OFFICIAL 2006 Yard Sale Thread

[quote name='Ilovephysics']Great thread. I've done similar threads on gametz.com exclusively for pawn shops in the past. A few things have changed, but still a lot of great deals out there...

I have found the local pawn shops are starting to catch onto ebay/gamestop pricing with a very hardline tilt, i.e., if you won't pay the $8 for a N64 controller, someone eventually will... which is to say it has become important to just be able to walk away if they won't cut you a deal. Even though we may not see the same level of incredible NES and SNES deals around here, it does seem like there will be a ton of used PS2 and XBox games that will be easy to come by in the next few years..[/QUOTE]

Ya ebay is really killing the used games market. People at this sites like this one, pawn shops and garage sales are all less and less likly to sell their stuff on the cheap because they now know they can get 10x as much on amazon/ebay.

Anyways. I went riding my bike today, all I really found is a complete copy of Kings Quest IV for $0.50 so not a great day but hey I needed the excercise. I found one sale with a ton of old Atari Games but it was an old red neck who insisted on $1 a cart and the games wre dirty as hell.
 
[quote name='Jimbo504']I decided to copy your idea and made a similar post on craigslist in my area. I just made it about half an hour ago, and already got a response saying:

"I have a lot of old game systems, games, controllers, little bit of everything.

Would you be interested in coming by and taking a look?"

sounds promising :D[/QUOTE]

I did this awhile ago, and all I got is people wanting to sell me overpriced Xbox / PS2 games and systems.
 
[quote name='shipwreck']Maybe it didn't seem stellar to me since I already had Super Mario All-Stars and 2-3 copies of Super Mario World. I really just wanted the mini SNES.[/quote]

If you want to unload that copy of Mario All-Stars for cheap, let me know :D
 
[quote name='Roufuss']I did this awhile ago, and all I got is people wanting to sell me overpriced Xbox / PS2 games and systems.[/QUOTE]

I just got a response of someone trying to sell me an atari 2600 with like 10 games for $70!! what the christ. I got an atari with 30 plus games from my neighbor a few years ago for $5.
 
[quote name='Jimbo504']I just got a response of someone trying to sell me an atari 2600 with like 10 games for $70!! what the christ. I got an atari with 30 plus games from my neighbor a few years ago for $5.[/quote]

i think people must send out outrageous prices just for kicks...i got a email asking if i wanted an original Xbox with 10 games for $450:roll: ...it just makes you laugh
 
[quote name='Jedi1979']i think people must send out outrageous prices just for kicks...i got a email asking if i wanted an original Xbox with 10 games for $450:roll: ...it just makes you laugh[/QUOTE]

Ya I got two more offers today for stuff that was insanly high priced...I mean these people want ebay or higher prices. But iv got one potentially really good one and I had a second where someone was willing to give me a game for free and sell me another and a PS2 for alot less then ebay prices.
 
Alright, well I've always wanted to, but now that this thread got a spot on the front page, I'm actually going to go out tomorrow. I've got a list of 10 sales (I have to start small) all in my town that I'm going to hit up when they start around 9 and 10...I'm not expecting to find any big deal my first time out, but it's just a start...within a few weeks, I'll probably start going across the county and making it a daytrip instead of just a few hours. Thanks for all the tips and encouragement in this thread!
 
One tip I have to add is to keep your eyes open for signs, dont just assume the sales you have from news paper and online listings are the only ones out there. Alot of times you can start off going to one sale and with your eyes on the look out for signs find 3 other sales not listed in the paper in that general area.
 
[quote name='Jedi1979']i think people must send out outrageous prices just for kicks...i got a email asking if i wanted an original Xbox with 10 games for $450:roll: ...it just makes you laugh[/QUOTE]

I got like 2 or 3 of those, and I realized my area sucks ass.

There is NEVER anything good on Craigslist, yard sales are a bust... the only good thing Tampa has is its pawn shops.
 
