has to be factored in.

 
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I usually don't waste my time at OC GWs because their pricing on video games are ridiculously expensive and not fixed. Ex. $10 to $25 for the newer gen console games.

Ex. Huntington Beach's GW wanted $25 for Infamous 2 (sealed). 

 
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Sometimes when I find stuff I want to buy, the disc is stolen. Or when its multidisc, they try to sell it separately.

I visited a Goodwill near my cousin's school and they had AC: Rogue for 49.99.

 
Picked up this today:


Got 3 copies for $6.99 each. Also picked up 3 of these for $6.99 each:


They also had a Red Original Gameboy with 6 games, 2 of which were Pokemon Blue and Yellow. They were asking $100 though and I couldn't justify it for my collection.

At almost every GW I've been to lately I have also found X1 copies of Wolfenstein @ $9.99 a piece. I own the PS4 version so I didn't need any.
 
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Went to a window sale at Goodwill, unfortunately got beat out by another gamer, so he got first dibs. He took Brawl(3.99) and a wii system with controllers and nunchucks for 20 bucks. I got in their and grabbed twilight princess(3.99) and the sealed Pokemon XY Furious Fists theme decks. Comes with 4 decks each of Dark Hammer and Enchanted Echo, and that was for 5.99. I missed out on some stuff, but I still came out alright I thought....

 
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Well this is part facebook deal, part thrifing. So was gonna pick up the wii and 360 games(Rising sealed) and Timesplitters for 30 bucks.

Lady messages me and asks if I would be interested in some gamecube stuff as well, and sends me a pic of the gamecube stuff.

I said sure, as long as the price doesn't get too crazy, which she agrees it won't. Messages me a day before pickup(this is like a 5 day back and forth), and says how much is my offer. I say 60 bucks, she says way too low, and the son wants 80 for the gamecube stuff, and not a penny less. Try to get it for less, but doesn't budge, finally give in.

PS1 games were 2 bucks after 50% off color, dreamcast game same but missing manual, warriors 6.99, alittle more then i wanted but a cool game to have. Family game night 2 bucks, steamboy sealed for 1.50 after half off, and crimson skies 1 dollar after half off. Wanted to try that one out for a while, at 1 buck couldn't resist.

 
needler420 said:
one of my goodwills is like this where its not a store displaying the goods. Its all in wagon crates that they bring out 20 at a time to 20 people at a time.

It's in a bad neighbood so it gets all the vultures.

Last time i went there was a line of like 30 people and every time i been there before its junk clothes and broken accessories. I didn't even bother waiting around even if you find a game worth $20-$30 for five bucks the time needed barely justifies it.

It's cheaper to buy whatever you want online vs crossing fingers to find something. Most of my scores could have all be gotten online for very similar prices when you factor in all my busts of going hunting.
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Do you mean the one on Silver Springs in the ghetto? The Outlet or whatever it's called? I went there for the first time like 3 weeks ago...I will never go back. It felt like I was in a homeless shelter mixed with the worst Black Friday ever...Tons of filthy dirty items being scavenged by the...let's say shaddiest people I've ever seen. I looked around the store once and promptly got out of there. The odd thing is they sell stuff by weight, not even per item.

The other Goodwill in town by the mall is the nicest one I've ever seen, but the prices overall are insane. They want like $6 for a Manga, which I suppose is fair based on cover value of like $15, but when you need 7-10 books to make a full set that's an insane amount of money for books at, of all places, Goodwill. Awesome looking store, but horrid prices.

 
Saix_XIII said:
Do you mean the one on Silver Springs in the ghetto? The Outlet or whatever it's called? I went there for the first time like 3 weeks ago...I will never go back. It felt like I was in a homeless shelter mixed with the worst Black Friday ever...Tons of filthy dirty items being scavenged by the...let's say shaddiest people I've ever seen. I looked around the store once and promptly got out of there. The odd thing is they sell stuff by weight, not even per item.

The other Goodwill in town by the mall is the nicest one I've ever seen, but the prices overall are insane. They want like $6 for a Manga, which I suppose is fair based on cover value of like $15, but when you need 7-10 books to make a full set that's an insane amount of money for books at, of all places, Goodwill. Awesome looking store, but horrid prices.
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The Goodwill outlet stores are always ghetto. When the one out here first opened, it was pretty decent. I had a ton of awesome finds (Megaman Legends, FF7 complete, DSi's, other various consoles, etc) for weight. I would go there just about every day, and then word got out and the trash rolled in and would camp out there all day.

