Official 2009 Yard Sale Thread

I went to six sales and, nothing. So, upset, I went to Blockbuster and nabbed the following new games for the 360: Guitar Hero III ($5), Armored Core 4 ($15), and Sega Rally Revo ($10). They had a bunch of other stuff, but I didn't bring much cash with me.

One garage sale that did advertise games never took place. I drove by the address twice after it was supposed to start. Kinda ticked off, but whatever, I'm happy with my other purchases.
 
Bought a complete copy of Zelda Majora's Mask N64 with manual, leaflet, box in yard sale weeks ago for $5. I was the first to show up in the morning. Sure, not a hot deal but still, good price. =)

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Went yard saling for the first time this past weekend (google maps sucks by the way) and hit up a bunch of yard sales. the first one advertised games, I went 15-30 minutes early the people told me they sold it to someone who came at 5:30 am even though it didn't start until 7am :bomb:. I went sale to sale and did not find any games because someone already bought them (probably the same guy) or they just didn't have any. It wasn't a total bust... I got Independence Day sealed on DVD for $2 (I know the movie isn't the greatest but I like it). I don't think I'll try yard saling again... I hate driving around a lot. Sticking to flea markets and CAG :D

Thanks for reading...SHAQ-FUNAKI AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
[quote name='Shaq-Funaki']Went yard saling for the first time this past weekend (google maps sucks by the way) and hit up a bunch of yard sales. the first one advertised games, I went 15-30 minutes early the people told me they sold it to someone who came at 5:30 am even though it didn't start until 7am :bomb:. I went sale to sale and did not find any games because someone already bought them (probably the same guy) or they just didn't have any. It wasn't a total bust... I got Independence Day sealed on DVD for $2 (I know the movie isn't the greatest but I like it). I don't think I'll try yard saling again... I hate driving around a lot. Sticking to flea markets and CAG :D

Thanks for reading...SHAQ-FUNAKI AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/quote]
I really hate dealing with people like that. The neighborhood sale I went to this morning started at 8 when the paper said 9, and there were people there at 7:30. It was also very busy when it usually isn't that bad. I'm guessing more people are out looking for deals with the economy the way it is.
 
the real million dollar question is wether yard sale game prices this year are going to be lower then ever before, or higher then ever before (because of the economy).
 
[quote name='Ye0ldmario']the real million dollar question is wether yard sale game prices this year are going to be lower then ever before, or higher then ever before (because of the economy).[/quote] So far, prices have been about the same as they were last year. There have definitely been less sales though. Though I didn't start yard saling until last summer, so there'll probably be more this summer.
 
I am lucky I live in a rural area.

Not a lot of people Ebay here.

I got a Sega Saturn (power cord only) and a GB Advance SP (no charger but mint screen) for $15.

I dunno if I am ever going to top last year... I got a Japanese PS2 and 48 PS1 and PS2 games for it. (however, the only one in English was FFX International) I paid $100.00 but I felt it was well worth it. I already made back $35 by selling two of the games to friends.
 
I hit up the two yard sales in my town today and it was a fairly crappy day. At the first, I snagged a Thomas and a Power Rangers VHS for .25 each for my nephews, as well as He-Man volume 4 for my He-Man loving friend (again .25). I was shocked and slightly tempted by... Shane's World Volume 21, for a quarter. Yeah... a porno in abox with pretty much all kid's movies.

After getting home, I decided to walk a little over 2 miles the outskirts of town (in the other direction of my house) to a multi-family yard sale. I get out there and... junk pretty much. I ended up buying an 8 port ethernet hub for $2 for my dad (he needs something just to hook his printers up to). I mainly bought it as I didn't wanna go home empty handed. The only video games I saw were there... Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for the Wii for $125 (too steep for a yardsale price and a game that's pretty much worthless even new now) oh... and the back case with no disc to The Italian Job for the PS which I think was accidentally left in the box of VHS tapes.

My feet hurt. :( Hopefully next week is more decent.
 
[quote name='Shaq-Funaki'], I went 15-30 minutes early the people told me they sold it to someone who came at 5:30 am even though it didn't start until 7am :bomb:. [/quote]

That ALWAYS happens in this area. There are good sales here but people get up really early in the morning and go to the sales at like 5 and 6 AM...

I suppose you just have to get lucky or look for stuff that most people don't know the value of.

I have a job where I have to work late. There is no way I can get up that early.
 
I went to another neighborhood sale today. It was very busy and a small neighborhood. I found nothing. I did find a few sega master system games at sale I went to yesterday.