Any one know of a good site (besides mapquest) to plan more than more then one stop for my cheapass gsaleing, I have like 25 that I am going to tomorrow as I need some other console since my dang 360 is dead again
 
[quote name='MrX']Any one know of a good site (besides mapquest) to plan more than more then one stop for my cheapass gsaleing, I have like 25 that I am going to tomorrow as I need some other console since my dang 360 is dead again[/QUOTE]

Ya I was talking to someone about that earlier. Someone needs to create a mapquest type thing where you can put in a bunch of addresses and it makes you a route.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']Ya I was talking to someone about that earlier. Someone needs to create a mapquest type thing where you can put in a bunch of addresses and it makes you a route.[/QUOTE]

mapquest has that feature, though its not entirely self sufficient... you still need to put the addresses in in order to get the best route, but it does allow you to put multiple stops in. after you put in the first address for directions, there is a little part on the page that says "add a stop to your route" or something like that.

also, got another, more promising response from craigslist. a woman emailed me saying she has an NES with approx. 15 games and would sell it to me for $15. I sent her a response asking for a list of games.
 
Well, I will say that I was encouraged by the link to all of the good finds. Ebay has hurt deal finding at the pawn shops (I have had pawns look up an item in front of me just to make sure I wasn't screwing them! what nerve!), but at the same time, there are still plenty of people who don't know what they have... I think now with pawn shops, as i said, the best deals may be with finding some decent mid-generation and current gen deals... i.e., PS2 and Xbox games that they've been stockpiling and will need to ditch (hopefully Rez, Gitaroo Man, Disgaea, etc.), possibly some solid N64 and DC finds. N64 is a solid pawn shop system for a solid gamer looking to just play some quality titles... cheap, solid games in cart format (which are strudy and hold up well), top-notch games were somewhat common and don't have crazy-high values and most pawns just want to ditch the stuff..

Now, I sometimes wonder with some of the better garage sale deals (e.g., like when you find a cheap copy of FF3 for SNES, etc.) if the parents are selling their kids older games without them (their kids) knowing... makes me sometimes think of the scene in High Fidelity movie (Nick Hornsby book) where John Cusack's character comes across a mint record collection that a scorned Ex-wife/girlfriend of another collector is giving/handing the stuff away for free and he (Cusack) is refusing to take without paying fair value because it felt undeserved... but then I think to myself, there is NO WAY my mother would do that with my games because she would know better! And I know this for a fact because I tell her what it is all worth (and she'll call me when she has a yard sale to ask me what she should sell). So, heck, in my mind, it is that's kid's fault for not keeping his mother up to date... then again, I suppose that kid will only make that mistake once..
 
i'm really interested in that neo geo pocket that they got. anyone see any others? i did pick up a game cube for $35 a month ago
 
Well my community is having a sale starting in 45 minutes, so im getting ready to throw an old backpack on and get a nice morning walk in. Im hoping for the best and i saw at least 10 houses getting ready yesterday during the day so im figuring there should be plenty of sales.
 
Well, I had to call it an early day today because of family stuff, but I guess my first yardsale trip was somewhat successful and also educational. I hit about a dozen sales about half of which had games. I ended up buying at only one sale where I got a SNES with all hook-ups, a copy of Aladdin, Street Fighter II Turbo, Bart's Nightmare, some baseball game and a couple other games, two controllers, a gameboy color, pokemon silver, pokemon yellow, pokemon puzzle, and pokemon pinball (all games are no box) for $7. She wanted $5 for each package, but I CIF'ed her with 7 and it was a deal. Also saw the other end of the spectrum...an N64 with 2 controllers and 2 games for $20...I obviously passed on that. Next weekend I'll really start to look and probably go out of my area, but I'd say I got a good feel for the whole yardsale scene today.
 
[quote name='TUBAPRO1']Well, I had to call it an early day today because of family stuff, but I guess my first yardsale trip was somewhat successful and also educational. I hit about a dozen sales about half of which had games. I ended up buying at only one sale where I got a SNES with all hook-ups, a copy of Aladdin, Street Fighter II Turbo, Bart's Nightmare, some baseball game and a couple other games, two controllers, a gameboy color, pokemon silver, pokemon yellow, pokemon puzzle, and pokemon pinball (all games are no box) for $7. She wanted $5 for each package, but I CIF'ed her with 7 and it was a deal. Also saw the other end of the spectrum...an N64 with 2 controllers and 2 games for $20...I obviously passed on that. Next weekend I'll really start to look and probably go out of my area, but I'd say I got a good feel for the whole yardsale scene today.[/QUOTE]

I'm extremely proud of you. A successful CIF transaction on your first outing. keep up the good work. My finds today to follow.
 
