Thread 11933607

What's the best /vr/ related thing you've ever found at a Goodwill/antique/thrift store?

>>11933607 (OP)
They don't sell games at Goodwill stores anymore. They put them on eBay.

literally nothing
goodwill has been pricing their games above ebay for over a decade now

>>11933612
They do but it's all the shit no one's going to buy. Like wiipets or whatever that shit's called, things that aren't even worth the shipping cost.

>>11933612
>They put them on eBay
Close, but not quite. They have their own auction site. Prices aren't terrible from what I've seen.

I work for the fuckers and I see PS3 and PS4 donated pretty often, as well as Xbones.
Not as many Wiis as you might expect, and no WiiUs so far, but a handful of N64s. One regular at my site drops off multiple medium and large boxes packed with Wii and Xbox accessories every month or so. No idea where she gets them.

Best things I've gotten were a limited edition Zelda DS lite and a Gamecube GBA Player disc.

>>11933607 (OP)
The original Descent, floppy version, boxed with the manuals in good condition. That was in 2010 or so, crazy to think how that's near the midpoint between today and the original release. I haven't bothered thrifting in several years, it's all complete garbage now.

About 2013ish, I got eight PS1 games from a Goodwill for 50¢ each. Brave Fencer Musashi, Parasite Eve, Soul Edge, Twisted Metal 2, Twisted Metal 3, Bushido Blade 2, Legend of Legaia, and think the last one was Saga Frontier 2. I also got Robot Alchemic Drive from a different Goodwill a few years later for $2 or $3.

>>11933607 (OP)
Nothing really fancy:
>Donkey Kong - Game & Watch for
~5€ about decade ago.
>CIB Pokemon Red for 20€ couple years ago.

I saw a prototype cartridge of Mother 3 for the N64 at a Goodwill in Pennsylvania. It was $15 but I didn’t buy it because fuck Nintendo

The thrift store around here gets games occasionally but they don't give a shit and price literally everything at $5 so anything good just instantly vanishes the day it gets put on the shelf leaving only the shovelware. I recently caught them right as they were stocking some new games and I picked up Jet Set Radio Future for $5, it was pretty nice.

>>11933607 (OP)
I once bought a GameBoy Advance for $10 from the Salvo's, they seemingly didn't know it had a game in it, Breath of Fire which was a neat bonus too.
Otherwise I found a CIB Phantasy Star for $25 there. My wife was a bit miffed that I bought it until she saw how much it can retail for, lmao.

>>11933607 (OP)
a local game shop sold me a fully working NES "as-is" for $10, and someone else got a SNES (SNS-101) for $20

Everything was a bit cheaper than pricecharting, so it would move instead of just taking up space

It was also my source for Glup Shitto figures

The shop closed this year because the guy got a jorb in game development

>>11933607 (OP)
I have been getting big and small nice crt sets from their back drop-off area all though-out this year. Got 3 Trinitrons during one trip. They should really probably do something to prevent me from doing this.

Otherwise, a few months after covid, i went into my local store and someone had put out a bunch of first party and capcom gamecube games for 99 cents each that i scooped up.

Long ago, in a basket of bras, i found a NES laying on top for 10 dollars. However this was back when things were sane, and being I already had one, I stupidly set it back for someone else to buy.

>>11933607 (OP)
>What's the best /vr/ related thing you've ever found at a Goodwill/antique/thrift store?
Pic related circa 2010.

Diablo 2 collectors edition with box and all contents for $5
Wii, GBA, game gear consoles dirt cheap
Wild arms 2 and FFT for psx dirt cheap
This was all around 2010-2013. I haven't found shit since then.

>>11933704
Based. I would do the same thing in your situation.

>>11933607 (OP)
Philips CD-i 450 for 20€. It was best of finds, it was worst of finds

>>11933607 (OP)
I don't think I've ever gotten anything good from them

>>11933607 (OP)
>Be me in high-school
>go to goodwill some time in the late 2000s
>see original Half Life CD
>Sweet I've never played this before but heard great things about it
>Buy it
>install
>Asks for copy protection
>oh this should be fine it's a game from the 90s it'll surely let me use the same code on a different machine just like my copies of Adobe CS3.
>Type in code
>SORRY YOUR CODE HAS ALREADY BEEN REGISTERED
>end up not playing half life until Valve released it for free for the 25th anniversary.

Not goodwill, but a independent shop:
-Final Fantasy 7
-Power Stone
-Psychic Force 2097
-Marvel vs Capcom 2

2 dollars each.

At another independent shop ran by three old ladies, I asked if they had any video game stuff and they went in the back and pulled out a boxed 32X and 4 boxed games.(Zaxxon, Cosmic Carnage, Tempo and Metal Head)

20 bucks for everything.

>>11933607 (OP)
You are about 15 years too late to be finding retro game deals at Goodwill. The company has caught on.

Now the Goodwill employees just take the games, look up the most expensive price on ebay, and put it on sale for that amount.

If you find any deal on a game or hardware, it's because it's slipped through the cracks and the employees didn't notice.

>>11933858
Not only that, but they have a very gay new way they put any media out on shelves (books, dvds) where they have a section with signs listed as something like "top rated Amazon picks", and everything on those shelves is priced at 5 dollars (or possibly higher), where as before it would just be priced by the normal amount they put media out for. Im fact, my local store only has those shelves now, atleast for movies, with them completely removing the standard media shelves that use to be there.

>>11933607 (OP)
I’ve paid 20 dollars total for two crts at an antique store in SC. One was the 40ish in Trititron from like 2003 I think? It had s video and composite I believe. Shit was rad but huge so gave it away and I regret it. Genesis games really do look unreal on it, oddly enough the n64 looked like shit compared to the other tv I got there: And same place had a tiny crt/vcr combo that I’m currently playing OoT on.

