The Thrift Store Thread 2009

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[quote name='EDiddy0042']I also found it strange that super nintendo controllers are included.[/QUOTE]

That's good stuff, something is so awsomely wrong with that auction :D
 
[quote name='EDiddy0042']Browsing the Shopgoodwill website and came across this intersting piece. Might pick it up. *snickers*

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=4441096[/quote]

That just made my day. How can they screw up that bad? Three generations of hardware/software in one package. Did they even try to plug the controllers in, because last I checked the ports on the 64 were rounded and the SNES controllers had really long rectangular plugs. Wow, that's awesome.
 
I almost had an incredible find today. I walk into the Goodwill today and spy a CD holder next to some old PS1 games. The holder was marked $6.00. When I go to open it I see an FFVII disc (disc 2) staring back at me. Looking further through the holder I see disc 3 of FFVII, but no disc 1. I was contemplating buying it even without disc 1, but upon examination of the discs, they were literally scratched up to hell. So, I had to place it down and slowly walk away, sadly...
 
none of the goodwills or salvation armies in my area have any game stuff. At least the last time i checked them out anyways.

hopefully someday i'll hit the jackpot at one of these places
 
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I hit up the Salvation Army again for the second time this week, nothing again... I really need yard sales to start.

After leaving, I stopped at the local Farmer's Market, which has a few flea market type tables in the back. There sat two Genesis games in cases in absolute awful condition. I picked up Madden '96 first, which was covered in dirt/mold. It had no price on it and I already have a good copy. I set it back and picked up Olympic Gold Barcelona '92. The case was a little better than Madden, but still pretty haggard. There was no manual but the game looked good and it was only 50 cents, so I snagged it with some pocket change.
 
I checked the one Salvation Army that I went to the last time I was up in NY state around Waverly today and I found that apparently old and crappy PS1 titles are a hot item to shoplift since I found the cases/manuals and artwork for many shittastic games but NONE of the discs were in their cases.

This is the same SA store that I found 2-3 of the Phantasy Star games for the Genesis at the last time I was up that way, but I didn't buy them because the carts were REALLY beat up. One was missing a huge chunk of it's label, another one of them had a major problem with the card in the cart itself. It sounded like it was going to snap off at any second.

If not for those problems, I would've easily bought them.
 
I picked up a Sega Genesis (no cords or anything, though) first model included with the first Sonic the Hedgehog for 4.30 including tax. Not the greatest deal, but I'm happy at least.:)
 
[quote name='Staticbill']I picked up a Sega Genesis (no cords or anything, though) first model included with the first Sonic the Hedgehog for 4.30 including tax. Not the greatest deal, but I'm happy at least.:)[/quote] Oh, hey, is this static from pokemon secure?
It's darkslime. :D
 
[quote name='darkslime']Oh, hey, is this static from pokemon secure?
It's darkslime. :D[/QUOTE]

Yeah it is. Nice to see you! Thanks much for telling me about this site. It's awesome! :D Well , to stay on topic, I visited my local pawn shop but came up short. Passed on Medal of Honor for the Playstation.
 
Would anyone believe me if I said I found this at a thrift store on Friday?

100_8474.jpg
 
Wow that's a good find jlew.

My best thrift store find ever was non-gaming related. A Goodwill store sold me a La Pavoni Professional PRH Lever Coffee machine for $15. I plugged it in before buying it and the basin got hot so I assumed it was fine. When I got it home and inspected it, I think it had made coffee maybe twice tops. Everything was like new, just dusty. I cleaned it up, boiled water in it to clean it, and sold it on Ebay for $736 + shipping. They go over $1,000 new since they are imported from Italy.
http://www.lapavoni.com/model.asp?line=domestic&id=25

My recent good deal was a Brother P-touch 2710 Label Machine with manual, ac adapter, driver cd, and 2 new label refill cartridges for $5.
 
"Would anyone believe me if I said I found this at a thrift store on Friday"

You got your self new tv, because that how much that worth.
 
[quote name='Staticbill']Yeah it is. Nice to see you! Thanks much for telling me about this site. It's awesome! :D Well , to stay on topic, I visited my local pawn shop but came up short. Passed on Medal of Honor for the Playstation.[/quote]No problem. ^_^ I hope you like it.
 
Geez, I was happy I found The Neverhood for $4 today at my Goodwill, but that's nothing compared to a Myriad 6 in 1. Nice find!
 
[quote name='jlew']Would anyone believe me if I said I found this at a thrift store on Friday?

