2019 Yard Sale / Flea Market Finds

Rotondo said:
Thanks for the advice.

Is there anything in particular you guys look for in yard sale descriptions?

I mainly look for things like toys/electronics that are 80/90's, this usually at least leads to interesting weird things to look at.
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Like we've said before, most sales that advertize collectables; toys, records, games, etc. are usually going to be swarmed or already cleaned out. Personally, I always avoid sales that advertize collectables and showcase alot of pictures. These people generally know what their stuff is worth and are most likely trying to sell in person before they move their stuff online. Last year I got fuck 'ed out of a great GBC lot with a bunch of boxed games because the guy was trying to test the waters and see if a collector would bite on the spot.

Also, I always prioritize multi family sales over single sales, even if they advertize with key words that interest me. Almost everytime I do this I'm the first person to arrive.

I guess rule number one would be to always wake up on time, with rule number two being to always ask.

 
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A few years back, when I was still at the mercy of being driven around by friends or family, I was at a sale where I didn't see any games, but a lone Genesis controller lying on the driveway. I asked one of the kids if they had any games to sell and he replied no, so I asked the adults. The wife actually ended up taking two tubs loaded with boxed N64, NES, SNES, Genesis, and N64 games. Most were rares too. One of which was a gamed named Stunt Racer which was a Block Buster exclusive and goes for exorbiant amount. This was still probably my best find of all time and it would have never happened if I hadn't asked.

 
Yeah, that's about the best advice I can figure, too. It also helps just to keep a mental record of where other yard salers in your area operate. Like if you're heading out to sales and there's always the same guy there like 15 minutes before you, try a different area. Also a lot of the resellers in my area will have their own yard sales in the early-Spring, mid-Summer, and late-Fall slowdowns in order to move some of the extra stuff they've picked up but that they haven't been able to move yet. These are a good chance to get out, scope the competition, and figure out what areas to avoid. Know your enemy, and all that.

 
Every year I promise myself I’ll start to go out for yard sales, and every year I don’t do it. (I’m a thrift store guy)

I guess I just don’t know where to start. The stories I hear on here about people showing up at 6 before sales even start and clearing people out.

Do you guys target sales or just drive around randomly in your neighborhood?
 
I usually pick some targets then pull over for yard sales I see along the way. I'd start out by picking some community sales and hitting those. There's usually a bunch of houses set up and you can hit a lot of places without having to drive all over the place. In my area people post them a lot on craigslist.

Another tactic you can use is to keep an eye out on Facebook Marketplace for yard sales. I see a lot of folks starting to post exclusively there, and I don't think the craiglist yard salers have really caught up yet since I've gotten to those yard sales late and have still found plenty of stuff.

 
I didn't find anything exceptionally special today in terms of games, but I did manage to pick up a few Ps2 games that I've been looking for. My competition today consisted of the same neckbeard from the Xbox encounter last week and a pot head looking kid who I'm certain works at one of the game stores around here.

The top 4 Ps3 games are all sealed and were $2 each. The Ps2 games I picked up at the same sale, also for $2 each. I've been looking for that Evil Dead game for a while now, so that's pretty cool. The Wii games were $5 for all 3, and I paid a buck for reach.

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Now, as a Star Wars fan, I'm actually a little disappointed with myself this weekend. The first sale I went to this guy pulled out 4 bins filled with sealed figures/sets from the late 90's on. Most of the modern Star Wars figures aren't worth too much aside from certain toy lines.  A lot of the sets the guy pulIed out were from the Power of the Force line (ugly green boxes). I'm certain I did see a few things worth money, but I ended up passing on them. I did buy the two figures here and a lego set that I know are worth something. If anyone collects Star Wars stuff I highly recommend this database..

The Eagles Monopoly was $2, the plush Alien is from an extinct Disney World ride, and the Bob Ross painting set might be the greatest thing I've ever found at sales.

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I also picked up these 2 framed puzzles for $7 at a sale that advertised games. Also, DS carts of Mario Kart and Super Monkey Ball for $2 each.[attachment=32235:7B8127D4-90D9-42FF-A88F-CD29EE027BD9.jpeg]


Forget to mention; that pot head kid earlier did 60 down the street when he saw me
with the stack of PS2 games. The next sale I caught him walking away with a bag of games.
 
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PlunderedGamer said:
I also picked up these 2 framed puzzles for $7 at a sale that advertised games. Also, DS carts of Mario Kart and Super Monkey Ball for $2 each.
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Forget to mention; that pot head kid earlier did 60 down the street when he saw me
with the stack of PS2 games. The next sale I caught him walking away with a bag of games.
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In the future: Carry a tire-slashing knife to deal with the competition.