Been to some yard sales in north east Georgia and South Carolina and found some good shit here and there like super Mario sunshine for a dollar. All post covid. I’ve also had a bit of luck on eBay. A couple of posters sold sealed copies of games but weren’t advertising them as new so was surprised when they arrived. Actually has happened quite a few times for example: phantasy star on OG Xbox, most recently (today actually) Mortal Kombat Armageddon (it’s factory sealed but no seal sticker on the top or mid so I’m a little confused if it’s actually new but it’s definitely the original way they were wrapped as a former GameStop employee from the time), final fantasy rebirth special edition came in new although I bought a used one (although since it’s tech no a remake I guess it may not be considered retro) also America’s army, tenchu return from darkness on og xbox, kingdom under fire heroes, mgs3 hd collection and half of gta double pack on og Xbox w gta 3 still sealed. Been pretty lucky. Some even w a description of “acceptable” so that’s been a pretty cool oasis in the desert of current collecting.

>>11933815
Post Covid?

I have over 100 Thinkpads from thrift stores including 2 TransNotes and 6 W701's and 2 701DS's among very early ones. I also have the old HP Omnibooks you can run of AA batteries with the pop out mouse on the stick. Toshiba Librettos, VAIOs, you name it. I bet my personal collection rivals anybody's. And it's all MINE you see? Teeeee heheheh hahahhaaa!

>>11933886
Serious question, what do you do w the thinkpads?

>>11933898
Stack them in a steel cabinet which is locked, and rooted into the floor and walls with plates and QuickCrete and bolts, and periodically charge the batteries and update the software. Everything in my collection is in operational condition. If I can't fix it or don't think it's worth fixing it's outta here.

I have like three of those GRID computers that what controlled the automatic guns in ALIENS. With the nice plasma displays, all working fine.

>>11933607 (OP)
No Goodwill's in my area but one more in the metro area had an N64 once. It looked like it was used to wipe once so I didn't get it. Local thrift stores get games and systems sometimes, I've seen Odyssey 2 games for example. One of them also sells CRTs for under $20. You used to be able to get them under a dollar a while back but they're still very affordable, even if they're getting uncommon.

You guys will really spend hours talking about that time you saved 5 bucks at Goodwill? These are your most cherished memories in life?

>>11933949
Now how on earth do you extrapolate people sharing relevant information to the topic at hand over a shared interest is "one of [their] most cherished memories in life." Do YOU just go into threads to advertise how you don't belong here then wonder why people call you retarded?

>>11933607 (OP)
There was a box for We <3 Katamari at one a few years ago, and thought it was a neat find. Opened the box, and there was actually a copy of Silent Hill 3 inside. Ended up buying it for 50c because they thought it was a book.

found snes turtles in time complete in box at a salvation army like 10 years ago which was fun. my local still gets some vhs regularly and thats where all the real neat stuff ends up being these days

>Actual normal Goodwill thrift store
Dreamcast with controllers and a VMU something like 13 years ago, a few Valve games that unlocked the Goldsrc collections
>Goodwill Computerworks when they still existed during the mid 10s
PS2 fat and slim, various controllers for various systems, Audigy soundcard, Logitech Z-640 5.1 analog speakers, various other non-/vr/ controllers and things
>Other Thrift Stores, within the last few years
OG Xbox, a PS3 Slim for 30 fucking dollars not /vr/
The most expensive thing was the OG Xbox, like 50 bucks at 50% off. Honestly the main thing I go looking for in thrift stores these days are board games, certain consumer electronics and Aloha shirts

Other honorable mentions are an OG Xbox HD breakout adapter, various copies of Splinter Cell for softmodding and a 360 VGA cable from a dollar bin at a retro gaming convention

>>11933607 (OP)
I've given up on goodwill. I haven't found anything in years.

At a different thrift store, I noticed an og xbox in a garbage bin in the employee sorting area. I asked a worker to pluck it out for me and he slapped a sticker on it so I could buy it.
It had a note on it saying "doesn't read discs" but when I hooked it up it read everything I gave it.

>>11933961
Not retro, but at a flea market i opened up a case for True Swing Golf on DS and found Resident Evil Deadly Silence inside.

>>11933607 (OP)
A Turbo Grafx complete in box with Ninja Spirit and Victory Run.

>>11933704
lol if it didn’t require going out I’d actually believe this happened

>>11933607 (OP)
Got a boxed copy of Pier Solar, missing the instructions. Didn't know what it was but was like "Oh cool, a Genesis RPG". Then finding out about all the drama surrounding the developer. The last thing I ordered on their other website was a third AGS-101 for $70, but they shipped it in a bagged envelope without any packaging and the hinge broke. Thankfully the little one still worked and all I needed to do was reshell the top section AND got a full refund.

>>11934351

>Drama surrounding the developer

Elaborate, please.

>>11933858
This depends hard on your goodwill and employment there
The ones near me do not care and everything is put out for $3 like with dvds, regardless if it is madden or silent hill. They put them all behind register too so it is not falling through cracks, they just do not care since clothing makes the bulk of their purchases

>>11934438
fonzie is just a professional hard gay enthusiast
its all a misunderstanding you see

>>11933607 (OP)
Goodwill? A Dell 2007FPB.
I found MKWii and Wii Sports Resort for like 10 bucks each at Salvation Army but technically not /vr/
Back in the day before thrift stores sucked I got a Dreamcast for 8 or so and a copy of SMW (after begging my mom and saying I would play it once I got a SNES, I did but never played SMW)

>>11933607 (OP)
from my local thrift spot in the past 5 years, off the top of my head:
- $5 working PS1 console
- $10 working PS1 with cables
- $~25 PC Engine console
- $25 Sega Genesis Model 1 with the Sega CD mounting plate still attached (which is worth like $25-40 alone just for the plate)
- $10 "broken" PS4 (the power button was out of alignment and worked after 30 minutes)
- Also found a working clean PS4 slim and white controller in a literal pile of trash
- $6 pink clean PS3 controller
- Free Xbox console and 2x $5 Xboxes
- Free 13" Toshiba CRT/DVD combo
- Several free retro PC towers, hard drives and keyboards
- Free Gamecube memory card
- Free copy of PS1 Dino Crisis in a Bloody Roar 2 case
- ~10 other quality 13-27" CRTs
- $1 PS1 games: Crash Bandicoot, Abe's Exoddus, Tenchu, Gran Turismo 2
- $1 PS2 games: Mark Ecko's Getting Up, NFS Carbon, NFS Most Wanted, Sonic Mega Collection Plus, Mega Man Anni Collection
- Some common virtual boy games
- Tons of PC classics that were either $1 or were thrown in a discard bin (SimCity 2K, C&C Red Alert 2, RCT, AOE, etc)

used to work for goodwill and had donators let me keep items like games/gamesboy/dslite

Found these 3 years ago. Haven't found any good deals after.