Went to some garage sales today...only deal I got was the first sale we went to a little before 8 am...glad we were early. I bought 25 complete cds...good bands...25 cents each. Also bought The Police box set (4 discs) at the same sale for $1.00. These people were just giving their cds away...damn. I almost bought some of the discs I already own just to trade but decided not to be greedy. I left about 20 cds because I either already own them or I didn't like the bands. I guess this couple switched over to mp3s or something.

Here's the box set I got for $1.00:

http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-POLICE-BOX-SET-EXC-1977-1986-EVERY-RELEASE-SOME_W0QQitemZ260000462096QQihZ016QQcategoryZ307QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
[quote name='gizmogc']Passed on a Miracle Piano System for the SNES in box...I'm a moron.[/quote]

I don't believe they made a Miracle Piano for the SNES...just the NES. And yes, they're expensive, so if it was under $50, it was probably worth grabbing.
 
[quote name='TUBAPRO1']Well, I had to call it an early day today because of family stuff, but I guess my first yardsale trip was somewhat successful and also educational. I hit about a dozen sales about half of which had games. I ended up buying at only one sale where I got a SNES with all hook-ups, a copy of Aladdin, Street Fighter II Turbo, Bart's Nightmare, some baseball game and a couple other games, two controllers, a gameboy color, pokemon silver, pokemon yellow, pokemon puzzle, and pokemon pinball (all games are no box) for $7. She wanted $5 for each package, but I CIF'ed her with 7 and it was a deal. Also saw the other end of the spectrum...an N64 with 2 controllers and 2 games for $20...I obviously passed on that. Next weekend I'll really start to look and probably go out of my area, but I'd say I got a good feel for the whole yardsale scene today.[/quote]

You probably could have got the N64 for $10. Part it out for the most money on Ebay...the controllers go pretty high by themselves...around $10 each. Still, I probably would have passed too unless the games were Mario games that sell for $20 each or something.
 
I spent my whole morning yard salin’ for the first time in two years. Wound up hitting about 20 yard sales. Only have three worth talking about.

1. First sale I hit, I ask the wife very nicely if she has and old video games. She smiles and has her husband (a real moron) bring out a whole mess load of Sega games and a Sega genesis. So I look him up and down and ask what he wants for the whole set. he says $40. He just looked it up on ebay. I go, it's really isn't worth that, I will give you $15. (He was really nice so I overshot what I would normally pay for it.) Well he says the lowest he can go is $30, so I walked. I might go back around 3 to see if he changes his mind after seeing no one will pay that for that system and crappy games.

2. About 10 yard sales later, after find no video games and losing hope, I came across a Sega Dreamcast with like 2 games and all the hookups and controllers. I didn't see a price at first so I went to find the owner. I saw a flute for $300 that was clearly worth $20, so I had a bad feeling. Well, it turns out that she wants $75 for it. I offered $10, and she nastily said no giving me the dirtiest look ever. Crazy hick!

3. On one of my last sales, and very disappointed considering what I used to find 2 years ago, I was ready to give up, when I saw a PS One with about 10 games , controllers, and hookups. This thing was in pristine condition, it looked like it was right out of the box. Well, she wanted $25 for it, so I offered her $7. We met at $10. Good deal IMO.

