Yard Sale Finds #11, and…

It seems like that time of the year is upon us.  The time when the weather’s warm, and you need any excuse not to be in the house.  It’s late spring, and it is now, yard sale season.

There were quite a few sales in my surrounding area.  But I didn’t find a whole lot that caught my interest.  I did find some neat stuff though.

First is this freebie.

This was unmarked at one seller’s table.  And when I inquired about the price, she told me I could have it for nothing!

Another angle.

I’m not sure when this promotion ran at McDonald’s, but the last copyright date on the glass is 1965.  Anybody know?

There were tons of vhs and dvd’s available, but they were either horribly overpriced(and some in pretty rough shape), or they just weren’t very desirable.  That being said, I did manage to find a few that peaked my interest.

I am a New York Rangers fan, and these dvds peaked my curiosity, as I’ve never seen anything like these.   One is a random Rangers game from 2009 against the Washington Capitals.  And the second is a National Hockey League “Rule Enforcement” dvd for the 2008-2009 season.  I’ll try to find out some further info on these.

The vhs tape is The Trolls and the Christmas Express.  From what is depicted on the case, this movie seems very familiar.  The animation is unique, and I’d love this to be another holiday movie I can watch during the season.  For 25 cents, there wasn’t much risk.

And video games.

(not pictured : The Genesis controller that I got for free.)

Typically, I wouldn’t buy a carrying case for a handheld system, unless it’s one for the old-school Game Boys.  But, the case that I keep all of my Game Boy games in, it getting crowded and I could use the room.  I can use the case to primarily house my original Game Boy games, while the carrying case can hold the “SP” itself, as well as many games as I can fit.  50 cents well spent!

I went to the sales with my buddy Mike, and like me, he collects NES games(although not on the same scale as I do).  At the first sale we hit, I found the 2 games pictured, in a spot he had just looked at.  He couldn’t believe that he passed right by them.  They’re nothing special, but a great find at $1 a piece.  I have never learned how to play Othello, but it’s a great addition, nonetheless.  The other cart is Flying Dragon : The Secret Scroll(it says this on the top part of the label, while the face says it’s The Secret Scroll : Flying Dragon.).  I have never played this one either, but I have never come across it before, so I hope it’s decent.

Also, Lilo & Stitch for PS1.  I don’t know if the game itself is any good, but a PS1 game for 50 cents is hard to leave behind.  🙂

Now, as you can see, I didn’t find any toys!  That’s the bad news.  The good news, is that I did get all of my Ebay purchases in the mail.  So we’ll take a look at one of those.

G1 Cosmos!!  Cosmos has long been my favorite of the little Transformers.  How could you not love a transforming U.F.O.?  His alt mode is a very classic looking flying saucer.  He cost me a total of $7, but $4.50 of that was for shipping.  But he also came with his Tech Specs, so that’s not too bad.  It’s always nice when I get the opportunity to add another G1 figure to my collection.

I did get a few other things.  The other items are all MISB.  My question is…should I do individual posts?  Or, do I showcase them in a single post?  There a re a total of 3 items.  But 2 of them are related, and have to be written about together.  So, I’ll let you guys choose.  If I don’t get any votes, I’ll see how I want to go about this.

Everybody’s Working For the Weekend(even this guy[me])

That means that I had a nice weekend.

On Friday night I went with my wife and a bunch of friends(8, to be exact[10 people total]), to see these guys.

If you have never heard of these guys, I recommend that you give them a listen.  They are unique, but they’re not for everyone(I for one, have been listening to them since 1999).  Morningwood and Lunic were the 2 bands that opened for them.  They were decent sounding, but I can’t tell you too much about their performances, as I was at the bar(that was located within the venue), having a few beers before MSI came on.  They put on another great performance, and it was an overall great night…except for one thing.  While on our way through the parking lot, one of the bouncer’s(he was a douchebag), had some choice words to some people in my group(my wife included).  I had some words exchaged with him, and he ended up sucker-punching me.  His hit did nothing to me, and he picked up a piece of wood(?), and threatened to kill me.  Other bouncers came over to resolve the situation and told me to leave or they would call the police(nothing would have happened to the guy, and it would’ve been a big waste of my time).  We kind of made fun of it since then, and it didn’t tarnish the weekend’s appealability(that’s a real word!).

What you see above is what I acquired this weekend!

I plan on doing a review tomorrow.  So…if there is something specific in the in the above photo(even if it’s the NES game, the Adventure Island manual or the hockey cards), that you would like to see reviewed(soon…like, tomorrow..that’s when I plan on posting again), just leave your suggestion in the comments.  I might just write about it!

But before we go, I thought that this was pretty cool.