>>11935470
Man, I miss Goodwill PC games. Snagged MW3 and 4 that way. Heavy Gear 2 is great as well, but I am not sure if it was ever fixed to work on anything past Win XP.

>>11935409
>Dell 2007FPB
why would you want such a shitty and outdated LCD? I see dozens of these at every thrift store. The swivel is cool but the monitor itself is terrible looking.

>>11935470
All of those are worthless anon. You got ripped off paying $1 each

>>11935486
this one specifically has composite input i think

>>11935492
Why would you do that to yourself instead of a modern LCD though? Any composite to HDMI converter and LCD from the last 10 years will look significantly better. LCDs before around 2010 were terrible.

>>11935495
Wtf they are worth $100+ on ebay? I have passed on dozens of these. Fuck. Good find then.

>>11935486
It's 1600x1200, true 4:3 instead of 1280x1024/5:4

>>11935502
That's awesome. I hate that I passed all of them up. That resolution, size, and swivel stand is well worse the LCD not being quite as good as a modern one.

>>11935478
>people upgrade their PCs
>their old games don't jest werk anymore
>game stores won't take them so they dump them off at thrift stores
I miss it. I know most PC games are worthless but I like them.

>>11935470
>>11935478
>>11935505
Few years ago, I found a copy of Drowned God on a otherwise completely empty shelf rack at a goodwill.

>>11933607 (OP)
I used to work at one in a rural town for a couple years.
You would get a whole lot of nothing as far as /vr/ is concerned, mostly PS1 games, occasional PS2.
But I did find a really rare PS1 Pizza Hut demo disk one time and foolishly told my manager to get brownie points. They put it on their website with exorbitant prices.
I should have just shut up, let them put it out and buy it myself.
prolly could have got at least $50 for it. I remember it had Crash on it but not which game.
Besides that, I found Half-Life, Blue Shift, and No One Lives Forever one time. That's it.

>>11935995
Oh, and I found a half-broken SNES one time with Mario All-Stars. Wasn't worth what I payed, didn't even work.
Also, PS; Never bring your CRTs there, they will throw them out instantly.

>>11936000
Does your store take crts to sell to scrap/electronic recycling companies? That's what i was told was done with them at my local goodwill and why i couldn't take them from out back in their drop off area.(i just took them anyway when they were closed)

Lunar Strategy Guide with all the stickers for a quarter.
CIB copy of Bust-A-Groove with a bonus loose copy of Bust-A-Groove 2 in it for 4 dollars.
Sega Saturn for 10 dollars.
Sealed Greatest Hits RE3 for PS1 (with a crack)

That was all at least 10 years ago though. Thrifting where I'm at is pretty bad these days.

>>11936010
We would not sell any CRTs we received, we would load them into the back of the next truck out and what happened to them next I'm not sure.
My guess is that they were recycled, but it's just as likely they were simply trashed in a landfill.
Either way, they get destroyed.

>>11933607 (OP)

TurboGrafX 16 with Keith Courage and Bonk but no Turbopad. Also a mostly complete Atari 5200

>>11936010
The policy is to not accept CRTs at all, neither TVs nor computer monitors.
If for some reason we do accept a CRT, like the literal retard coworker or senior citizen simp trying to get a woman to smile at him, or just some asshole left it by the front door overnight, we put it on the box truck, they take it to the store, and after that it's a mystery to me.
Maybe they have a recycling branch that can tear the copper and gold out of it, maybe they just heave it into the dumpster.

But if you really want CRTs, you might leave your name and number with the poor bastard at the front desk and tell him that people can send them to you.

>>11933607 (OP)
I found an Apple ][ at a St. Vincent Depaul.

>>11933640
I guess the era of used Wiis has come to an end. The GW Computerworks near me (before it became just a donation site) used to have stacks of Wiis all the time for $20 each.

>>11936171
Maybe its a regional thing then. Im in PA and all the Goodwills around here put up signs saying "WE NOW ACCEPT TVS", so ive been seeing loads of crts dropped off in the donation area, but only the flatscreens ever go out for sale. One of the drones told me i could take them when i asked, but then another said i couldn't because the electronic recyclers take them and once something is dropped off, you cant take it. I just go a grab them when they are closed, but it seemed like for a while they may have been putting them in a trailer to prevent people from picking them up.

>>11936653
Some Mexican lady 2 months ago in a small shop sold me 6 Wiis for 26 dollars in total + a 10 dollar gameboy.

>>11936661
>Maybe its a regional thing then.
It could be, from what I can tell each district seems to run mostly independently.

>>11933607 (OP)
Not at a goodwill, but I found a Sega Genesis Model 2 with all of its cables and both controllers for $14. Not only that, but it was 50% off, so I ended up paying $7 for it. That was in 2022.

>>11933607 (OP)
I found a GBA with a Japanese copy of the Fire Emblem game with Roy for less than ten bucks.

>>11933607 (OP)
In the box Famicon. The cables were still in plastic and twist-tied.

$10

This was back in the 90s.

>Jumping Flash! 1
>Silent Hill 2 and 4
>Animal Crossing 1
>Thousand Year Door
>SG ProPad 2
>PS2 DVD Remote

There are some treasures out there to be had lads, you just have to look. If anything it made me happy to nab these before the scalpers got them

>>11937727
Buying something at goodwill or a thrift store and reselling isn't scalping you fucking retarded faggot.