So that is my first war story. I wanted to also thank CAG for having a section like this, it really got me motivated to go yard salin' again. 2 years ago, I went every weekend out of the whole summer and got hauls of vintage gaming stuff. Seems like ebay prices have made people get greedier. Can't wait for next week though.
 
wow, my first yard sale score, all inspired by the yard sale thing on the front page. i am a high school kid, with a license but no car, and i don't really want to bother my parents because they always take me to gamerush and stuff. so i used the bike. woot! i started at 7, and rode around different garage sales, and ended at 9. people must have looked at me weird with all the stuff i was carrying. it was good exercise.

all in all i got

2' male anatomy guy i think its complete (i took it apart so i can put it together myself)(i think i am going into the medical field so i just bought it)
maxtor one touch 160 gb harddrive (no cords or anything)
thousand arms for psx (complete, no scratches) (atlus game, thought it might be rare)
litebrite cube (i think its new, there is tape, but i didn't open it(always wanted a litebrite)
glow-in-the-dark expanding ball thingy (always wanted one)



the damage, 9 bucks

how much do you think each thing is worth individually, i don't think i need all of it. how much do you think i should list the things for on craigslist
 
[quote name='soccerstud652']I spent my whole morning yard salin’ for the first time in two years. Wound up hitting about 20 yard sales. Only have three worth talking about.

1. First sale I hit, I ask the wife very nicely if she has and old video games. She smiles and has her husband (a real moron) bring out a whole mess load of Sega games and a Sega genesis. So I look him up and down and ask what he wants for the whole set. he says $40. He just looked it up on ebay. I go, it's really isn't worth that, I will give you $15. (He was really nice so I overshot what I would normally pay for it) Well he says the lowest he can go is $30, so I walked. I might go back around 3 to see if he changes his mind after seeing no one will pay that for that system and crappy games.

2. About 10 yard sales later, after find no video games and losing hope, I came across a Sega Dreamcast with like 2 games and all the hookups and controllers. I didn't see a price at first so I went to find the owner. I saw a flute for $300 that was clearly worth $20, so I had a bad feeling. Well, it turns out that she wants $75 for it. I offered $10, and she nastily said no giving me the dirtiest look ever. Crazy hick!

3. On one of my last sales, and very disappointed considering what I used to find 2 years ago, I was ready to give up, when I saw a PS One with about 10 games , controllers, and hookups. This thing was in pristine condition, it looked liek ti was right out of the box. Well, she wanted $25 for it, so I offered her $7. We met at $10. Good deal IMO.

So that is my first war story. I wanted to also thank CAG for having a section like this, it really got me motivated to go yard salin' again. 2 years ago, I went every weekend out of the whole summer and got hauls of vintage gaming stuff. Seems like ebay prices have made people get greedier. Can't wait for next week though.[/QUOTE]

At least you were successful at one sale. :)
 
[quote name='Rictor']Went to some garage sales today...only deal I got was the first sale we went to a little before 8 am...glad we were early. I bought 25 complete cds...good bands...25 cents each. Also bought The Police box set (4 discs) at the same sale for $1.00. These people were just giving their cds away...damn. I almost bought some of the discs I already own just to trade but decided not to be greedy. I left about 20 cds because I either already own them or I didn't like the bands. I guess this couple switched over to mp3s or something.

Here's the box set I got for $1.00:

http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-POLICE-BOX-SET-EXC-1977-1986-EVERY-RELEASE-SOME_W0QQitemZ260000462096QQihZ016QQcategoryZ307QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem[/QUOTE]

Awesome score on The Police man!
 
I hit about 25 or so sales. The day started out REAL slow as many of the sales had not opened before 8 am. So, I just made the rounds to ones that were open til they did open up (not that it was worth the wait...lol). I found a couple of T-shirts for our boys and then a couple of bags of larger sized action figures at two sales. After that it was a REAL dry spell of not finding anything. However, I did run into my Father at another sale...lol. He was out killing some time and had found a little stuff.

Things were looking pretty slim for me finding anything. One SNES sports game (no thanks) was about it. I finally hit a sale where I found 4 DVDs for $.50 each...Battle Toshenden The Movie, Inayusha movie, Me Myself & Irene and a Dave Chappelle comedy concert. Gonna watch some and then trade em for credit at a local store.

Directly across the street two guys were having a sale where I picked up a good find. It was a Fog F/X machine (makes fog and lights up) in the box with an extra jug of juice for $4.

The only game item I found today was at the last sale I went to. It was a Sega Genesis Power Base Converter in the box (looks new like it was never unwrapped/used) for $1. Gonna use it for trade in credit probably too.