It got so bad that when they changed tables, as soon as they let people resume shopping, it was a mix between Supermarket Sweep and a demolition derby. People got fuck ing aggressive to the point some were banned from the store. And then management started cherry-picking the good stuff, for Shopgoodwill, before putting out the new tables and I stopped going there soon after.

I went back there last week, for the first time in over the year and they changed things. Now it's not flat weight, but different higher pricing per category, and media is per piece. The place was dead and I still found jack shit. I'm officially done with that store.

 
I picked up a complete copy of Battle for Middle Earth 2 for PC and an Xbox 360 guitar for $6 the other day. I need to take a picture of all my random finds lately that aren't that postworthy on their own.
 
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Picked these up at a small thrift with a crazy huge media section, 3$ a piece.

Pimp my Ride season 1 (becuase why the hell not?)

Planet Earth The Complete Series

and an absolutely destroyed Crash Bash for PS1 in a Crash 2 case with no manual, probably shouldn't have, but I really want to play this game with 4 players, me and my brother played the demo on Jampack 2000 probably over 100 times when we were little, but never got the real thing.

 
Can someone explain to me what the rules are with Goodwill reserving items for online auctions? I never find any decent games on the shelves or the case, it's always $5 or less xbox, PS2 and N64 games. I'm not in a major city (southwest Virginia).

I've been hitting my local goodwill every few days after work for about a year straight (sometimes every day but I get burnt out). Haven't had any decent scores. Are the shipping stuff off to the auction site or am I just getting beat every single day?

Thanks.

 
xtreme_Zr2 said:
Can someone explain to me what the rules are with Goodwill reserving items for online auctions? I never find any decent games on the shelves or the case, it's always $5 or less xbox, PS2 and N64 games. I'm not in a major city (southwest Virginia).

I've been hitting my local goodwill every few days after work for about a year straight (sometimes every day but I get burnt out). Haven't had any decent scores. Are the shipping stuff off to the auction site or am I just getting beat every single day?

Thanks.
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They've gotta be shipping a ton of stuff to the auction sites, at least where I'm from, even going to the local goodwill every single day for a while I didn't find anything worthwhile games wise. There is really minimal competition here, I don't know of any other collectors in my immediate area.

 
xtreme_Zr2 said:
Can someone explain to me what the rules are with Goodwill reserving items for online auctions? I never find any decent games on the shelves or the case, it's always $5 or less xbox, PS2 and N64 games. I'm not in a major city (southwest Virginia).

I've been hitting my local goodwill every few days after work for about a year straight (sometimes every day but I get burnt out). Haven't had any decent scores. Are the shipping stuff off to the auction site or am I just getting beat every single day?

Thanks.
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Goodwill is no longer customer friendly. I do all my donating and shopping at local thrift stores. My best guess is that whatever they think they can get more for online will be shipped to be sold on ebay or shopgoodwill.

 
UnderFire said:
They've gotta be shipping a ton of stuff to the auction sites, at least where I'm from, even going to the local goodwill every single day for a while I didn't find anything worthwhile games wise. There is really minimal competition here, I don't know of any other collectors in my immediate area.
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I talked to the manager of my local GW a few weeks back, after having a huge dry spell, and he said that anything with a hard drive needs to be sent in to the warehouse to be formatted, and that stuff never gets sent back to the store (goes up on shopgoodwill). Also, any "retro" game systems of value are to be sent to the big outlet goodwill, so they can list it on shopgoodwill.

So, basically, yes... they are looking to get top dollar for their stuff now and the days of finding $10 NES and SNES consoles are pretty much over.

 
Finding good stuff at your locals can all come down to just one individual who knows the rotations / stock times on the weekdays.  At one GW I stop by, I see the same crowd of people waiting for the carts to come out, and around the same time of day.  Two of them are book scanners, and another one is a video game seeker like me.  If I'm not there at the same time when the carts comes out, there is little chance I'll find something gaming worthwhile at that store.

So while some stores may seem dry, its probably just one sponge soaking it all up (and let's face it, if we could be, we'd all like to be that one guy).

 
I saw 3 Call of Duty Ghost Prestige Edition Xbox 360 for $29.95 each at local goodwill. Decided to pass on the first time then I went back to the media section 10 minutes later 2 where gone so I took the last one. brand new and sealed

 
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[quote name="leidh" post="12694065" timestamp="1431807813"]Goodwill CEOs are regional. there are hundreds of them. the one in portland Oregon, he makes over a million by himself so is the one in seattle WA.[/quote]

I'm aware of that. I'm not a fan of goodwill in particular, but spreading false stories based on a lack of reading comprehension doesn't really help anyone.
 