>>11933607 (OP)
Good question, probably all the big box PC games I have found in there new sealed, stuff like empire earth, TA Kindgoms, Starcraft, they used put them on a shelf with board games and party games. I already had a collection from back in the day but I found got a lot more checking that place out once a week and they were never more than a couple of dollars, I got a lot of hardware too different consoles and games Ps1/2s/2600s/7800s/Pong Machines, joysticks, chess computers and handheld LED games before the stuff suddenly went up in price and that was a while ago not during covid like people claim but years before. Lots of PS1 and PS2 game and 360 games and PC DVD case size games.Not just games stuff either, I remember finding really funky TRPG stuff like old editions of call of Cthulu and Dungeons and Dragons Red boxes, manuals, modules for peanuts, all that's long gone now, games are rarely anything other than sportsball of DS brain training gank if they have any at all and games electronics just never shows up anymore. Even decent sci fi or fantasy books are rare now and even interesting DVDs and Box sets are priced close to ebay (getting quite high for some now). Hard to pic one thing and it has to be retro so I will go with many big box PC games. It's not long ago thinngs liek comepleet wiis were less than ten dollars in these places as stuff like PS2 conntrolers and xbox controllers about a dollar.

They are only worth looking in for DVDs and blue rays now and even that's drying up

>>11937727
I found SH4 with a manual missing but they wanted $75, they out here checking ebay now

I remember my mom called me up from a thrift store and asked if i was interested in a small plastic case with some game boy games in it. I almost told her to pass on it since i had all the games, but it was 6 dollars, so i said sure. Had Pokemon Crystal, Silver, yellow I think and some other cheap stuff like Dr. Mario inside.

>>11933607 (OP)
I have never found any worthwhile gaming item at a Goodwill, even back when it was supposedly better for that. I never really see gaming stuff at thrift stores in general.
Goodwills really fucking blow, honestly. They’re easily the worst thrift stores in my area. Half of the stuff on the shelf is actual garbage, and the other half is priced too high.

Picrel for 4 bucks in 2011, it released in 2003, so it's technically even retro.
Otherwise I just got a few CDs over the years. Nox and roller coaster tycoon 2 are ones that stick out to me.
When I was really little I think I got Qbert or some other educational game from them.

ages ago I got a virtual boy for $15. Which I stupidly sold when I was trying to move out of my parent's.

>>11937890
My mom got me a boxed VB for 20 at our local thrift shoppe. Boxed NES also for that price from a salvation army, which i recall thinking was a little high priced.

>>11937896
what year was that?

I passed up a nice looking 2600 once because it was around $20 at goodwill, thinking it was overpriced. I didn't want to ask my mom at the time.

Recently I got ripped off buying speakers that don't work, and I paid just barely under ebay price for them. Goodwill is a pale shadow of its former self

>>11933607 (OP)
Goodwill is garbage now, as are all thrift stores, can buy new stuff cheaper than used now, so they failed.

>>11937916
Would have been early 2000s most likely. I still had my nes, so at the time, it felt even more like a frivolous purchase since "why would i ever need/want a duplicate system i already had?" mentality on my part, but it was cool to get it in the box with everything still in the plastic and fresh manuals.

There was another chain thrift store i use to always find great shit at. Was next to a chink food and sushi buffet, so every Friday my family would go there. Found a 2nd(my 3rd) Virtual Boy there for 3 dollars, a boxed Vic 20, a table top DK Jr. Game&Watch, boxed LucasArts pc games like Day of the Tentacle and Sam&Max, and just tons of genesis, nes and n64 games. Was also the only shop i ever found a TurboGrafx game in. Now the place is shit, where even vhs tapes cost almost 5 dollars, but a few years ago i stopped by and i still managed to get one of the PSP Legend of Heroes games that goes for about 100 dollars.

13 years ago I found a yellow DMG and Pokemon Yellow at a thrift store for cheap. I actually didn't buy it, I should have. I was a dumbass back then.

>>11937938
The problem is that they want to send all the stuff that's valued $100 or above (or in some instances as little as $50) to ECOM/Shopgoodwill. I work at one of the stores and personally find it bullshit because you come to Goodwill hoping to find neat/cool shit. There is some stuff that gets put out like a near mint copy of the first issue of Nickelodeon Magazine, comics (which they flip-flop or whether they need to go automatically), and video games

What bothers me the most is that consoles go to ECOM without question when I feel like we could really stand to make a decent profit off of them at the stores instead of letting randos bid on it and charge them insane amounts of money for shipping

>>11938219
You make a good point about that, used to be able to find dreamcasts and Gameboy advances there back when, but yeah now they just sell them all online. Goodwills gotta change

Are those retail outlet Goodwill locations where they wheel out carts full of shit every couple minutes good for finding vidya?

>>11938247
People would just buy stuff to resell online once it became easy.
Wherever there is money to be made with less effort, it will ruin nice things.
Once physical stores learned that, they just started dying it themselves.

Have you people VISITED goodwill in the last 10 years? Almost none these rare gaming find stories happen any more.

Consoles/Nintendo/Handhelds/etc almost always get separated and often put on shopgoodwill auction website. It's extremely rare for consoles to be low priced. No more cheap Nintendo Wiis and Nintendo 64. That era has passed.

>>11933607 (OP)
Got a PS1 with Crash Team Racing still inside it for $20, I think this was back in 2017. Unfortunately I was too much of a tendie back then and ended up returning it because I couldn't think of anything I actually wanted to play on the system. I kinda regret it since the cheapest PS1's right now that look presentable are $70 on eBay, but these days I'm just not enough of a gamer to actually finish *any* game so any given PS1 is better off with someone who'd play stuff on it instead of collecting dust with me.

>>11933607 (OP)
Every Goodwill in my area has sucked for anything electronics related for probably the last 10 years. The last two things I remember finding were a copy of Super Monkey Ball 2 and a phat DS. However, when I took the DS to the counter the cashier literally took it out of my hands and refused to sell it to me. However, most, if not all of the stuff isn't sent to their auction site, but actually to a gaming focused electronics store they operate in my area called, The Grid. It originally was a Computer Works but it rebranded sometime in 2014. The store has since changed location and kinda sucks now, but the original store was actually not a bad place to shop. They had really good inventory and often priced things below eBay or as a different item so you got a cheaper price. I did visit the new location last year and the store is about half the size and everything is way overpriced. I think most of their stuff is sold on eBay. Shame. Nowadays, I usually go to Goodwill to look for CD's. Recently picked up Oso by Soul Coughing and Blossom Dearie's self-titled album. But, I actually saw a couple Xbox 360 games and a PC chess game which never happens. They are really good at making sure no games get on the sales floor, so not sure if this is a policy change or not.