Not a great day, but the cheap fog machine (bring on halloween baby!) and cheap DVDs was kul.
 


I'm keeping my yardsailing to a minimum. I hit 20 sales in a three hour span 8:30 to 11:30.

First sale I hit I scored

XBox unit and A/V cable
Turbo Grafx 16 complete with Turbo tap and 4 complete games
Legendary Axe
Bonk
Ninja Spirit
TV Football

I asked the guy how much for the TG16. I did not see the Xbox which was semi hidden under some blankets The guy said he was selling it for his grandson who just got the "new one" and that he wanted $40 for everything. I then hit him with a barrage of question.
Do you have the plug? - No
Are there any controllers? - No
Are there any more games? - No
Do you have the CD thing for the TG? - No
Does everything work? - I think so
I can give you $20 (CIF) - Ok
i tested the systems and they work perfectly

Another sale had a bunch of PS2 and GC complete games all marked $10, $15 and $20.
I spotted Ikaruga marked $10. I asked the kid at the sale if he could do any better on the prices. He said he could and what did i want. most of the games I already had or was not interested in. I asked How about this holding out the game. He came back with give me $7. I immediately CIF him with "I can give you $5" He took it. I've been wanting this baby for some time. I recently got sniped on a Ebay auction that was at my $30 max. I guess the Cheap Ass gods had my back

Let me finishwith the WTF story of the year so far.

I went to a sale with lots of chic crap for sale. There were dolls, lotions, perfumes and just about every other useless piece of shit you could think of. I asked the lady about videogames. A look of surprise crossed her face then she told me she threw out 2 pillowcases full of games and systems. She said she had the Nintendo system and "the Super" which I'm guessing was the SNES. After she told me I literally said out loud WTF! A look of surprise crossed her face again.
 
Been awhile since ive been yardsalin' (been in Europe, Germany specifically, to see the US lose in the world cup; but, all was not lost as there was tons of jager and german beer consumed). Hit up about 20 sales, most were baby clothes and such.

Finds:
Streets of Rage 2 (complete)
Aladdin (complete)
Sparkster (complete)-- made by Konami, looks like a late release on the genesis, almost looks like a Rocket Knight Adventure clone; if anyone knows about this game, feel free to post... My genesis is on the fritz
$1

Star Wars LP unopened .50

Klax (lynx, box, complete) .50

Joshua Tree U2, Jimi Hendrix Experience LP's $1

The Fragile NIN .50

Going tomorrow to perhaps see what I missed ---- SNOTKNOCKER, as usual, looks like you made some ridiculous finds....
 
[quote name='snotknocker'][/QUOTE]
:drool: Awesome finds. I wish I could find a Turbo or Ikaruga. There's almost never anything good out here in the midwest.
 
I hit about 60 yard sales today, for the most part over priced junk. I did snag the toy story 3 disc dvd set for 3 buck and a bucket of legos for 2 bucks.
 
[quote name='erehwon']:drool: Awesome finds. I wish I could find a Turbo or Ikaruga. There's almost never anything good out here in the midwest.[/QUOTE]

updated original post with all the juicy details
 
I hit about 9 yard sales today. Mostly junk, I scored some books a nice electric mower, and an NES.


They wanted $25 for the nintendo, I offered $10, I was able to get it for $15. High in my opinion, but because of bubble bobble and the fantastic condition of the games, I couldn't pass it up.

Nintendo
Controller X2
Zapper
Game Genie w/book
19 Games:

Donkey Kong Classics
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game
The Karate Kid
GOAL!
Ninja Gaiden
Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt (X3)
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3
California Games
Bubble Bobble
3-D Worldrunner
Cybernoid
Rad Racer
Anticipation
Golf


That dreamcast for $5 is a nice find.
 
[quote name='IkilledLassic']Been awhile since ive been yardsalin' (been in Europe, Germany specifically, to see the US lose in the world cup; but, all was not lost as there was tons of jager and german beer consumed). Hit up about 20 sales, most were baby clothes and such.