100_8474.jpg
[/quote]

Wow. That's an amazing find. I wish my Goodwill would have something that good.

To the poster above: the Myriad is a great find, but The Neverhood is nothing to scoff at, that's still 100x better than anything I've found.
 
[quote name='jlew']Would anyone believe me if I said I found this at a thrift store on Friday?

100_8474.jpg
[/QUOTE]

fucking awesome! This is, in my opinion, the find of the thread! I guess that people are downplaying it because they don't know how absolutely ridiculously rare this is. You did good. Now.....how much did it cost?
 
[quote name='Cmosfm']fucking awesome! This is, in my opinion, the find of the thread! I guess that people are downplaying it because they don't know how absolutely ridiculously rare this is. You did good. Now.....how much did it cost?[/QUOTE]

Hehe, I paid a whopping $3 for it. I'm still stunned that I found it. Now I'm wondering if I should sell or keep and let it age like a fine wine :) I think I'm going to record myself playing adam & eve on it and submit some high scores to twin galaxies first. Should be easy to get the high score since hardly anyone has the game right?
 
Got Resident Evil: Director's Cut & Metal Gear Solid for PS1, both in GH cases, both in fantastic condition, marked 3 a piece, but were 35% off, so actually got them for just over $4 total. Also saw a random Final Fantasy IX Disc 2 in a random CD case. considered picking it up just because, but it also was $3, and i didn't feel like that was really worth it.
 
Is it really true that the people who work at the salvation army thrift stores take all the good stuff/items with value (including video games), for themselves instead of putting it on the floor?

Anyone here ever worked in an SA thrift store and see this happen? Just curious.

Seems unfair to an extent......

One situation I theorize is that they take all the non-sports video games and keep them and only put the sports titles out. Some of you might have seen only sports games there. No other types of games (not even commons).

Just something that's been boggling my mind lately........
 
I know someone who worked at a Goodwill.

They would take things they wanted, price them for $1, then sell it to a friend.
 
Yep, it's quite well known that Goodwill, Salvation Army and other thrift store employees/drivers cherry pick the good stuff for themselves/their families/their friends.

Just chalk it up to being the fringe benefit of having to work for one of them - you know, getting paid minimal (if not the minimum) wage, having to sort peoples' thrown out trash, etc.
 
what about the dreaded back room we've probably all come across at least once at an SA. The door with a big sign that says "customers not allowed, only employees". Is that where all the good stuff is?

I always peek in and see toys and bins of items.
 
I can definitely see that as a possibility. There are two goodwills close to me... one is always good for scoring games(I just today scored a bunch of snes games: mario kart, yoshii's island/cookie, DKC etc. for $3 a piece), and the other is basically barren of games. I always figured they put their games on that auction site, but there is this one guy always posting games for sale on craigslist who lives not even a mile from that goodwill. I've bought stuff from him a couple of times, and while he could just hoard all the games from there since he lives so close I'm more inclined to believe he's an employee that cherry picks the goodies. For one, basically ALL of the games he sold had GW stickers, and just talking with him gave me the impression that he really did not know much about gaming. He's sold many copies of the same games too so it's hard to believe he's just some guy getting rid of the junk from his basement.

Anyways, it probably should bother me, but I dunno I just don't really care. The other GW still has good deals, plus I kinda feel like the employees deserve that incentive if they're inclined to act on it. Just like any good deal you gotta work to earn it, it's not much different from the lengths us CAGs go to get the jump on a deal if you ask me.
 
Just depends on the people.
the SA near me could care less about anything that comes in.
The goodwill on the other hand has ebay power sellers working there, so they take whatever they know will sell for good on ebay.
 
I've always felt that about the goodwill stores in my area. I've never been able to find much in the way of good stuff at my goodwill stores. Now, I'm lucky to find any video game related stuff at all.
 
Both my sister and her fiance used to work at the same Goodwill- her on register, him on donations. And yes, they did indeed weed out 'the good stuff'. He picked up the donation items (like a sealed GH Legend of Zelda for NES, another guy found and claimed the sealed Tetris first). For the pre-priced items coming from the central wherehouse that went straight out to the sales floor- My sister always called when new games went in the case, just in case something I wanted turned up so she could set it aside.

Is it unfair to the shoppers? Yes. You know what else is unfair?
-Trying to keep the toy aisles not a health hazard becuase half your customers pretend not to speak English when you ask them to not drop their kids off over there like it's a daycare.
-Having customers take down your 'lane closed' sign when you're trying to go on break/lunch/home becuase your line's shorter... then ingoring you when you try to tell them you're not open anymore.
-Mopping up human urine and feces from the dressing room becuase someone didn't want to bother finding a real bathroom (or was just being a dick.)
-Having a manager steal money from the tills while you're at lunch so they can try and frame you for it.