>>11938267
>People would just buy stuff to resell online
at least you COULD buy stuff
there's no reason to step foot in a goodwill now

>>11933607 (OP)
The last time I went to goodwill I saw a big greasy fat guy talking on the phone in front of the electronics section. It was probably one of you guys.

Only reason to go to goodwill nowadays is to shoplift CDs and DVDs. I did find a copy of Action 52 there fifteen years ago, but finding stuff line that now will likely never happen again. Most good stuff gets listed online.

>>11938312
I found 5 PS2 for $5 each just a month ago and MGS Twin Snakes for gamecube yesterday. I'm going to sell it all on ebay for a solid profit. Goodwill still has good shit you just need to get there first.

>>11938745
>Stealing $1 DVDs and CDs
Genius move, Tyrone.

>>11938362
fuck you anon I'm not greasy

>>11933806
now sell it all for 3000 on ebay

>>11933640
>Prices aren't terrible
For some stuff, it's not bad. It's the shipping that kills it as an option for me. Some items have 15.99 for shipping within the same state.
At least some ebay sellers offer free shipping.

>>11933607 (OP)
Goodwill sells their shit on their auction site or sells it on Ebay directly. What to look out for are mom and pop thrift stores, specifically in lower income areas in big cities. Places where no white person would be caught dead. The indigenous population cares little for such things and the people working there almost never know, nor care what they have. I still find some of the desirable Xbox and PS2 games around those places for not that much. I got Manhunt, Manhunt 2, Silent Hill 2 and 4, Gunvalkyrie, a few wired and wireless guitar hero controllers for PS2 and 360, some DS games, etc on one of my last trips.

Not even trying to be racist but the overwhelming of black people in the hood don't have any interest in retro vidya or vintage electronics. I got a pretty badass Sony surround receiver from the early 00's at one for $20 and I got a couple of the black Dell CRT monitors a couple years ago. Just know there's a good chance of getting killed. Dress like a fent head in a dirty jean jacket and your worst pair of jeans, you'll be fine (probably).

>>11938362
I would never talk on my phone.

>>11938895
>Dress like a fent head in a dirty jean jacket and your worst pair of jeans, you'll be fine (probably).
If you're going to dress the part, you might as well carry your gun.

You people are talking events from like 15 years ago. Back in 2000s and early 2010s, Goodwill was great. It still carried the "only poor people show there" taint among the population. You would say Goodwill and most people would think "Ew. That place is full of used clothes and is gross."

Then YouTubers ruined it with their "Goodwill raids" videos and bragging about reselling them for huge profit. This caused scavengers and people who don't even care about games to raid Goodwills everywhere. Then Goodwill caught on and raised their prices. Now a majority of the store is priced near retail.

I absolutely hate YouTubers for doing this.

>>11938827
When is "first" exactly? They put stuff out all throughout the day.

Tons of NES SNES Sega PlayStation and PlayStation 2 and occasionally Gamecube games from GoodWill. The best find was Chrono Trigger for $1.99 from GoodWill and a huge stack of Famicom games from a Texas Thrift Store for 99 cents each

>>11938895
I can back these claims, though these are also the types of places that will try and get way over value for absolute shit just because they dont know no better. The pawn shop in the ghetto-y section of my lil shit hole was a mecca of 6th gen games, 3 for 10 dollars. Got an ass load of cube, ps2 and xbox games there and most of the high price ones.

Also not 2nd hand, but Five Below use to be a fuckin great place to get games. They would get a bunch of the stuff normies didn't buy, so they ended up with a shit load of copies of stuff like Chulip and Monster Tale on DS. Goodwill also actually would get a lot of unsold store stock as well. I remember one near me had boxes of copies of that good Aliens Infestation game on DS for 10 dollars each. Ollies and Big Lots could also be good places to snag deals. Ollies in particular always had big box pc games and i recall in the mid 2000s they had loads of Genesis WisdomTree titles.

>>11939007
YouTubers ruin everything.

>>11939007
This is why yard/garage sales suck now. Flea markets are still slightly better, but you really have to get to them when the sun hasn't even risen yet so you can compete with the resellers who buy up everything of value before normal folks show up.

>>11939046
You always had to get up early for flea markets to compete with other buyers. The reseller boogeyman is in your head. It's just another business like anything sold for a profit.

>>11939019
I'm not going to tell you when and ruin my profits. Figure it out yourself.

>5 broken OG Xboxes for $10 with bad caps which I refurbished and modded
>a broken PS3 slim for $15 with pennies in the disc drive
and profile picture of a blunt smoking towlie
>pristine copy of NES Kirby for $6
>pristine copy of Secret of Mana for $5 from the bottom of a random box
>a LEAP FROG TABLET loaded with games

>>11939116
No he's partially right, except the problem is Ebay. Everyone and their mother who has a booth or a garage sale looks everything up on Ebay. Not only that, but people now have absorbed through osmosis that old computer stuff, old TVs, old video games, old records, etc are worth money. Online marketplaces have also raised prices at the source. Really the only chance you have of getting stuff like that is estate sales.

>>11939116
No, not really. I know from experience because i go every weekend and I specifically know who the resellers are that go after all of the games and pop culture collectibles and re sell it at their stores or conventions. Hell, im chummy with a few of them, and even they admit they have to get there early to compete with the other resellers. It also results in vendors holding on to stuff and only selling it to these weekly resellers, so that adds another layer to desirable stuff even being put out in the first place. I have going to these things since the early 90s, and it's much more cut throat now.

>>11939119
So stand around all day and wait as they wheel out the fresh stock carts, got it.

>>11933607 (OP)
I found a loose Haunting PoulterGuy for Genesis at a Goodwill over a decade ago. I found a Box for an authentic Lazer Tag Game Kit from the 80's at a family run thrift store. Honestly I never had a lot of luck at thirftstores for /vr/ I used to find PC games in CD cases, but that stopped to.
Goodwill should be investigated for their online auctions store. I think there's FRAUD happening.