Finds:
Streets of Rage 2 (complete)
Aladdin (complete)
Sparkster (complete)-- made by Konami, looks like a late release on the genesis, almost looks like a Rocket Knight Adventure clone; if anyone knows about this game, feel free to post... My genesis is on the fritz
$1

Star Wars LP unopened .50

Klax (lynx, box, complete) .50

Joshua Tree U2, Jimi Hendrix Experience LP's $1

The Fragile NIN .50

Going tomorrow to perhaps see what I missed ---- SNOTKNOCKER, as usual, looks like you made some ridiculous finds....[/QUOTE]

Play Sparkster it's great. If you have RKA play that too it's even better IMO. One of my favorite Genesis games.
 

1 Sega Master System (AC adapter, AV adapter)
1 SMS controller
1 SMS Sports Pad
1 NES RF cable
1 Outrun (SMS, complete)
1 Great Baseball (SMS, complete)
1 The Ninja (SMS, complete)
1 Black Belt (SMS, cart + box)
1 Choplifter (SMS, complete)
1 Marksman Shooting & Trap Shooting (SMS, complete)
1 World Grand Prix (SMS, complete)
1 Ghost House (SMS, complete)
1 Hang-On / Safari Hunt (SMS, cart only)
1 Genesis model 2 (AC adapter, RF adapter, AV adapter)
1 Battletoads (Gen, cart + box)
1 688 Attack Sub (Gen, cart + box)
1 LaRussa Baseball 95 (Gen, cart + box)
1 X-Men 2 (Gen, cart only)
1 Asterix (Gen, cart only)
1 Mickey's Ultimate Challenge (Gen, cart only)
1 Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen, cart only)
Paid: $3



1 ToeJam & Earl (Gen, cart + box)
1 ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron (Gen, complete)
Paid: $2



1 GameGear
1 GG AC Adapter
1 NHL 96 (Gen, cart+manual+cards, missing cart)
1 NHL 98 (Gen, sealed)
1 Madden 98 (Gen, sealed)
2 World Series Baseball (GG, 1 cart, 1 cart+case+manual)
1 Madden 95 (GG, cart+case+manual)
1 PGA Tour 96 (GG, cart+case+manual)
1 NHL Allstar Hockey (GG, cart+case+manual)
1 Sports Trivia (GG, cart + case)
1 NBA Jam TE (GG, cart + case)
1 Sonic 2 (GG, cart + case)
Paid: $2

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations to all new comers! I hope your adventures were fun, and I hope you join us for the rest of the season!

41 sales today, pretty nice weather too. There weren't many advertised OR unadvertised sales, but we figured everyone would still be in vacation mode.

At one sale run by an older woman, there was this incredibly bratty 10-year old who had just convinced his mom to buy this framed picture of a wooden chair and flowers (not sure why he wanted it, it was random as all hell). We heard the mom say, "Now if I buy you this, you'll be good for the rest of the day, right?" Interesting exchange. So Moiety then asks the woman running the sale if she has videogames (we specifically mention Nintendo, Sega, and Atari just to jog their memories and give them a better idea of what we're looking for, i.e. not current stuff). She says she has a ton of stuff in the attic, but can't remember exactly what, and they are too packed in to retrieve right away. She offered to take our number and call us (which is never fruitful for us anyway).

The brat interrupts our exchange, asking, "Do you have the old Nintendo carts, about this big (motions with his hands the size of the NES carts), from 1985?" The sale-runner shrugs kind of confusedly, and tries to turn her attention back to us. The kid proceeds to throw a tantrum and whine at his mom: "Mooom, if we give her our number, she'll call us! Can we give her our number? I want those gamessssssssssssss!" Meanwhile Moiety writes up our information and hands it to the woman, and the mother gives in and goes to her car for a pen and paper. You'd think she'd take this opportunity to teach her kid about the universal principle of "first dibs", but she folded like an accordian. Never thought we'd be undercut by a little kid!

Not many other stories. We're finding that towards the end of the day, we're getting a lot more "Oh...we sold them earlier today" than we used to. We keep wondering if it's from random people randomly buying video games, or if some flea market vendor is making the rounds or something. Here's hoping for the former.
 