For $3
Ghostbusters (cart only)
Alien syndrome (cart only)
Missile Defense (case and cart)
 
Nothing gaming related today but i got a few cool things:

Microsoft Office XP edition sealed
American Psycho Dvd
A Mighty Wind dvd
$6

2 Vintage He-Man "vehicles" (Horse w/guns and a praying mantis, think that was Hordaks)
Inhumanoid tree figure
$1.50

A pair of fencing foils. Decent shape, one is better than the other
$4
 
Saw a bunch of large black case PS1 games... all crappy sports game. I think most of them were $1.

All I grabbed were some $1 CD's
David Bowie - Changes
Incubus - Morning View
Vanilla Ice - To Extreme

Not bad for the first real weekend of sales.

I missed one that advertised Xbox games by like 10 minutes (stupid work).
 
First weekend of sales for me:

Got a box that looks like its for genesis games that says "game stuff" on it for 1$ then I got Nintendogs Dalmation and friends for the DS for 4$. The sticker price said 5 but I gave them 4 and they took it, it was loose cart only. I think I did pretty good.

What are you guys paying for DS games, and what do you think is a good price to pay for them if you see them in the wild?

I don't think I can possibly top last year either, it was truly a record year for me when it came to game buys.

Pricing is based from sale to sale here, I don't think you can really predict prices as a whole because its always different. If someone seems to want a lot for everything at the sale then I just walk and go to the next sale (there will always be another sale).
 
YARD SALE FINDS:
i4qo20.jpg


Dreamcast (no cords, fuck I forgot about those and assumed they were in the box. I think I overpaid because there aren't any.)
2 First Party controllers
2 3rd party controllers
4 3rd party VMUs
Soul Calibur (complete)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (complete)
Crazy Taxi (disc only)
Sydney 2000 (disc only)
$10 total.

clear purple GBA
intec protector glove thing
Pokemon Crystal (cart only)
$3 total

Age of Empires III (sealed)
$2

stuffed Mr. Garisson
50 cents

MS Office 2003 upgrade
50 cents

LOTR figures (sealed)
$1

EZ CASH SUPER PAWN:
Overlord (360, complete)
Tales of Symphonia (complete)
.hack// vol. 4 Quarantine (complete)
$7.99 each
 
WOW!!! Another week with no finds!!

the local Game store has been out like crazy competing with me but they have not been finding anything either. my new strategy this year is posting in the garage sale category on craigslist telling people I will take games off their hands before the garage sale, It's panning out for me, but competition is alreadyu poping up on that front also!!
 
Actually had some time this weekend to stop in at a few sales, the game selection was ass though. Went to a few sales listed on craigslist advertising "video games" that I couldn't contact beforehand (no contact info, only the address and time of the sale). They all had nothing but crap.

So I stopped by a couple of other sales as I was running about LA, and at one a lady was selling her husband's old Beattles records. She wanted $2 a piece, but I CiF'd her $10 ($5 and 5 $1's, to make it look like more LOL) and scored 12 albums, all originals as far as I can tell, records mostly in excellent shape with various levels of quality to the original record holders:

White Album x2 (one is missing record #2, these are 2 record sets)
Magical Mystery Tour x2 (one has the insert photo book inner pages torn out)
Hey, Jude
Let It Be
Hard Day's Night
Abbey Road
Yellow Submarine
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Beattles '65
Introducing the Beattles
 
[quote name='Sinnbox']
the local Game store has been out like crazy competing with me[/quote]

I was getting that feeling last year.

Hopefully this year will go better.
 
I don't know who is competing with me whether it's the local game store or another ebayer but I know there is someone because fir example when I went to one garage sale this weekend the guy said someone bought a bunch of old ssega and nintendo cords he had and also asked for game stuff. The average yard saler here either doesn't know enough English to ask about game stuff or is looking for antiques and could care less about it so I know it's competition.
 
[quote name='Sinnbox']WOW!!! Another week with no finds!!

the local Game store has been out like crazy competing with me but they have not been finding anything either. my new strategy this year is posting in the garage sale category on craigslist telling people I will take games off their hands before the garage sale, It's panning out for me, but competition is alreadyu poping up on that front also!![/quote]

I forget, are you in Indy or Fort Wayne? It definitely seem like there is more competition here. I've heard from some people running sales that they've had people arriving like a hour early to sales. Honestly, my finds in my area have always been quite modest, but have rather declined over the last year.
 