Once saw a display case filled with Game & Watch. games. But I was new to thrift stores, so I thought, "maybe next time..."

>>11933607 (OP)
A sealed copy of Secret of Mana at a local thrift store about 20 years ago, along with numerous other NES, SNES, and Genesis games. Eventually the owners got wise (I think their kids tipped them off), and started putting everything video game related up on ebay.
Have never found anything worthwhile at Goodwill, not even when people were dumping their Wii shit.

>>11933641
You're very lucky. Big Thrift Stores like GoodWill and SalvationArmy by default have thrown away all floppy disks for over thirty years. Whether they were factory labeled or not.
That's why games on floppy are so rare now. Thirft stores destroyed them all.

>>11937890
I got a virtual boy for $30 at the start of covid. It was missing the eye-guard, went back the next day and found it. Went to the cashier offering to buy it but she gave it to me for free.

Things got retarded after that with welfare queens camping out everyday.

>>11939116
>You always had to get up early for flea markets to compete with other buyers. The reseller boogeyman is in your head. It's just another business like anything sold for a profit.

Stop pretending like you go to flea markets. If you are going to to troll, then use more believable bait.

I've been going to flea markets for years and it's gotten much worse in the last 10 years. Everyone has their phone out looking at prices. And all old gaming and popculture stuff has been marked up.

>>11938312
When I say thrift store for me that means charity stores that support specific charities and I visit them regulary to hunt mainly for books and DVDs. I used get a lot of games and bits in them for very little, including games that have now become pricey like resident evils and spyros for the PS1, controlers, PC games, 2600 cartridges etc but that era is gone. Best finds were old big box PC games but I did get quite a few consoles and handhelds for peanuts and also replacement for games I had cracked cases on that much later developed value, PS1 spyros, crash stuff like that.

The best place the young collector could go today is estate auctions but the whole hobby has become professionalised and there will be reto stores and dealers bidding for lots for stock :-(

Flea markets have gotten slightly better, in the sense I no longer see resellers going down the row of cars waiting to get in to set up and asking every person "ya'l got any bideo james?" Probably because now the sellers also wised up.

>>11939214
>The best place the young collector could go today is estate auctions but the whole hobby has become professionalised and there will be reto stores and dealers bidding for lots for stock
There is a local auction i go to and if any video game lots come in, the people who run the auction call up this one guy with a game store whom comes in and just drops 1000 dollars on every lot. You can really only get anything if he cant show up that day.

>>11939192
>I got a virtual boy for $30 at the start of covid.
How shit was it really? I assume you tried it? The only one I saw looked brokem by its owner but it's not stuff I have a strong interest in and I don't resell so I passed.. Until carboard and later VR/Glasses the only cools ons for me were the early Nvidia LCD shutter glasses, a handful of anaglyph 3D games and movies and the VFX1 playing descent (that's a great game if you have never played it excellent soundtrack). I do not care for nintendo generally though.

>>11939231
I still find occasional lots but I'm in an odd location and have a general intrest in things like antquitarian books and weapons so look at auctions a lot. I don't see that much to get excited about usually either usually 360s or PS2s unboxed with some sportball or DSs, occasinally cooler stuff like wheels/pedals or sytems boxed with a greater ragne of games. My ipression is that many auctioneers have not yet generally realised that retro games have become valuable and while they will scrutinisemany categories of antiques old electronics and video games often gets sold to clear, they will wise up though, you sometimes see them puting in single lots of old FIFA becaus ethey managed ot sell a set of silent hills or something and it is like they struggle to reaslise that the games have different values ! They will all start pricing via ebay or pricecharting inevitably though. Focus on auction houses that do real estate and are selling off house clearances.

>>11938834
True, I prefer supporting the salvation army. Goodwill and value village can suck it.

>>11933607 (OP)
when i was 7, back in 2007, my mom found an entire nes collection with console, lightgun, and controllers. it was like 5$, and nowadays, it would be like $10k. i gave it away when i was like 9 to my cousins because i was forced to no longer play games. insane find.

>>11939409
Those kind of finds were pretty common in the 90s and early 2000s. I got a similar collection around 2000 for 10 dollars at a yard sale that was just sitting on the ground under a table, not even up on display.

>>11939423
i can imagine, as the tech just slowly moved on.
>on the ground under a table, not even up on display
damn, lol. id probably freak the fuck out if i saw that. insane it was only 10$, though. how times have changed.

>>11939409
>when i was 7, back in 2007, my mom found an entire nes collection with console, lightgun, and controllers. it was like 5$, and nowadays, it would be like $10k.

Don't be upset about the money anon. It wasn't worth $10K back then. And even so, it would require you to hold onto the collection for 20 years. Very few kids could do that.

The real question you have to ask yourself is did you enjoy the time you had with the NES? I would be disappointed if you didn't get to play it.

>i gave it away when i was like 9 to my cousins because i was forced to no longer play games. insane find.

This is a noble thing. Don't regret it. Maybe your cousins enjoyed it. Regardless, it was out of your hands.

>>11939478
>Don't be upset about the money anon. It wasn't worth $10K back then
oh, i couldnt care less about the money. its just that that sort of find would be impossible nowadays
>did you enjoy the time you had with the NES?
i loved it. lots of good memories with my mom and i wouldnt trade those for all the gold bullion in the world.
>Maybe your cousins enjoyed it. Regardless, it was out of your hands.
i dunno if they did, they had a playstation. but like you said, it was out of my hands, so i never really gave it much thought. i enjoyed it, and thats all thats ever mattered.

>>11939185
We've actually gotten in several big box games that I went out of my way to put out. Namely Doom, Diablo 2, and a collection of the older Maxis titles. All of them were in fantastic untouched condition too

>>11933702
>picture
I found one of these too. I was a retarded kid, and I thought it looked like a Nintendo DS, so I slapped a giant "Nintendo DS" sticker on it (which I later cleaned off).
Other than that not much honestly. I would hit up the local 2nd hand equivalent of Goodwill and buy lots of cheap computer stuff, though. Stuff like mice, keyboards and mousemats. Although once I do recall finding a mystery console, I was too young to know what it was at the time. All I can remember is that it was black, about the size of a PS2, looked way older though (had one of those analogue TV-to-System antenna cable switches) and had a somewhat rectangular shape gamepad. It's something I think about every now and again, what that system actually was. I've thought it could have been a Turbografx-16, but those systems were exceedingly rare where I live (Scandinavia) so I sincerely doubt it.