Not many other stories. We're finding that towards the end of the day, we're getting a lot more "Oh...we sold them earlier today" than we used to. We keep wondering if it's from random people randomly buying video games, or if some flea market vendor is making the rounds or something. Here's hoping for the former.
Click to expand...

I hear that. almost every sale I've been to this summer is like that. "Oh yeah, I had X,Y,Z. Someone bought it right away. He was a college kid like you."

when I don't get that, I get "no, sorry, you're the 10th person to ask." :lol:

granted, this is usually in the afternoon when I randomly hit places up on the way to/from somewhere.
 
Wow how do you get the stuff so cheap? I am pretty good with haggling, when I used to yard sale 2 years ago, I got an NES New style system (top loading w/ dog-bone controller) brand new in the box with 20 games for like 3 bucks. I would find boxes loaded with multiple NES systems for under $5 and SNES and Genesis stuff for under $10. Today, a 28-35 year old man who didn’t have kids wanted to sell me a Genesis with mediocre games for $40, going $30 at the lowest because of “eBay”. Or how about the crazy hick lady who had a Dreamcast (covered in dust and grime may I add, with controllers that looked like they got thrown at brick wall multiple times, and two crappy sport games) who wouldn’t budge on $75 and was being quite nasty.

Nowadays, everyone is like "well we can get $XXX on eBay. Yeh, that is total crap. Why don’t you go and do that then? We don’t have the time / knowledge of how. Well here I am with the $$$ and you will never touch the system again. Real nice. I guess it is all luck and comes down to how much the owner wants to get rid of the games and stuff. If the person who actually owns it is selling it, they will want more than a parent or grand parent. If I ever had a yard sale, anything I put out I would be things I would be willing to give away, so any amount of $$$ would be fine. Anyways, can’t wait for next week.
 
Lots of new posters to this thread since we got us a little front page luvin.

Good looking out Cheapy and welcome to all.
 
Well, I've been yardsaling for since the summer began, but I haven't found anything really worth mentioning yet.
Until today. A fleamarket find.

NES Toploader. Two Dogbone Controllers, RF Cables, Power Cables, Lolo 1, 2, 3, Popeye, and LOZ Grey Cart.

It was 26 dollars. The guy wanted 25 dollars for the system, which was pristine,and for another dollar I got him to throw in the five games. What surprised me though was, the toploader was in a bag on the ground. Two PS1's, 2 N64 and an SNES were also in their own little bags, with their hook-ups and controllers. The guy had tons of gameboys in the back of his car. Crappy Genesis games stacked up everywhere. He was A DEALER! And yet...I brought the bag up to him, asked him how much it was, and he sort of looked at it as if he had no idea what it was O_O. I tested it out on a tv the vendor was running off of a generator, thinking that he was selling it cheap because it was broken. It worked perfectly!

I'm cleaning it up with some goo gone.
I've finally found the ONE thing I'm ALWAYS on the lookout for while at a fleamarket/yard sale!
 
[quote name='soccerstud652']Wow how do you get the stuff so cheap? I am pretty good with haggling, when I used to yard sale 2 years ago, I got an NES New style system (top loading w/ dog-bone controller) brand new in the box with 20 games for like 3 bucks. I would find boxes loaded with multiple NES systems for under $5 and SNES and Genesis stuff for under $10. Today, a 28-35 year old man who didn’t have kids wanted to sell me a Genesis with mediocre games for $40, going $30 at the lowest because of “eBay”. Or how about the crazy hick lady who had a Dreamcast (covered in dust and grime may I add, with controllers that looked like they got thrown at brick wall multiple times, and two crappy sport games) who wouldn’t budge on $75 and was being quite nasty.