Kidding, mods!

 
I met a woman, who was helping a friend or relative out at their yard sale, that informed me she had some old video game stuff at her place and I left her my number. A couple weeks later she called back and told me she had some PlayStation games. Nothing great and I only intended to spend $11 dollars but, while speaking to her and her boyfriend at their house, he remembered he had some Nintendo stuff. It turned out to be an N64 lot. The games have wear, were dirty and sticky (some had stains that had damaged either the front label or back sticker), as were a couple or so controllers, and the system itself, and the yellow controller I thought was the elusive DK64 controller but was just a yellow controller, still, $91. Pretty happy with that.

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I had to work last weekend so couldn't get out myself, but I asked a buddy of mine to check out a sale around the corner from him that had some Sega games lurking in the pictures. He grabbed this for $20 for me. Not as big a haul as I've been used to lately, but not bad for not going out myself.

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Don't know if I would call this a yardsale find, but it was definitely found near a yard. When I was visiting family today, I was informed that one of the neighbors was putting a bunch of stuff in front of their house for scrappers. I found this nice little set filled with vintage Kenner Star Wars figures, just sitting on the ground. 
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I haven't seen one of those Star Wars carrying cases since the 80's.  (yes, I'm old enough where they were new when I was a kid. Still have all my figures and playsets.)

And what's the deal with everyone finding Conker's Bad Fur Day all the sudden?  I've been yard saleing for 11 years now and haven't seen it once!

 
PlunderedGamer said:
Don't know if I would call this a yardsale find, but it was definitely found near a yard. When I was visiting family today, I was informed that one of the neighbors was putting a bunch of stuff in front of their house for scrappers. I found this nice little set filled with vintage Kenner Star Wars figures, just sitting on the ground.
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I also found this little guy. He's a rare first edition from the Sears exclusive Cantina Set. They later re-released him smaller and in a red shirt. I think this goes for like $300 right now. When I saw him in the box I was frantically looking around the curb for his gun, but to no avail.

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$25 for all the games. Under SM64 is a cart of Pokemon X I bought the steelbooks from some kid at a community sale who was obviously a collector trying to sell his dupes. He had a few SNES games but they were priced to sell. The lightgun I thought was an airsoft gun until I looked at it a little closer. The same guy had a Genesis Flashback but was asking too much. When I got home, a friend surpirsed me with the Halo Steelbook. which is great. Also not pictured is a Mario Galaxy collectors puzzle set and a few pokemon plush that I'll probably give to a neighbor's kid.

Not too much competiton this weekend. There weren't as many sales as opposed to last week, so I assume people just took the day off. 

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Look at all these finds. Pretty dead for me this weekend, probably due to the holiday. Next weekend should be better

 
There were less sales this week and I ran into more competition, so unfortunately didn't get any huge hauls at yard sales this week. That said, I did alright. Mario All-Stars was unfortunately empty, but it was a good disc holder while I was out. Spent a total of $20 for everything in the pics.
 
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I don't know how to post pictures, but I found something for the first time this summer. Got an original tamagotchi in like new condition with the instructions for $0.10
Now both the kids are trying to decide who gets it when I get tired of it within the week. Never had one
 
genesis49 said:
I don't know how to post pictures, but I found something for the first time this summer. Got an original tamagotchi in like new condition with the instructions for $0.10
Now both the kids are trying to decide who gets it when I get tired of it within the week. Never had one
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They were all the rage on the playground in 2004.

 
genesis49 said:
I don't know how to post pictures, but I found something for the first time this summer. Got an original tamagotchi in like new condition with the instructions for $0.10
Now both the kids are trying to decide who gets it when I get tired of it within the week. Never had one
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You can upload pics to Imgur or Photobucket. You could also just try Google Drive

 
Car is in the shop. Looks like I won't be plundering for gold cartridges this weekend.

 
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Some recent finds.

Bose Speakers: $20

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This Game Boy was $10

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This controller was $7. It has sensitivity issues but I'm probably just going to use it for display in my X1 controller collection.

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That Gameboy is a great find.

A friend went out today and managed to pick me up some Kingdom Hearts games for the Ps2. He said he went to some church that looked like a lighthouse and missed out on a huge stack of good games.

 
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You know I was actually up early and thinking about going out.........then I looked at my stack of Ebay stuff and thrift stuff and messed with that instead. Stopped by a few sales on my way to Goodwill and Taco Bell. Lots of baby stuff and clothes....

