VendorOfCheese

Am a huge fan of movies but also just an all around collector. Therefore I love shopping at flea markets, thrift stores, etc. just for the thrill of the chase so to speak. A few notable films I've found:

Caligula 3-disc edition
The Challenge (1982)
A very Rare double VHS of Star Wars documentaries
3 rare Wrestling tapes including Summer Slam 1985
Faces of Death 3
Several screeners including Ernest Scared Stupid and Frankenweenie
Demons by Lamberto Bava (awesome movie!)


Many more, will list more later. Any similar finds, oh perusers of dustbins?

Alan Smithee

I could fill a book with great thrift store finds- highlights include several CEDs and laserdiscs, a multi-standard VHS deck for $8 (though I had to order a $30 remote just to be able to adjust the tracking on it!), RCA DIVX player (for historical sake, but it won't play the demo disc I have), VHS deck with the older linear (non-Hi-Fi) stereo track playback, needed on the first generation of stereo tapes as 99% of Hi-Fi decks will only play them in mono, tons of early VHS and Beta releases including Magnetic Video titles and white-cover Disneys, also VHS tapes from other countries including Mexico, Japan and UK.

DeanoBKN

God damn that's rare! You must have a one of a kind from Vince's personal collection!

Preterite

VHS or DVD?

Tarantino

I got a cool Armani coat once for like $10 when searching for parts of a Halloween costume. That was my one nice find.

Brent L

Oh lord, I go to the Goodwill stores here in town multiple times a week. I have made so much supplemental income just buy buying stuff there and selling it on the side. I don't have much to do during my lunch break, and I don't want to just sit in a restaurant the entire hour so I usually grab something to eat and if I don't have something I need to do at another store, I usually spend the rest of the time in one of the two, if not both of the Goodwill stores here close to where I work.

My best finds...

-Four Cobalt Flux dance pads, $5 each, $20 total. I didn't see control boxes so I have no way to test them. They were in amazing condition though. One day I'll get around to selling them. I'll end up getting somewhere between $100 and $800 for them all.

-Super Mario 64, new & sealed for $2. I ended up selling it for $250.

-Futurama Zoidberg figure that had a Robot Devil head part complete and in the box for $4, apparently sorta rare. I sold that for $150.

-First Edition Rules of Attraction book bought for $1, sold for $100. I actually found that a second time at another Goodwill store while out of town but haven't listed it yet.

-NES system with multiple games boxed and complete for around $30.

-SNES system with multiple games boxed and complete for around $30.

-I find DVDs and VHS tapes quite often that are worth a good bit. I wouldn't even know where to start listing all of those.

-Various pieces of art - if is in an older frame, has age to the work, or is hand signed or is a print with a signature and is hand numbered, I'll buy them all since they are so cheep.

-Original Simon game from 1978 or so, working, complete and in the box for a couple of bucks.

-Dual Turntable 1228 from the 70s, working.

-Sankyo Super 8 video camera from the 70s, working, for a few bucks. It actually had film in it that I used up testing. I'm tempted to try to get it developed to see what else may be on it or if it is even still good.

-I have bought quite a few different boardgames over the past couple of years for around a buck or two and resold them for $50-$100.

And lots and lots more. I came so close to hitting the jackpot one time however. I got very sick last year and had to put my visits on hold for a week or two. In that time, a local man went to one of the two Goodwill stores here in town that I visit all the time and bought a painting of some fruit. Had I seen it myself I would have bought it in a second. Anyway, he had it looked at and was told it was 17th century and it was worth around $10k. He decided to send it to be auctioned off in New York and it ended up bringing almost $200k. I will never stop kicking myself over that screw up.

movieguru

Got an old vintage steelcase desk and chair from a thrift store a few years back. Nice looking metal mid century desk for $49 and will last a liftime unlike the desks you can buy from Sauder.

I also found a neat looking old 10 cent comicbook from the late 30's for 50 cents at the local thrift store. It has some guy in a circus type strongman outfit with a cape smashing a car against a rock and there's 3 guys running away from him. It appears to be a first issue. I don't know much about comics but I'll have to check to see if it's worth anything someday

Rexxriot

I know the comic you're talking about. It's not worth much. I'll give you $10 for it.

Mr. Reindeer

I've found lots of great deals on vinyl records, CDs, books and older Disney videotapes at our local GW's. They also occasionally have brand new stuff, like furniture, shoes and toys. Today I found Paper Jams amplifiers, brand new, for the kids for $2. Plus they had a half off sale on certain items so I ended up with 2 amps for $2. Might be best deal yet, til I find a Dual record player or a van gough!