Nowadays, everyone is like "well we can get $XXX on eBay. Yeh, that is total crap. Why don’t you go and do that then? We don’t have the time / knowledge of how. Well here I am with the $$$ and you will never touch the system again. Real nice. I guess it is all luck and comes down to how much the owner wants to get rid of the games and stuff. If the person who actually owns it is selling it, they will want more than a parent or grand parent. If I ever had a yard sale, anything I put out I would be things I would be willing to give away, so any amount of $$$ would be fine. Anyways, can’t wait for next week.[/QUOTE]

The deals are still out there, and yes there is a lot of luck involved but proper preperation and patience will give you the upper hand. Knowing how to act and react to any given situation will also play in your favor. The CAGWiki covers a lot of usefull info (Thanx evilmax). My best advice is to try and play out the different scenarios when you find a sale with potential and always, always be prepared to work the CIF technique
 
It seemed that (unluckily) every sale I hit today for the most part was families with girls...everything was barbies and horsies...very few videogame items. I might go out again tomorrow to a different area just to see if I can clean-up with some deals from people that just want to get rid of stuff.
 
[quote name='soccerstud652']Wow how do you get the stuff so cheap? I am pretty good with haggling, when I used to yard sale 2 years ago, I got an NES New style system (top loading w/ dog-bone controller) brand new in the box with 20 games for like 3 bucks. I would find boxes loaded with multiple NES systems for under $5 and SNES and Genesis stuff for under $10. Today, a 28-35 year old man who didn’t have kids wanted to sell me a Genesis with mediocre games for $40, going $30 at the lowest because of “eBay”. Or how about the crazy hick lady who had a Dreamcast (covered in dust and grime may I add, with controllers that looked like they got thrown at brick wall multiple times, and two crappy sport games) who wouldn’t budge on $75 and was being quite nasty.

Nowadays, everyone is like "well we can get $XXX on eBay. Yeh, that is total crap. Why don’t you go and do that then? We don’t have the time / knowledge of how. Well here I am with the $$$ and you will never touch the system again. Real nice. I guess it is all luck and comes down to how much the owner wants to get rid of the games and stuff. If the person who actually owns it is selling it, they will want more than a parent or grand parent. If I ever had a yard sale, anything I put out I would be things I would be willing to give away, so any amount of $$$ would be fine. Anyways, can’t wait for next week.[/QUOTE]

I didn't even have to haggle to get my stuff so cheap, I just got really lucky. The copy of FF7 I found was actually buried under some spice rack. Most of the sales I went to had garbage. Across from the Dreamcast were 2 PS1s selling for $50 each with some crap titles like Stuart Little.
 
[quote name='soccerstud652']
Nowadays, everyone is like "well we can get $XXX on eBay. Yeh, that is total crap. Why don’t you go and do that then? We don’t have the time / knowledge of how. Well here I am with the $$$ and you will never touch the system again. Real nice. I guess it is all luck and comes down to how much the owner wants to get rid of the games and stuff. If the person who actually owns it is selling it, they will want more than a parent or grand parent. If I ever had a yard sale, anything I put out I would be things I would be willing to give away, so any amount of $$$ would be fine. Anyways, can’t wait for next week.[/quote]
We've had this exact rant many a time on the ride home from sales. eBay has notably interfered with getting deals at sales and especially flea markets (which we very rarely attend anymore). For everything we've bought, we've passed up lots more due to either the eBay excuse or simply just sale-runners thinking old videogames are worth more. People say things like, "I remember paying $50 for that when it came out." Yeah, what, 10, 20, 25 years ago?

There's also those who drive up the "market" prices, by thinking that videogames ARE actually worth what eBay seems to suggest (and not realizing eBay is a completely different venue than yardsales) I remember we hit a sale last year minutes too late - the sale-runner had an Atari and a handful of games. But not a huge loss... the guy paid $50 for it! Wayyy too much, but some people are willing to pay these inflated prices. Either he didn't know any better, didn't bother haggling, or just felt that $50 was worth it for him.

I guess it could also be argued that "worth" and "value" are different from person to person. When I see a NES, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it, as we have about 10 of them :oops:, but even still it was such a widespread system, they really are a dime a dozen. But to someone who does not even have a NES, they are willing to pay more to have one.

Didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but just wanted to let you know I hear ya! :)
 
Hit up over 20 yard sales today and didn't find a single thing. I only saw one game for the whole five hours we spent searching (it was donkey konga with 4 bongos for $45). Shame, really.

I'll be in Houston next weekend so we'll see if I fare better there.
 
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