 
Got this Dell Venue 10 Pro for $19. It has Windows 8 I hope to upgrade it to 10 but so far I keep getting an error when I reach the Installing Windows 10 screen. Tried using MediaCreationTool

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This weekend I went out yard saling with a friend who also likes to find games, but fortunately only Nintendo stuff, and it turned out to be one of the best days I've had so far. We hit up a community sale in NE Baltimore that was sort of annoyingly spread out, but that may have worked in our favor to keep us away from the competition. The biggest score is obviously the Vectrex, the first I've ever seen in the wild which I snagged for $20. I was worried about it not working since the box has water damaged, but it functions perfectly! On a related note the Colecovision and games, which was also $20, needed some cleaning but is also working well. The rest of the stuff in the pic was about $10 and include DKC3 on GBA, LBP3 for PS4, some some Nintendo toys for the kiddo, and some CDs for the car.

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Holy shit, you lucky bastard. I bought a Vectrex from a now-defunct auction site fifteen years ago, and it cost me $75. They've nearly tripled in price since.
 
Great find. Daft Punk and Vectrex are always a win in my book. I’m still bummed about a few years ago when a friends dad who was a reseller, picked up a sealed 3D imager with games right next door to my house.

 
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Stopped at two today that I've been to before but they had some new stuff out.

Beavis & Butthead Volume 1

WWE Wreckless Intent

Motley Crue Decade of Decadence

$1 for each.

Was tempted by a Nikkon Coolpix digital camera in the box for $10 but passed. I have 3 digital cameras already, two really nice ones (Sony and Canon) and another.

 
The guy told me he used to collect and play a lot but doesn't anymore and wanted them to go to a good home.

Everything was $20. The n64 cartridges were broken apart from the top. my best guess is someone was checking to make sure they were real but didn't know what the crap they were doing so they just forced em all apart. Some masking tape seems to be holding em together

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Nothing this week aside from a loose disc of Crash Warped for the Ps1. That's a pretty good set. Did all the games come from him?

 
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Some finds in the past week.

Sony boombox: $5

Sony MDR 7506 headphones: $3

X1 Controller: $1

PS3 controller: $3

Switch 3rd party controllers: $7 for both

PSP was $12. Didn't come with a charger so the seller was selling it as is. Hooked up my PSTV cable to it and it works! 

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A couple decent game finds this morning...

Both Xbox One -$1 each

Killer Instinct - Combo Breaker Pack (TJ Combo code previously redeemed)

Tekken 7 - Day One Edition - Codes for Tekken 6 & Eliza were still good. =)

Edit: Almost forgot about the additional $5 trade-in at GameStop. Traded them for $21.50 towards Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal - Tailor-Made Edition.
 
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There was a big street festival near my house this weekend, so I spent the morning walking around the neighborhood hitting sales people were having to take advantage of the extra foot traffic. I came away with less games than I hoped, but made up for it with visual media and general weird stuff.

I spent about $25 on game stuff, though I forgot to include an NES Epyx joystick and mini Ms. Pac-Man arcade in the picture. Wii U is most likely broken, but it was free. 

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Stuff in the pic below was also about $25. Best parts of the lot at the Pete & Pete DVDs and that sealed Halloween trilogy. Guitar pedals are for my brother, and I'm hoping to clean up the little brass pot for use in my D&D room (it's covered in dragons). Not pictured is a child's guitar in good condition that we picked up for my kiddo's birthday at the end of the month.

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$40 for everything on letgo. It was up for 3 weeks and was originally $75, but I got her down. The app is basically dead in my area, and there aren’t too many people buying video game stuff.[attachment=32353:403E7B39-68A8-47D6-978B-1BB42CD6A922.jpeg]
 
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Been a slow few weeks. Lots of competition hunting even on Fridays. There is a local clown that buys everything on FB, sometime he hits Craigslist. Any retro games he grabs

Offerup/Letgo dont get used as much and there are lots of people at yard sales even on Fridays

Here's the few things from the last few weeks.

Weekend of June 2nd, went to a huge yard sale on the other side of the state. I go every year. Pickings were slim I passed on a OG xbox and an OG ps2 for $5. Saw almost no retro games, a few PS4 and Xbox items. I snagged a few TI-83 plus graphing calcs, a new Roku + 4k for $10, a few DS games, and an Apple Airport Express for $10. My bro snagged a loose wii and games for $20.

