Then, the "customer" skips out on Stupendous Man, and calls in Tracer Bullet to hunt him down.

vkimo wrote :
 
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Yeah, since I decided to do this again as of this week I have realized that I need to start hitting up the thrift stores again. They are pretty picked over here in Chicago. There are a lot of them but there are also a lot of people like you, going regularly and making scores. I have a friend who has no regular job, he makes his whole living thrifting and ebaying.

But Mrs steak loves to go. The selection of womens' clothes is way better than mens. She also likes kitchen stuff, jewelry, and various housewares and bric-a-brac. The problem going with her is, she will stay for four or five hours. You know the old jokes are about women going to the mall? That's how she is at the thrift store. I can't stand accompanying her for a full trip more than once a year or so.

Thanks for the tips though, I will start going more, and check out the Goodwill site.

You have to be extremely lucky or be a frequent flyer to run into deals. You used to be able to find all kinds of vintage toys and stuff but now it is usually happy meal toys still in the packages. For games it is gone the second they hit the floor. My local thrifts put crazy prices on anything they think is vintage even if it is from 2012 if it is star wars it goes into the collectibles section. Actual vintage stuff goes for as much as a bidding war on ebay. I usually only luck out finding new books to read or Halloween costume ideas.

Around these parts, there isn't nearly the network of Ebay scalpers looking to make a buck... but there is also nobody with anything worthwhile, taking their goods to the thrift. You'd be more likely to score better stuff at the summer flea markets here.

About the only games I'd be willing to sell are any of the NES games I have duplicate cartridges of. Those would be Top Gun and it's sequel Top Gun II, as well as Bases Loaded and it's sequel, Bases Loaded II.

NLogan wrote :

You have to be extremely lucky or be a frequent flyer to run into deals. You used to be able to find all kinds of vintage toys and stuff but now it is usually happy meal toys still in the packages. For games it is gone the second they hit the floor. My local thrifts put crazy prices on anything they think is vintage even if it is from 2012 if it is star wars it goes into the collectibles section. Actual vintage stuff goes for as much as a bidding war on ebay. I usually only luck out finding new books to read or Halloween costume ideas.
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Even if there wasn't people swooping up that stuff, it'd still be really uncommon. NES is what, 30 years old now? The stuff that hasn't been broke and thrown out is probably stuffed in a attic or kept for sentimentality. I remember as a kid seeing tons of MOTU and TMNT toys in the bins, just as now all the toys are somewhat recent.

Most kids who played with the "vintage" stuff have long since grown up, and they're folks have likely long since donated it. Look at the game section now, you'll see tons of PS2 games...and those too will be scare in another 5 years.

I actually dislike "scalpers" even though I basically am one. Not just because I see them as competition but I actually enjoy it and get into what ever product I sell. Unlike the middle aged mom funding her purse collection by finding a copy of Mario Kart she knows nothing about and slapping a 30$ price tag without even testing it!

And lastly my brother in law does the same thing, and he showed me a video of when he went to Hawaii and visited the Goodwill. They set up a table with all the donated goods and have it roped off. A buzzer rings and everyone rushes the table. It was pretty pathetic but I could imagine the slim pickings on an island haha

blueluigi wrote :

About the only games I'd be willing to sell are any of the NES games I have duplicate cartridges of. Those would be Top Gun and it's sequel Top Gun II, as well as Bases Loaded and it's sequel, Bases Loaded II.
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Thanks but no thanks      
I had Top Gun when I was a kid. I didn't like it. Of course I would still play it sometimes when I was bored because I had more of an attention span then. (Hell, I even played Star Voyager a few times a year back then) I could usually do the first level without dying. I think I only beat the second level once. One time I played Top Gun 2 and felt about the same. As for baseball, I preferred RBI and Nintendo's own "Baseball" to Bases Loaded.

vkimo I agree about the scalpers. I can't blame a collector who has extras. But it's annoying when people who don't care about the product price gouge.

NLogan you're right, that's why I'm gonna start going to the thrift store again regularly
One time we rented a car and hit up about ten thrift stores in a day (seriously, there's a lot here). I was on a mission for old video cameras. I got one that day. Not as much as I hoped for but satisfactory, It wouldn't surprise me to come home empty handed.

Vaporman I would kill for good flea markets. Around here they are mostly socks, cheap new garbage, and stolen tools and bicycles.

rakesh, you wild and crazy guy! 

Again I'm so mad I gave away my games. I guess the guy I gave them enjoyed them though. I haven't seen him since I moved away. Back then I had discovered emulation and had every game on one CD that I could play on Dreamcast, so I thought carts were out of style. Later (about ten years ago) I wanted a gold Zelda cart just for display. I got one on eBay easily for a few dollars. Good luck doing that now. But I still have it. I wonder how the battery is. I'll find out fairly soon I guess.

I sold my Nintendo and all my games (around 200) for a down payment on a ring for my soon to be wife. I wish I still had them but I have been married now for 15 years so I got the better end of the deal. It makes me wonder though when I see some of the games I had going for a pretty penny if I could have gotten more for them if I had waited a little longer. I gave my Atari system and games to a friend when I upgraded to NES. He still has them. 

200 games and it was only a down payment? That ring must be a doozy.