>>11933607 (OP)
you literally cannot get anything good at goodwill any more. Either the employees or it gets shipped off to their online store for video games.

>goodwill

I wish. Over here there are no second hand stores, only antiquaries that take donations but only of valuable furniture. Sometimes you also see second-hand book stores but if you want videogames you gotta hit up videogame stores, and I suppose the best I ever got was Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (GBA, retro) for 5€. Honestly I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought it was a repro or a version in albanian or norwegian but no, full english, fully working.

Social media and YouTube has made scavengers and opportunists try to make money off anything old.

Sorry but your carefree days as thrifters and bargain hunters is over.

Hijacking this thread to say stick to your own principles. One of mine is never buying anything I can't see unique images of. I found this on Amazon
>Amazon
Yes that's the point of the story
for significantly less than the digital edition listed as "Used - Mint" and look what came. Thankfully none of the disgusting mess was on the boxart and the disc inside was fine, so I salvaged an intact case I had lying around and everything is good now. You can sort of see the top and it's even worse when viewed straight on, it looks like someone hit it with a hammer. Look for good, unique pictures, ask for them if you're not satisfied by the listing, and don't buy from Amazon. Fuck

Wasnt there some thrift store that had a video game sale and all the local game shop owners came and just dumped everything into a cart(or maybe it was one guy from a store who then bragged about it)?

>>11942302
On the flip side my new Earthworm Jim is great

>>11939176
same, some are worth 1000 USD on ebay i still have nightmares mate

>>11942302
The Pixel Remaster Collection isn't even that old, how is the case already in that state?

>>11942367
I have no fucking clue. Gross, isn't it? I keep all my games in my entertaininment center drawers and have air filters in both rooms with consoles in them. I can't imagine taking this little care of my stuff

>>11942395
>entertaininment
Killing myself

>>11940503
Might have been some famiclone

Used games from garage sales, marketplace/craiglist, even lots of common games from ebay are better sources than thrift stores these days.
I very rarely find any decent video game or computer stuff at thrift stores and I go to several stores each week trying to find cheap good for the place I moved into. I found some very nice things like tv mounts, furniture, AV receivers, and seemingly unused BDU pants. I prefer local stores to Goodwill.
Best thing I ever found was already >10 years ago. There used to be PC games mixed in with the CDs and unlike console games they wouldn't be snapped up immediately. I found a very rare Wing Commander 1 and 2 box set with all the goodies, which I estimate is worth $150. Still have it.
Early this year I was lucky to find a bunch of DS games including Pokemon and Animal Crossing and a Lite console. I sold Animal Crossing because it's just not my type of game and it paid for all the rest.

A pokémon blue for like $5 in 2016 the battery was dead tho

Unopened Turok N64.

Best used games purchase was around 2010-2012 before retro market boom. NES, SNES, SMRPG, DKC2, SMB1-3, Starfox, Stuntrace FX, Chrono Trigger, 4 NES and SNES controllers, 2 NES arcade sticks, cables, NES multitap for $100

Managed to snag a boxed complete Mario 64 for only $115. Sometimes you gotta be at the right place at the right time.

>>11942395
I leave all my stuff in a moldy dusty basement and retards still pay full price for it on ebay. I don't even clean them kek.

I haven't gone in a while but a few years ago I found copies of IL-2 Sturmovik and Empire Earth.
Too bad I don't have a CD drive anymore.

>>11943635
based. one time I even broke a disk and took a shit in the box and it sold.
I am willing to bet the collector who bought it from me doesn't even know because they don't even play the videogames they buy.

>>11943636
I got some computers from a thrift store, $20 each. Surprisingly they were DIY computers and not a prebuilt, but didn't seem to be gaming builds. Good CPU very low end GPU. They were worth it just for the cases as they were full size ATX, also with some 1tb hard drives, old but working PSUs and so on. One of them was full of 10 hard drives and the other had 8 dvd drives. Both had 4-port ethernet cards plus the one on the motherboard, and the dvd one had a cheap sound card with toslink in and out. Both absolutely maxed out on SATA. The hard drives were all encrypted. I often wonder what was on them. The DVD drives were empty except that one had Windows 7 install disk.

>>11943649
Sounds like a setup for making bootleg DVDs.

Got an original xbox for a £10 a few years ago. these days that charity shop just sticks anything remotely valueble on their ebay store now

Standing in line for the register at the surplus store, they had a couple of Genesis games on the counter. Opened one case, found a different game. Saw the case for that game, opened that, Tetris (Asian bootleg) in the case.

Other week, found some Gamecube Naruto game. Game isn't worth much, but there was a Freeloader disc in the case with it.

Check those cases even if it's for a "worthless" game.

On a similar note. Wiis often have discs in them since they're slot loaders that can only be removed if plugged in.

original xbox for $5 once

>>11942326
Groovy!

Is it even worth going to a place like this still? Last time I was at one was like 2014 and I didn’t find anything cool.

>>11945809
It's useful if you want to paw through the t-shirts, or check their books.
Also prime location to get NERF guns, like holy shit I see so many come through my site.
But for games, everything is on the auction site.

>>11943649
Why the fuck would someone not take the drives out first? Did the owner die or something?

All the people who scam people today selling overpriced videogames be it a “retro gaming store” or some overpriced eBay store are just scalpers and a sign of a dying economy. If there were enough normal good paying jobs I don’t think people would resort to parasite behavior like this. That’s all it is. ripping people off selling them overpriced crap. Extracting money from people while offering them basically nothing in return of any value. The saddest part is that often times if these people just found a decent paying job they could clock in and clock out making honest money and making more of it with less of a hassle. No need to track down shit at flea markets or whatever, depriving other people of what they want, and selling it to other people at insane markups. Blood sucking parasitic burdenmaxxing behavior.