[quote name='erehwon']I forget, are you in Indy or Fort Wayne? It definitely seem like there is more competition here. I've heard from some people running sales that they've had people arriving like a hour early to sales. Honestly, my finds in my area have always been quite modest, but have rather declined over the last year.[/QUOTE]

I'm in decatur/Bluffton. i have heard that McVans sends scouts out in Ft. Wayne, that may be your problem up there. My problem here is the Book Nook, and a private Flea Market Seller, I know for a fact that the book nook has been comming up empty handed this year also, so i'm not sure who to blame, possibly mcvans has decided to send scouts down here this year.
 
[quote name='Sinnbox']I'm in decatur/Bluffton. i have heard that McVans sends scouts out in Ft. Wayne, that may be your problem up there. My problem here is the Book Nook, and a private Flea Market Seller, I know for a fact that the book nook has been comming up empty handed this year also, so i'm not sure who to blame, possibly mcvans has decided to send scouts down here this year.[/quote]
Could be McVans or ebayers or flea market people? I don't know. At times, I wonder if the area is just been tapped dry of classic game stuff. I'm thinking I might need to try different areas of the city or spreading out into the rest of the county.
 
Got a Banjo-Kazooie Soundtrack this weekend (looks like it was a Best Buy promo item) for $0.50.

No luck on games though. Maybe next weekend!
 
Wow, I think I already had my Garage Sale find of the year last Saturday.
Was the first sale we went to, advertised video games in the ad. There was a huge folding table covered with games and movies. About half PS2, then some PS1, Dreamcast, SNES, N64, a few NES and two Genesis games.

I looked through them, talked to the guy who was standing nearby. His English not so good. He gave me a total for what I was holding, $18.00, then he called over another guy. I looked for another minute, then asked the second guy if he would sell them all together.

Offered him $100. He said ok, but not including these, pointed to the ones I had picked out. I said, alright, I've got $112 for everything, do you have a box to put it in? We agreed, they gave me two nice plastic totes, I packed everything up, paid him, took it to the car and headed out. Got back to the car and my wife is laughing at me says I'm just about bouncing I'm so happy.

Finally counted them tonight, 155 games including 4 sealed, 12 movies, an Action Replay and some demos and previews. I'd say only about a third are sports games. Standouts are Force Unleashed, Arc the Lad, Goldeneye, Ready 2 Rumble, Mace, Marios Bros., Alien Hominid, Gungrave. Just now as I as counting them I saw NBA 2k3 for Gamecube, and was like woohoo!, then I realized I was thinking of NCAA.
 
I know there is plenty of classic stuff, It just seems that people are holding on to it, I know the local game stores cant keep them in here in Decatur, and bluffton,
 
'tis the season. I'm psyched for this summer's yard sailing, it's odd how much fun I find it to go to yard sales in search of retro gaming goodness. Not even playing the games so much as finding good deals, building a collection...hell I even kinda like cleaning the games. Remember to post pics people, it makes this topic so much more interesting.

Gonna hit up a neighborhood yard sale this weekend. These seem to be hit or miss for me, either I score a lot or score almost nothing. Last neighboorhood sale I scored like Parappa the Rapper (PS1), Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy XII, Destroy All Humans 1 and 2, Jak 2, Jak 3, Ratchet 2, Ratchet 3, Resident Evil Outbreak, and like 5 other PS2 games all for $15...but then the sale before that I got a Rubiks Cube for 75 cents. Woo.
 
I have a question for the more experienced yard salers here. If you see something like an NES and 15-20 games marked at like $70, how do you approach the haggle? I feel like I'd be outright insulting them and get nowhere if I just offered $20. Or do you just pass it by?
 
[quote name='Macheezmo']I have a question for the more experienced yard salers here. If you see something like an NES and 15-20 games marked at like $70, how do you approach the haggle? I feel like I'd be outright insulting them and get nowhere if I just offered $20. Or do you just pass it by?[/QUOTE]

I'd just pass on something like that if it was abunch of common games and something that realistically is really only worth about that even on some place were they could get more money like eBay. If I was more interested in it I'd make an offer I'd be willing to pay and if they didn't want to play ball I'd politely ask if they would reconsider and come down in price if they were still sitting on it at the end of the day. If they don't seem interested in any of that it's really no use if they won't come down much if at all as they would surely rather just sit on it if they can't get the premium they want for it.

