But lets jump right into this, I've got a lot to say. So here's the slightly fucked-up "haul" shot, which I decided not to retake:
I absolutely love trench coats. And for the most part, I only ever wear black ones. Unfortunately, coats like this are damned expensive. I spent $150 on my last one, and on top of that, I've yet to find a good selection of them. So, after something in the neighborhood of 5-7 years of consistent wear, my main one starting to fall apart.
This one is just *slightly* too tight across my back, and it doesn't have any pockets inside the coat (which are a big deal for me) but it is otherwise in fantastic condition, fits well, and is of good quality. I normally never even look at clothes at garage sales, but for $8 this was a bargain.
This may have been a poor choice, though I only ended up paying 50 cents for it. I love reading old tech books and whatnot. (I actually have a large collection of tech magazines from the 90s which I occasionally scan advertisements from, just because they're so out of touch with technology of today.)
This sale had a number of things I was interested in actually, including a Nintendo 64, and an original X Box. But electronics from garage sales are iffy enough without a $30 sticker price. No thank you!
Most of these cables were in a free pile at the sale of a very talkative & positive fellow in Sumner. I don't need any of them right now, but they're the kind of spare parts I often find I do need. And all together it's probably $30-$50 worth of cables.
The mouse and extension cords were 50 cents each at different garage sales.
Recently, Morrie and I had to throw out one of our pans because the handle was broken. I can't tell you how many times I spilled a pan full of water because of that damned thing. So, I've been on the lookout for more. The one on the left was from the same garage sale where I got the cables, and was also free. The one on the left was at a massive garage sale I found as I was driving home. I had actually driven past that house earlier in the day, but they didn't set up until 10 o'clock, so I'm glad I took the same route back home, which I normally don't do.
It was a pretty massive sale, with a large selection of items. The people putting it on apparently own an apartment complex, and the sale was of the various items people had left in their units after vacating. I got the pan for a dollar. I'll talk more about this sale later on.
I thought this was going to be my biggest find of the day. A full size, fully functional griddle, which I picked up for $2. The best part about it is that everything else at this garage sale was massively over priced. There was even another griddle right next to it for $5 (also a decent price, but most everything else was much higher.)
Nothing super special here. I've wanted a nice pair of steel scissors for awhile. This one is pretty rusted up, and I couldn't clean much of the rust off with an SOS pad...but it was 25 cents. The dust pat was also 25 cents--and a mistake. I had thought we had broken our dust pan, but when I brought this one home, I discovered that it was the brush which came with our dust pan which is broken, not the pan itself.
Oh well, no big loss.
TMNT for life, dude.
The sale I got this from was super pro. She had actually set up a wooden floor, with a nice 3-sided tarp. The electronics were all plugged in and working, with music playing on the CD player and "A Bugs Life" on the TV. In the end I just got the two extension cables I noted above, and this stuffed doll which cost another 50 cents.
I actually spent a long time staring at this, wondering if I was just going to clutter up my apartment with this stuff. But I really do like collecting memorabilia from my childhood, and TMNT is near the top of that list. So I gave it a pass.
I really like canes, I think they are fun props. I currently have 2 canes which I purchased last year, but I haven't been able to find the wooden one in the traditional cane shape for a few months now. No idea where it went. This one is pretty similar, and I grabbed it for a dollar.
Classeh!
Troy and Thank You for Smoking are two movies which I thoroughly enjoyed. Barring, of course, the massive failure in accuracy as Troy moved towards the end. Still, at a dollar a piece, I was happy to buy them for potential future viewing. I got Star Fox Adventures at the same sale for $3. The game looked pretty terrible to me when it was new, and my view of it has not improved with age.
However, I am probably the world's biggest fan of Star Fox 64, of which Star Fox Adventures is a sequel. So I'm happy I'll finally be able to give it an honest try.
This is a big stack of Dungeons and Dragons cards, labelled "Trading Cards," which I got for a dollar at that same garage sale I mentioned earlier, put on by people who own an apartment complex. I'll talk a little bit more about my experiences there further down. Regarding the cards, there are a lot of them (maybe 50-70% more than I was able to get in the shot) and each has a picture on one side, and some AD&D stats on the other. I'm not sure what this was for...maybe you could use them to supplement your D&D sessions by providing your players with some art for the character they were encountering, with handy stats on the back for your benefit?
I'd love to know more, if anybody knows. I haven't had time to do any research myself yet.
Comic books! I think I got these for 50 cents each, out of a box of a couple hundred comics. I really like 90s era spider man for some reason (probably because that's where I got started with comic books) but the unquestioned best find in here is the old 1970s issue of Marvel Star Wars.
To get the boring stuff out of the way first: Golden Sun was a pretty awesome RPG I borrowed from a friend shortly after it came out. I never finished it because that friend and I got into a huge fight, and feeling that our friendship was over, I returned everything I had borrowed from him. I look forward to playing it.
Okay, so...
FINALFANTASYTWO OMGOMGOMG I can't believe I got this. I was so excited to find it I didn't even try to haggle when the guy's asking price was $10. I was too stunned to try. This is the kind of find I dream about. I ended up spending five hours over the weekend playing it.
Unfortunately, when I went to play it on Monday, my save was gone. Not too surprising that the battery finally died on this 20 year old game. But I've been researching the process for replacing batteries in SNES games, and ordered the bit I need to remove the screws. When it arrives I'll do a test on my Super Mario World cart. The process looks simple enough that I should be able to climb Mount Ordeals so that I can become a paladin in no time. Then all I need to do is sneak into Baron, steal an Airship, and defeat Golbez!
Simple!
Finding this Final Fantasy II cart is only possibly equaled by this last item:
Nintendo Entertainment System.
The arcade controller is actually from a garage sale I went to early in the day, while the rest of the system is from the last sale I went to. The same one where I got Golden Sun, Final Fantasy II, the Dungeons and Dragons cards, and one of the pans. So...yeah, a good sale.
As I mentioned above, this guy had me totally blown away by how many things I found which I really really wanted, and I didn't haggle anywhere near as much as I should have. The NES doesn't work, and he sold it to me for $5. He also charged me an additional $1 each for the cables. I let myself get ripped off there. But what can I say? I really really wanted it.
I've been researching NES repair for awhile now, in anticipation of finding one, and I intend to research it a great deal more before making any attempts. Based on what this guy was saying, it sounds like the 72 pin connector needs to be replaced, but we'll find out, I guess!
That's all for this week!
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