The index card says…

“Jump into the first pit of quicksand in world 8-2 and sink into a shortcut”

I found this tucked into the Adventure Island instruction manual after I bought it, while we were in the car leaving the store.

I could just imagine that some kid got this hot tip and wrote it down(I’m hoping back when it was released), and put it in the game’s manual, so he never forgot it.

I don’t even know if this hot tip even pertains to this particular game(I’ve only made it world 6, and I even had this one back in the day[it’s in my current collection, and it’s one of my favorites]), but I’m going to make it a point to find out soon.

1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Cards

I know this may seem a bit different from what I usually write about here.  But I have been a fan of hockey since I was a kid.  To this day I am still a fan, and I try to watch every New York Rangers game that I can(which is most of them).  My dad was a huge sports fan, and while we watched football, and sometimes baseball, hockey is always the sport I really got into.  Like most boys in the eighties, I started out collecting baseball cards.  I didn’t really watch much baseball, but I knew who the star players were.  When I started to really get into hockey, I started buying packs of hockey cards.  Most of the ones I was used to were Score or Pro Set.  And coincidentally, I started collecting around ’90-’91, and this was the first year Upper Deck had started producing hockey cards.  I believe they started manufacturing baseball cards the year before, and it was a success, so they branched out.

When these hit the market, they were like no other card out there.  The “counterfeit-proof” hologram on the back, the foil packs.  Also, like many other people have pointed out–the photography for these cards was fantastic.

I ended up getting 2 factory sealed boxes of these cards.  I ordered one, and quite a few packs were all dinged up, so I contacted the seller on Ebay, and he sent me another box free of charge!  The only difference was the second box was the high series.  The high series is where the more desirable rookies are located.  We’ll get to that in a minute.  Let’s take a look at some of the cards(these will be more of the “hits” from the box, maybe I’ll do a later post with a greater variety).

Mark Messier will always be one of may all-time favorite players.  Being that I am a Rangers fan, I’m sure you know why.  Points-wise, only Wayne Gretzky has more.  As you can tell from the Stanley Cup and the Hart Trophy he won, this was in the prime of his career.  Rounding out the page is Mike Richter.  It’s been some time since I looked at an early nineties Beckett, but I believe this is considered to be one of Richter’s rookies(does that still hold true?).

Mario Lemieux was an amazing player, who was hampered by injury throughout his career.  Many say, if he was healthy, he would be ahead of Wayne Gretzky on the all-time points and goals list.  That could be true, but my younger brother is a Penguins fan, so I had to act like I didn’t like him when we were growing up.  But being that he was such a great player, any time I pulled one, card trading definitely worked in my favor.  His base card(the one on top), is one card that I have never forgotten.  To me, this is just great photography, and that’s why it’s stuck with me after all these years.

These days the Young Guns cards are usually sought after cards.  These days they’re more limited in numbers, thus commanding more money on the secondary market.  These were the ones that started it all.  As you can see, I ended up getting one of each of the best ones…Sergei Fedorov and Pave Bure.  Back in the mid-nineties, these cards were hot!  For this set though, I’d say these 2 cards are in the top 3 in the set, as far as value is concerned.  The only other rookie in this set that is on par with these 2 is the Jaromir Jagr rookie(of which I did not get a single one, and that was the one I was hoping to get).  Even though many of these guys didn’t become super stars, it’s still a nice looking subset.

Wayne Gretzky is the NHL’s all-time leader in goals, assists and points.  He owns countless records as well, and is the only player in NHL history to have his number retired by the entire league.  Again, his base card is another from this set that I will always remember.  When I got my first copy of this card way back when, it was one of my most cherished cards.  As you can see from the awards card, this was another one of the many seasons he led the NHL in scoring.  And filling out the page is the only Adam Graves that I managed to pull.  It’s kind of weird that I pulled 8 Lemieux cards and 7 Gretzky cards, but only 1 Graves card.  Adam is my all-time favorite player, and like Mark Messier, has his number retired by the Rangers.

Lastly, I’d like to show you the inserts that were randomly inserted into packs.  These are nothing like the memorabilia and autograph cards(or both on the same card), you see these days.  Hell, they’re not even like the countless junk inserts of the mid-to-late nineties.

Holograms were a big deal during this time.  The only thing is, is that these are horrible!  The are blurry and it’s hard to make out who they are.  I’ve been able to make out Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky.  Of the ones I got, there are two with 2 players on them, but I can’t make out who they are.

Still, this is a great set, that’s a sentimental favorite of mine.  If you’re interested, you can usually score a box on Ebay for about$15-$18 shipped.  If you can find them locally, you’ll probably pay about $10 a box.