Also look for something wrong with it has a reasoning behind your lower offer (bad condition NES games that may not work, missing parts etc.) Also I've never done it before but I do remember SnotKnocker suggest in a case were somebody gets insulted coming back with a "hey you can't blame a guy for trying" to try and lighten up the mood if they ain't too pleased with your offer :D
 
[quote name='Macheezmo']I have a question for the more experienced yard salers here. If you see something like an NES and 15-20 games marked at like $70, how do you approach the haggle? I feel like I'd be outright insulting them and get nowhere if I just offered $20. Or do you just pass it by?[/quote]

FOnewearl's advice is spot on, absolutely SPOT ON. Honestly, if you can't live without it, then just walk away. But absolutely, at the very least, give it a try. You never know until you make that Cash in Face offer whether you will get a steal, or maybe even a counter offer.

And another option is, if they don't bite for the bundle, try and quickly calculate a "good price on individual games in the bundle.

For example, say you make a bid for a PS1 bundle with nothing good except for a Final Fantasy 7, complete. Everything else is "meh", but the guy wants $100 for a bundle of 10 shit games and a PS1, including that complete FF7. Offer him $5-10 for that game alone, and he might bite. or even $20. If he still balks at it, try and convince him that based on his asking price, it's a great deal because he'd be getting whatever bonus, not including the system, for "just one game alone".

It works very often for me, with cash dangling in the face, plus I don't have to haul home a shit bundle for a crap system I already have enough of - think an N64 plus 10 shitty games just to get a Mario Kart or Smash Brothers, or a PS1 just to get FF7 or some other hot RPG.
 
awesome, thanks for the advice. I've been working on my technique, and that was a situation I wasn't sure how to handle, I was just walking away, but I'll at least give it a shot.
 
it always works better for me to not cif just offer the money because I will always accidently pull more money than I'm offering them out of my pocket.

and if i saw an nes bundle like that I would either make him an offer on all the games that are worth any money, or offer him $30 for all and see what happens, pointing out all of the flaws.
 
WOW, I just got a head up on the copmpetition for this weeks, City wide, I found a way to get phone numbers for all the places that advertised games...Most said they would hold the games for me, and one had me come over at lunch and I got

Xbox system with 2 controllers, and LOTR: 3rd Age
Gamecube games Link 4 swords, and MegaMan Collection
Playstation 2 game: Dragon Quest VIII
N64 Super Pad.

$20!!! That is the Cheapest I have ever gotten an Xbox for!!
 
today was pretty much a bust. There's a festival in a town about 20 miles away, so we went out that way to do yard sales. We hit probably around 30 or so sales, and I got:

2x Gameboy Color (1 yellow missing battery cover, 1 green)
Link Cable
GBC Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
GBC Game and Watch Gallery 3
GBC Pokemon the Card Game
and a carrying case for all of it

Total: $5

This was just sitting on a table marked $5. When I got to this sale there was a guy with a scanner going through a stack of CDs/DVDs. I ran into this guy at like 8 different sales. Another problem I'm having yard saling is when I get something that has someone's initials on it and you just can't haggle it because that person isn't there.

Pink Game Boy Advance with GBA Frogger

Total: $1

No story here either, it was marked $1...

NES w Mario/Duck Hunt (no cords or controllers)
SNES Rise of the Robots
SNES Jurrasic Park
N64 Perfect Dark
(some books and other stuff my wife got)

Total: $5

This was at the first sale we passed, but it was closed at the time, so it ended up being the last one we went to. The NES was sticking out of a box marked Goodwill right at the front of the sale and the games were tucked on a shelf. This sale was *huge*. It was a barn packed full of stuff. The aisles were like 2 feet wide and things were stacked on shelves really high up. We spent probably 20 minutes scouring the area for stuff. CIF'ed a $5 and he took it.

There should be even more sales tomorrow so we're going back out.
 
[quote name='karkyco']FOnewearl's advice is spot on, absolutely SPOT ON. Honestly, if you can't live without it, then just walk away. But absolutely, at the very least, give it a try. You never know until you make that Cash in Face offer whether you will get a steal, or maybe even a counter offer.

And another option is, if they don't bite for the bundle, try and quickly calculate a "good price on individual games in the bundle.

For example, say you make a bid for a PS1 bundle with nothing good except for a Final Fantasy 7, complete. Everything else is "meh", but the guy wants $100 for a bundle of 10 shit games and a PS1, including that complete FF7. Offer him $5-10 for that game alone, and he might bite. or even $20. If he still balks at it, try and convince him that based on his asking price, it's a great deal because he'd be getting whatever bonus, not including the system, for "just one game alone".