Last weekend snagged a white 4gb 360 slim with 1 controller and hookups for $20 I later picked up a few Star Wars paperbacks for $0.25 each and a empty cd wallet for $0.25 as well (these come in handy)
 
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In my area there’s a lot of resellers who advertise buying games on Facebook and Craigslist. For yardsales they tend to swarm certain areas that I’ve learned to avoid. Backroad houses are always the best.
 
This guy has been spamming all of the local fb yardsale groups within a 30 mile radius. 

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I've taken to blocking users that post like that. They kept showing up when I was looking for games on Facebook, and blocking was the easiest way to get them out the mix so I could see the actual stuff people are posting.

 
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Mike_TV said:
I've taken to blocking users that post like that. They kept showing up when I was looking for games on Facebook, and blocking was the easiest way to get them out the mix so I could see the actual stuff people are posting.
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Didn't go to sales today, but I missed out on 2 huge N64 lots because on the marketplace because of these shit heads. One woman had a huge N64 lot for $50 with great games. I fired quick dm and we agreed on a meeting spot. Halfway there she canceled for a better offer. The next woman had about 10 good boxed games for $10 all together, but the same situation occured.

Update: The guy who bought them is now flipping both lots on the marketplace lol.

 
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Didnt have any luck today, and instead spent most of the morning helping a buddy with his yard sale

Managed to sell a few extra Video Game items I had though

 
I had some pretty good finds Saturday

Original Xbox with the box and the Logitech wireless controller: $30. Sadly the A button on the controller keeps getting stick, I'm hoping to find a way to fix it.

Xbox 360 bundle was $50.

Wii bundle was $15.

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Went out with the kiddo Saturday morning and hit a few sales around town, but didn't find too much due to a late start and generally moving a little slower. Everything in the pic below was $20.

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Sunday morning I hit some flea markets in SE Baltimore with a buddy of mine for a Father's Day outing. First pic is from the flea market we hit up, and everything in the pic was $16.

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Next pic is from the second flea market we went to. Wii bundle was $40, 360 controllers were $5 each, and the GTA games were $4 total. PC games were $20 for all them, and was a nice spot by my flea marketing buddy.

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Been a very slow start to the year, I think MikeTV is stealing everything good in the Baltimore area. Went out 2 of the last 3 weekends and only managed 2 Darth Vader PS4 controllers for $5 each and x3 Wii Sports and a Wii Sports Resort for $3 total.

Craigslist/Offerup are filled with dealers. Occasionally see stuff on FB marketplace, but if you don't contact them within the first 5 mins its normally PPU.  

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mchittumjr said:
Been a very slow start to the year, I think MikeTV is stealing everything good in the Baltimore area. Went out 2 of the last 3 weekends and only managed 2 Darth Vader PS4 controllers for $5 each and x3 Wii Sports and a Wii Sports Resort for $3 total.

Craigslist/Offerup are filled with dealers. Occasionally see stuff on FB marketplace, but if you don't contact them within the first 5 mins its normally PPU.
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Ha, I haven't been south of Baltimore for quite some time! Don't want to step on a fellow CAGers toes.

 
Mike_TV said:
Ha, I haven't been south of Baltimore for quite some time! Don't want to step on a fellow CAGers toes.
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I mark my territory at goodwill. Found a really bad scratched super smash brawl for wii that had disc warp and I think scratches from the top.

I built a pedestal out of DVD's and stacked in on top in view for display, came back a few hours later to check on it and that puppy was gone. Someone's getting a negative feedback or return.

 
First sale had the PS3 for $5 and a bunch of sports autographs from some PA teams. I snapped up these 3 for $2. He also had a bunch of signed hockey sticks and trading cards, but he didn’t have any big name players.

Second sale had a stack of DS games but no cases. I ended up waiting for 10 minutes, but they couldn’t find the carts. $6 for the cases and books.

The PS1 case and games were $4. The guy also had a lone NES cart and explained that it was the only one he forget to sell to the local retro game shop. He told me that he wanted to play all of the old games again so I had a quick chat with him explaining emulators. He seemed ecstatic.

The Wii U console, games, N64 camera, and controllers were found at a sale where the people already sold their games. There’s also a move controller not pictured. I asked the kids if they had any more and they brought out a bin loaded with 360/3DS/Wii U games. Nothing really caught my eye aside from the few I bought. There were a few more plush figures that I wanted, but I ran out of cash, something that usually never happens. $35 for everything there.

It was a good day of lootin. Remember, always ask. I wouldn't have gotten half of today's finds if I didn't.

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