Yard saling has been pretty good to me lately. This week was one of my lighter weeks, in terms of quantity, but I got some nice things all the same. I usually drop about $80. This week I spent about $35.
Total paid: $20. My first find of the day came at an advertised sale starting at 7am which said "please do not come early; we will not be ready and will not sell to you until 7am." I show up at 6:55, and find some middle aged man walking to his car with a stack of games. I spotted Halo 2 Collector's edition on top, and was instantly dissapointed, especially since I "followed the rules" of the sale and was punished for it. Another guy in his mid 20s was in the process of buying a fairly decent SNES bundle (non-yellowed system, cords, a controller, 4 crap games) for $10, but he said "hey, i left you a N64." I contemplated jumping right in and offering $15 for the SNES bundle right then and there (all is fair before an item is paid for, in my opinion), but took a look at the N64 bundle first, and to my delight, it was jungle green, so I let the guy have his SNES bundle without making an offer on it. I ended up with the green n64, its matching controller, a solid green controller, a grey controller (all the controllers had good buttons/sticks), a couple of rumble packs, a pokemon pack (forgot its name), Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, and Pilotwings, and went up to pay. The bundle was marked $30, I offered $15. Sellers (40s mom and early 20s son) commented that they sold another jungle green n64 on ebay awhile ago for more, and that it was the rare jungle green color, but they'd let it go for $20, and throw in another n64 with no power supply for free. I accepted that offer and away I went, fairly satisfied but still thinking of what could have been... Sellers also commented at how they knew the guy was checking prices on the games and how he had been there since 6:20 am. Sometimes I wonder why people make yard sale rules and then don't follow them. Learned my lesson: show up 30-45 min early to your first, top choice sale of the day, no matter what. People say one thing and do another sometimes.
Total paid: $5. I end up at a sale of a former high school classmate at about 8:30am. He was not there, but his parents were, and they were running the sale. I ask if they have any old video games for sale, not seeing any out. They say that they indeed have some old stuff inside, and ask if I'd like to see it. I say yes, and a couple minutes later they bring out what is pictured, plus an n64 and a gray controller too. I go up with the n64, controllers, and games, and offer $10 for all of it. The mother starts with the "Oh, I don't know what it's all worth, let me go check." She goes inside, comes out a couple minutes later, and says that she just checked ebay and saw that an n64 was worth $50. I play this to my advantage (realizing that she valued the system itself very highly) by saying "Well I'm sure that was an n64 with a bunch of mario games with it. There aren't any mario games here, and I'll leave the n64 and the grey controller with you, as well (I need another n64 like I need a hole in the head; I have about 10 currently)." I then offered her $5 for everything pictured, and she hesitantly accepted. The former owner of the stuff (my classmate, the seller's son) was walking up the driveway as I walked away; it's been 5 years since I graduated and we were one year apart; he didn't recognize me). Pretty sure I got a little lucky on that one. I doubt he'd have appreciated his mom selling his stuff without his approval.
I promised pics of a mega find, and here they are. Story to follow after pics.
Total paid: $20 for previous 3 pics, and some other various odds and ends. I left out some rfu adapters, a few cords, third party controllers, and the like, to keep the pictures easy to view. I also left out pics of the broken gamecube with a loose super smash bros melee gamecube disc in it (trashed the cube, sold super smash already). Also did not picture Mario Kart DS (complete), and about 5 or 6 PS1 games (nothing special, each worth about $5 or $10 each).
About a month ago, I hit a community yardsale at about 11am. I had better prospects earlier in the day, so finding all of this at 11am (most good stuff around here is usually gone by 9am, by my findings) was quite refreshing. I have my girlfriend with me, and I let her get out of the car to go check if they have any video games for sale while I keep the car running. I know she has found something if she is there longer than a minute or so, so then I park and get out of the car. We talk with the woman for a bit, and it becomes clear to me that she values all of her son's old video game stuff at nearly worthless, and basically just wants it gone. The seller offers "$15 for everything", less the n64 stuff (which had not been brought out yet). I nearly say yes, but then go further and ask if she has any older nintendo stuff as well. She says "Yes, we have a bunch of n64 stuff in my son's closet, you want some of that too?" I say yes, not trying to seem too excited but am about to jump out of my shoes. She goes inside, and brings out a shopping bag full of two n64s (one with expansion), two controllers, and about 45 games (I forgot to put about 4 in the picture. Glover, Wipeout, Hey You Pikachu, and a few junk sports games). She says take it all for $20. I don't bother negotiating, for obvious reasons. She even helps me take it to my car. For $20, I got all of this. Some of the n64 carts had permament marker on the tops, but I got that out with some 91% alcohol and graffiti remover. About 10 had some perm marker on the label, but I was able to most of that out too. To date, this has been my best video gaming find. These are the types of finds that keep me waking up at 6am every Saturday morning, even after a so-so week or two in a row. Thanks for reading; I'll keep the pics coming as I find stuff worthy of posting.
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