>>11933607 (OP)
Once found a gold N64 with two matching controllers. At this same Goodwill I got an SNES and a Dreamcast.

>>11945809
I think after 2018 they started putting absolutely everything worth more than $20 online. Any independent thrift store will be a better bet. That said, you still might get lucky and find something that slipped through the cracks. I found a copy of Tomba that was missing its manual for one dollar.

>>11945912
I agree with pretty much everything you typed, but that said, I have kinda gotten into the reselling aspect to an extent. There was a local, small scale video game show where I live and I decided to bring some extra junk I had accumulated over the years to sell. I made sure everything was below ebay value, because I dont buy anything I can personally buy for cheaper online, even if the thing I want is right in front of me. I moved a bunch of stuff and made about 400 dollars, which was cool, since I will just put that back into stuff I want to buy for myself vidya related. Now the guy who runs the show wants me coming around again next time they have it, and I do like the idea of having the local event, so I guess I will be making this at least a yearly event I sell at. I wont be going full game reseller, but I buy a bunch of lots now and again, so anything I dont want that i use to keep to trade, I guess I will be saving to take to these shows. I suppose I have become a minor parasite indeed.

>>11943693
Sounds very reasonable. I also saw a similar setup at a church once where the sermons were all archived online and cds were sold for $1 to anyone who wanted to take the recording home. That was quite a while ago.

>>11945903
I don't know man. I have no information about the previous owner thanks to the drives being encrypted. 1TB drives were pretty worthless even back when I found it though.

>>11945940
There are magnitudes to it of course. if it’s something you just do once in a while here and there it’s not a big deal especially if your prices aren’t absurd. the more people who do it the more of a burden it becomes. Until you get to the point we are at today where every other “hidden gem” is like 100-200 dollars despite being bought in a GameStop for 5.00 in 2010. it’s something I realized where if enough people do it it changes the landscape for everyone and is purely detrimental to the hobby.

If you take a step back it seems like this is the same approach businesses have taken the last decade where they increasingly try to extract more money from customers while offering less and less value. Every industry seems to have slowly done this to generate more profit while everything slowly gets shittier. so when enough people do this in enough aspects of society the entire society gets shittier because everything is just a scam at a point.


I don’t really care what you do youre just one guy but I’m just putting my thoughts out there because it’s been something on my mind the last few years not just about videogames but everything. the real takeaway though is I think there is a serious percentage of people who resort to BS money making schemes like this who turn it into a side business because our economy is fucked up. It’s like how I know a lot of people who became uber ears delivery drivers because they needed more money than their job gave them. or they got laid off frequently and needed a bunch of bullshit ways to supplement their income. So to a degree the retards scalping people on “vintage videogames” is partially just a symptom of the times we live in where everything is fucking retarded.

found a disc only copy of Enter the Matrix for PS2 today in a local thrift discard bin for free

>>11946028
I would fuck the shit out of that MILF trinity from the MATRIX that’s all I wanted to share just wanted to say that is all.

>>11933607 (OP)
A PS2 with a broken disc drive. I bought it for $20, slapped a HDD in it and got a freemcboot memory card.

>>11945809
>Is it even worth going to a place like this still? Last time I was at one was like 2014 and I didn’t find anything cool.

In general...

If you are looking for retro electronics and games that are secretly worth a lot of money? The answer is no. Those days are long over. The last time you could easily find stuff like was around the mid to late 2000s to early 2010s (at the latest). Back when Xbox 360 was the current console. After that, the stores started putting all the valuables on their online store for high prices.

So no more situations of
>omg I found an entire Sega Genesis with 30 games for $10 dollars.

Those days are over for 99% of Goodwills.

HOWEVER, Goodwill does occasionally have accessories like old joysticks and old racing game steering wheels. So if you are into racing games or flight games, then you might find some cool stuff for cheap.

Don't go to garage sales, biggest fucking waste of my Saturday morning.

>>11946046
A decade ago I found a GBA + GBA SP + half dozen games in a taped up bundle for $8. Was a surprise even for that time.

many n64 controllers, including some of the funtastic colors for 1 or 2 dollars, i sold the duplicate ones and kept the rest.

few Ganeboy DMGs and color, few GBA SPs with backlit screens for around 6 dollars which i sold immediatly for huge profit since i don like handhelds, i have big hands.
a Master Chief figure, around 3 feet tall for $5 whic i sold next day for $150.

>>11946054
I drive a delivery route, and it always kills me passing by all the garage sales I see. Especially with people I know who get all kinds of crazy deals still to this day at them. Best I find when I can stop at them, is maybe a funky PS3 or 360.

I helped out at my sister's garage sale and I brought some games and computer junk to sell.
My best stuff was gone by the first morning. There are enough nerds and resellers who get up early to buy the good stuff.

>>11946187
Do you think that is I try to unload a bunch of shit NES and SNES games that they will but them?

>>11946159
Every time I go to one is literally all junk and baby clothes and a mobility walker.

Best thing I ever found was a GBA at a garage sale for $0.25. That was a long time ago but even back then, I was like "25 cents? really?" The lady could have said "Oh it's 25 bucks" and I would have paid that. but no, I paid a quarter. It was missing the battery cover and kinda beat up but completely worked and came with Donkey Kong Country.
I gave it to a friend so we could have 4 people for Super Circuit.
Last year I found an ipod for $.50 and old digital camera for $1, similar situation. I did sell these for a huge profit. I don't even look for things to flip or put effort into finding them, I just want things for my own use, but if I come across an obvious opportunity like that to make $100 I'll take it.
Also found a mint condition PSOne, a multitap, and four of its Dualshock controllers. Paid $20 I think. Oddly it came with no games or memory cards. I gave the console and one controller to another friend, the other three I still have and use regularly for duck game and whatnot.

>>11946328
I don't know why you would sell to flippers when you can just sell them directly to customers yourself and making much more $. Resellers will not be flipping unless there's meat on the bone. Are you feeling it's not worth it listing all those games? But you think someone else knows it is worth their time?