Got a couple PS1 games at a local place that buys garage sale leftovers.

Ridge Racer Revolution and 007 The World is Not Enough, 2$ a piece, both complete, cases are in horrible shape though.

 
yourlefthand said:
I'm aware of that. I'm not a fan of goodwill in particular, but spreading false stories based on a lack of reading comprehension doesn't really help anyone.
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The story is real but the name "Mark Currant" is fake.

A 2013 article on Watchdog.org reported that Goodwill's tax returns showed that more than 100 Goodwills pay less than minimum wage, while simultaneously paying more than $53.7 million in total compensation to top executives.[33] The former CEO, Douglas Barr, of the Goodwill of Southern California was the highest paid Goodwill executive in the country.[34] He received total compensation worth $1,188,733, including a base salary of $350,200, bonuses worth $87,550, retirement benefits of $71,050, and $637,864 in other reportable compensation.[35] "In 2011, the Columbia Willamette Goodwill, one of the largest in the country, says it paid $922,444 in commensurate wages to approximately 250 people with developmental disabilities. These employees worked 159,584 hours for an average hourly wage of $5.78. The lowest paid worker received just $1.40 per hour."[33]

 
Picked up at Goodwill:

Office 2007 (1/3 licenses is good so no more OpenOffice for me) $3.99

NEW/SEALED Adobe Illustrator CS5 $9.99 

Did not Buy:

Sega Saturn Set $15

TMNT 360 (tempted to buy this and flip it on Amazon but I decided to let the next thrifter get it)

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leidh said:
The story is real but the name "Mark Currant" is fake.

A 2013 article on Watchdog.org reported that Goodwill's tax returns showed that more than 100 Goodwills pay less than minimum wage, while simultaneously paying more than $53.7 million in total compensation to top executives.[33] The former CEO, Douglas Barr, of the Goodwill of Southern California was the highest paid Goodwill executive in the country.[34] He received total compensation worth $1,188,733, including a base salary of $350,200, bonuses worth $87,550, retirement benefits of $71,050, and $637,864 in other reportable compensation.[35] "In 2011, the Columbia Willamette Goodwill, one of the largest in the country, says it paid $922,444 in commensurate wages to approximately 250 people with developmental disabilities. These employees worked 159,584 hours for an average hourly wage of $5.78. The lowest paid worker received just $1.40 per hour."[33]
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No, sorry the story is not "real".

The original poster cited snopes as saying that the CEO of goodwill made 2.3 Million. I posted to correct them, saying that the article didn't say what they hought it said. Here is the actual snippet from snopes regarding goodwill:

{quote} Goodwill: Goodwill Industries International is not a business that takes in donated items and resells them for a profit. It is a not-for-profit organization that provides job training, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people who have disabilities, lack education or job experience, or face employment challenges. Goodwill raises money for their programs through a chain of thrift stores which also operate as non-profits.

The CEO of Goodwill Industries International is not Mark Curran, nor does he make $2.3 million a year. The current President and CEO of Goodwill is Jim Gibbons, who in 2011 received a total reported compensation of $725,000.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/charities.asp#4ZJO36xYEb183zV0.99[/quote]

THis is a good example of where Snopes i not completely correct. They are a good resource, but they don't get everything right.

You re right that there are many goodwill regional organizations, and that many of them pay some workers less than minimum wage. it's worth noting, however, that the Department of Labor allows this practice. The workers who are getting paid less than minimum wage are basically charity cases. They typically have to have a another worker supervise _everything_ they do, and if they were not getting paid less than minimum wage they would not be getting paid anywhere as they would be unemployable.

Anyway, I'm not posting anymore non-finds in the thrift store finds thread. It just bugged me when someone who deosn't understand the snopes article posts inaccurate statements based on a poor reading. Choose not to shop at goodwill if you want, I really don't care.

 
I got a pretty good find at a local thrift chain yesterday.

60 GB ipod classic (needs battery)

2 Panasonic Lumix digital cameras (both need chargers)

120GB Zune

For $4 each!

The chargers are cheap and on their way already. I'm hoping the cameras work well, as they would be good upgrades for my kids.

The zune is probably getting traded in to Amazon, and the ipod will probably get a huge pile of songs dumped on it and become the semi-permanent car ipod.