I will never, ever blame any thrift store employee for taking a few 'fringe' benefits. If it bothers you that much, go make friends with the donations guys. It never hurts to have 'connections'.
 
Salvation army also sends certain goods to certain stores right? My store NEVER has ANY toys or games, I mean never. There is no way they can be devoid of any toy donations. They might have 3-4 old board games and some old car seats, that's about it. They are packed with overpriced clothing but the regular electronics, where I never find games is actually cheap. Seems they like to overcharge people on clothing but when it comes to electronics its cheap (8.99 for a working color TV set). Most people want 50$ and over for any color TV at a yard sale, it seems people still think that CRT TV's are worth something...

I buy a lot of games at yard sales in my area so I know there are games in this area. People have boxes and boxes of toys they don't want in their houses, and I know they are donating them, so again, why they never make it to the SA is beyond me.

Did anyone ever try and voluenteer for the SA? If you really want to get some good stuff you might want to try it, although I am not sure if they are allowed to sell to voluenteers. Regardless it would give you a heads up on the operations at your local thrift.

Donate your good things to freecycle people and let someone else have use of them for free, we all know that all the truly good donations go home with the company CEO or head of whatever, or the store manager.
 
I work at the goodwill and if I see something I absolutely want, I sometimes set it aside to buy after work. But not often.
 
I don't think it's necessarily limited to thrift stores. One of my local pawns used to have awesome prices and some real gems until they hired a hardcore gamer/collector on the staff. He wasn't shy in telling me about how he would set aside all the good stuff for himself, and the things that he didn't want he said he was going to make sure they didn't sell below prices comparitve to ebay/gamestop. In a sense I can't blame him, it does get frusterating though.
 
[quote name='Ye0ldmario']Is it really true that the people who work at the salvation army thrift stores take all the good stuff/items with value (including video games), for themselves instead of putting it on the floor?

Anyone here ever worked in an SA thrift store and see this happen? Just curious.

Seems unfair to an extent......

One situation I theorize is that they take all the non-sports video games and keep them and only put the sports titles out. Some of you might have seen only sports games there. No other types of games (not even commons).

Just something that's been boggling my mind lately........[/quote]

Personally, as others have said, I don't blame the employees for wanting the better gaming related stuff for themselves, since the job only pays minimum wage($7.15 an hour here). Mind you, I still find SOME gaming stuff at my local SA stores, but it's rare since a fellow CAG is always hitting them up and cleaning them out of anything good.

On the rare occasions when I've found something I might actually want, it turns out that the case/manual are there but the disc is LOOOONG gone(Spyro: Year Of The Dragon @ my closest SA store).

I'm content to just check out the local game shops and hope the owners price stuff a little too low, so I can get something of a deal. Speaking of which, the one local shop had their PS1 games 3/$5 recently and I need to get back there to grab both Fear Effect games.
 
luckily i have never bought any kind of game to find out there was a different CD in it. Did that happen to any of you with playstation games? Get a copy of resident evil with a cher greatest hits cd lol
 
[quote name='Ye0ldmario']luckily i have never bought any kind of game to find out there was a different CD in it. Did that happen to any of you with playstation games? Get a copy of resident evil with a cher greatest hits cd lol[/quote]
I always check the disc if the case isn't sealed (I've been to thrifts that taped or sealed stuff shut) and if it is I check before I leave the store.
 
[quote name='Ye0ldmario']luckily i have never bought any kind of game to find out there was a different CD in it. Did that happen to any of you with playstation games? Get a copy of resident evil with a cher greatest hits cd lol[/QUOTE]

Never had that happen, but I once got a copy of Rise of the Dragon for Sega CD with 2 game discs inside. Gave the second copy to a friend.
 
[quote name='naruto179']At a local thrift scored a Marvel vs. Capcom for PS1 with disc and case (no manual) for $1.50. Was a good day.[/QUOTE]

That's a nice find. Was the disc in good shape (not scratched up)?
 
[quote name='jlew']Would anyone believe me if I said I found this at a thrift store on Friday?

[/quote]

Quickly! Tell me what state you're in! I promise not to hunt you down and kill you! As long as you're not in Iowa that is. That's a great find indeed. I'm always hoping I'll someday run into something like this in the wild. But so far, it just hasn't happened yet. Did you crap your pants before or after you got out of the store?
 
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