It works very often for me, with cash dangling in the face, plus I don't have to haul home a shit bundle for a crap system I already have enough of - think an N64 plus 10 shitty games just to get a Mario Kart or Smash Brothers, or a PS1 just to get FF7 or some other hot RPG.[/quote]

I had a situation similar to this last week. There was a game boy Color lot for $30 with 4 Pokemon games and several junk titles. Although the seller didn't want to break up the lot, I was able to convince her that by selling me the 4 Pokemon games for $10, and selling the rest of the lot at $25 to someone else, she would actually make more money.
 
[quote name='darkslime']it always works better for me to not cif just offer the money because I will always accidently pull more money than I'm offering them out of my pocket.

and if i saw an nes bundle like that I would either make him an offer on all the games that are worth any money, or offer him $30 for all and see what happens, pointing out all of the flaws.[/QUOTE]

I usually go to another part of the sale and discreetly pull out what I am willing to offer then I go and do the CIF. It will work about 97% of the time.

Also, get yourself a tote bag or bring some sort of bag with you. It will save you the problem of not having a bag to put your precious finds in, especially if you are going to multiple sales on the same block or walking from sale to sale. The sellers usually have bags but its a pain to walk down the street with a N64 or something slightly heavy that is tearing the bag they give you, and you might run into a sale where they are out of bags. You can make your exit faster and get to the next sale faster if you don't have to wait for them to bag up the merchandise too.
 
Found a great score at a rummage sale today. I got Chrono Trigger, FF II, FF III, Gradius III, Starfox, Link to the past, 7th saga, Super Star Wars, and Super Empire Strikes Back for .50 a piece for the SNES. All but Chrono Trigger are still in the original boxes. They originally had $8.00 on each of them but I took up some without prices and they said .50 a piece, so I grabbed the rest.

What do you think?
 


Curse of Monkey Island $2 complete
Super Nintendo $25 It's complete except for a the game. It's more than I should have spent, but the box is in awesome shape and so is the console. It is in very good condition. I'm debating selling, but I really like having boxes for my consoles. The lady threw in the playstation games for free. There really isn't anything of value there.
 
[quote name='gccboy']Found a great score at a rummage sale today. I got Chrono Trigger, FF II, FF III, Gradius III, Starfox, Link to the past, 7th saga, Super Star Wars, and Super Empire Strikes Back for .50 a piece for the SNES. All but Chrono Trigger are still in the original boxes. They originally had $8.00 on each of them but I took up some without prices and they said .50 a piece, so I grabbed the rest.

What do you think?[/QUOTE]

Wow great deal!
 
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Today's finds were a bunch of PC games. Actually, I found them last year too, at the same house. I looked through them but didn't know the value on anything, then came home and checked eBay for Planescape and found that it's usually good for around $50! Seeing it there again this year was a very nice surprise. Some of the other games are still worth a few bucks, too.

Blade of Darkness
Daikatana
Daggerfall
Enclave
Gunman Chronicles
Heretic II
Lands of Lore III
Lionheart
Omikron: The Nomad Soul
Outcast
Planescape Torment
Quest For Glory V
Realms of the Haunting

Total: $10

Also a non-yard sale find yesterday that I'd also seen before! I spotted a PS2 Network Adapter in Walmart's clearance section for $20 a couple weeks ago, checked the eBay price at home, and decided to grab it if it was still there later. Last night, I found it in a different clearance section for $10! Not bad at all, one of the few Walmart clearance deals I've come across.
 
[quote name='gccboy']Found a great score at a rummage sale today. I got Chrono Trigger, FF II, FF III, Gradius III, Starfox, Link to the past, 7th saga, Super Star Wars, and Super Empire Strikes Back for .50 a piece for the SNES. All but Chrono Trigger are still in the original boxes. They originally had $8.00 on each of them but I took up some without prices and they said .50 a piece, so I grabbed the rest.

What do you think?[/quote]

Church functions are so awesome.
 
I'm pretty excited for tomorrow. It's supposed to be in the mid 80's tomorrow and there are about 50 garage sales posted around here.

Pretty excited and hoping for some nice finds!

Good luck to everyone tomorrow!
 
I made it to a town wide sale near me today (friday). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go on saturday due to work. About half of the 60 listed sales were up and going. Most were busts, but I did pick up some CD's and DVD's for $15, including two seasons of CSI and Season One of Malcolm in the Middle. The rest of the CD's and DVD's will sell for about $30 on SecondSpin. I also picked up a Sega Nomad for $1. The screen is scratched up, and there are no cables with it, but I've never owned before.
 
I went to a large community garage sale today (benefits cancer research) very few video games but I did manage to grab a bag full of N64 games for $2.

Mostly wrestling games and Turok games.
 
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