 
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A bit of thrifting, garage sales and a facebook deal. Bottom 2 xbox  games were 2 each, 2 wii games, ps4 game(at a garage sale?) and bag of loose ps1 games were 20 bucks total. PS1 games and ds game were 3 bucks a pop, with more coming tomorrow from that person, and the wii thrift stuff was half off and sealed

 
Not a great weekend for me, but I still found some decent stuff. Unfortunately I don't have pics, as I had to send a lot of the stuff off to the MAGFest warehouse already so my wife wouldn't kill me. ;)
 

First sale was only posted the night before and mentioned NES and Genesis stuff. I got there 30 minutes early and there was already someone there, but he seemed to be interested in purely NES stuff. The seller was still setting up, so we ended up standing around for a while. After all was said and done the seller couldn't find the NES stuff, but I did get the following items:

-a Model 1 Genesis

-a Model 3 Genesis

-a Model 2 Genesis AC adapter

-5 Genesis controllers

-a Telegames pinball/breakaway console

-an original Gameboy with Tetris

-a stack of Nintendo Super Power Club trading cards

-a bag of Earthworm Jim toys

-an antique turtle toy (for my brother)

-a Space Jam DVD and a big Space Jam ceramic statue (for a friend)

Unfortunately I choked when he asked me to make him an offer and said $70, which he accepted. I really need to start going back to just offering $20 for boxes.

Hit a few sales after that but kept being told that someone had already come by asking for games. I did pick up an old 3d camera for $8, which I bought solely for the instructional video that stars VIncent Prince (they wouldn't separate the video). Fortunately I've already found a friend to buy the camera for $7.

Final find for Saturday was in the city, where I scored Okami, Vampire Night, Genji, and Alien Hominid for $1 apiece at a local flea market.

I also went out Sunday and found a few things then, as well. I picked up Army of Darkness and Black Dynamite on DVD for $1 apiece, and then a complete PS2 for $10.

 
Two sealed copies of LittleBigPlanet PSP for $4.99 each, used a gift card to knock it down to under $3 for both. Not a fantastic deal, but nice to find something.

 
sp00ge said:
I talked to the manager of my local GW a few weeks back, after having a huge dry spell, and he said that anything with a hard drive needs to be sent in to the warehouse to be formatted, and that stuff never gets sent back to the store (goes up on shopgoodwill). Also, any "retro" game systems of value are to be sent to the big outlet goodwill, so they can list it on shopgoodwill.

So, basically, yes... they are looking to get top dollar for their stuff now and the days of finding $10 NES and SNES consoles are pretty much over.
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I guess I should consider myself lucky because I still find retro games/systems at some of the GW's near me for (usually) reasonable prices. Just a few weeks back I picked up a complete N64 (with expansion pak) for $15 and The New Tetris (N64) for $3.

 
IDreamcasterI said:
I guess I should consider myself lucky because I still find retro games/systems at some of the GW's near me for (usually) reasonable prices. Just a few weeks back I picked up a complete N64 (with expansion pak) for $15 and The New Tetris (N64) for $3.
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Lucky.

However, I did get a bit lucky in the PC realm. I picked up an HP 2711x monitor for 12.99. No power supply, but I picked one up from Amazon for $10. It works perfectly and looks amazing. Checking eBay, they are selling for $180, so I'd call this a bargain. I also picked up a Microsoft Sculpt Ergo Keyboard (with detached keypad) for $4.99. It's been years since I've used an ergo keyboard, but I'm loving it.

 
Picked up a DSi with 3 girl games (no stylus or charger) for $9.99 today. Just have to test it out and see if it works. Hinges were good though, so I figured I would take the chance.
 
Found a complete Myst Trilogy (PC) for $8 but passed on it. I was suppose to be $3 but the rep rang it up as a book. I explained to her it wasn't and she said she has to go by the sticker that says it's a book. Oh well.

 
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I got 26 copies of zoo tycoon brand new for 4 bucks...

2 brand new silver gamecube controllers for 6 bucks.

grand slam tennis wii for 3

 
Yo sp00ge, 

Down for another job?

GS gave me a few GC, Wii, and PS2 games last night for free but they are all scratched and untested. 

Yours:

Kirby Airride, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Sonic Gems Collection, Stella Deus (disc only), & RPG Maker 3

Mine:

Looking you to fix DataEast, Pokemon Battle Revolution, and Mega Man X7 (disc only) for me.

Let me know.

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Beavis and Butthead Vol 1, Sealed- $4

Digimon World 2 and Gundam Battle Assault 2, both missing instructions but otherwise very nice condition- $1 apiece, she rang them up as cds...I wasnt going to say anything! 

 
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