PenguinJoe

Whoa!

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...002435770.html

Alan Smithee

I have the original Family Fun Fitness pad, haven't checked to see what it's worth. A long time ago I got the Tengen version of Tetris for the NES cheap at a thrift store, which Nintendo had sued off the market as it was better than the version they had put out themselves.

hilts

I thought the thread was for girls we picked up at thrift shops. This is no fun.

mickey65

I'm there with poster Brent L. I too go to GW's and other thrift shops to buy stuff for re-sell. I've made some really good money on the stuff I find on Amazon & eBay.

My latest biggest seller was two 1997 U2 itinerary conrect tour books (used by people working the shows - they list all the hotels, venues, appearance, etc). Bought both for $1.98 - sold on eBay (recently) for $225.

Ranger

Wow, never heard of that NES game.... A collector bought it?

I have an old Sony Mini Disc player - paid $130 for it ten years ago. Amazon sellers have it for $75 used, $299 new. Kind of makes me want to hold on to it to see how much it'll be worth in another few years.

Brent L

I bought a darn cross stitch set at Goodwill a few weeks ago for a buck or two. I have no clue about anything like that but it was new and sealed, had a UPC, so I scanned it with my phone. It ended up turning out to be some sort of "OOP" set that collectors of that sort of thing really look for. I had no clue such a market existed. Anyway I sold it a week or so ago for $125. I would say wow, some people are crazy, but I guess they think the same thing about us and OOP movies and that sort of thing.

zyzzle

I would just like to say that people like the above posters who scavenge Goodwill to 're-sell' are the reason all the Goodwills in my area now charge $30 for 14" 10 year old LCD monitors, $300 for old C64 computers, $200 for old acer Netbooks, $4 for children's books, and $20 for old 1 gb hard drives.

Thanks for ruining it for the true collectors, guys... Carry on with your greedy dealings.

SethDLH

How would Goodwill know what people are doing with their purchases after they leave the store?

Alan Smithee

They probably hear about it in the news. I've always felt that buying stuff for the purpose of re-selling it is pretty mean, since that ruins it for those who go to those stores to find stuff they actually want to keep. Then of course there's the stuff that gets bought to be resold and it turns out they can't get more than what they paid for it anyways. Back when I first got on the newsgroups, I'd let people out of my area know about stuff I'd seen locally, like old video game cartridges, and pick them up and send them to people for the cost of the item and shipping, but I wouldn't buy them until it was confirmed somebody wanted them (giving someone else local a chance to grab them in the meantime), and I never made a $100+ profit on them.

SethDLH

I guess I could see the news stories lead to an increase in prices at Goodwill, and I've definitely seen prices increase, it is just weird that the odd find of a rare video game or painting would bring that drastic of a change. Either way, the Goodwill stores in my area are outrageous. $100 for a trombone that was missing the slider piece, $15 for a Britney Spears poster that was probably sold in every store in the world 12 years ago and $50 for a pretty small (3 gallon?) fish tank

EddieMoney

That fish tank was OOP.

Tarantino

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QK8mJJJvaes" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

zyzzle

Alan Smithee, you are a prince among men. Thanks for doing that and keeping the collectible cartridges in the hands of the true fans and out of the greedy paws of the scalpers!

joe_b

I was planning to build some custom shelving just for my blu-rays, but I was in Goodwill last month and noticed a huge shelf (solid oak) that had the perfect depth for BDs. There was a sticker on the back indicating that it had been custom made for a local bookstore -- probably used to hold paperbacks. It's got some minor wear and will need to be painted or refinished, but it should look great when I'm done (after adding a few more shelves). It's very sturdy and could fit around 950 blu-rays. Not bad for $50.

kyleblack

I use to love going to thrift shops but for the last few years the deals/finds have been few and far between for me. Lots of overpriced junk.

A lot of Goodwill stores are now putting stuff up for auction on shopgoodwill.com and some are even selling on Amazon.

joe_b

No thrift shop visits recently, but I made out pretty great at some yard sales today. Picked up a brand new high back office chair for $12. Really nice -- not the cheap kind you'd find at Office Max. Also scored a couple blu-rays for $1 each. Granted, they weren't the best titles (Holy Man/Gone Fishin' double feature and Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies) but finding any blu-rays at a yard sale is a rare occurrence for me.