Yard Sale Finds #17 – I Guess I was Wrong. And a Preview of What’s Next

I had honestly thought that I had seen the last of this year’s yard sales when I made my last post.  I was wrong!  There were only a few that crossed my path, but they did yield a handful of video games for my collection.

What you see above ran me $3.40.  I know you’re probably thinking, “Where the hell did 40 cents come from?!”.   Here’s the deal…

I ran across Paper Mario first.  The asking price was $1.50, which is a great deal.  I had a lone single, and 40 cents in my pocket(I didn’t want to break a bigger bill because I was a dime short).  The lady running the sale said, “close enough.”, and I was on my way.

The Mickey Mouse SNES game is one I’ve never played before, and was a no-brainer at $1.  Pokemon Blue from Gameboy was also a great deal at $1.  I could probably seel it for way more money than I paid for it, but I actually enjoy playing the Gameboy Pokemon games(when Pokemon Yellow was released back in ’98-’99, it was the reason I bought a Gameboy Color).  So, a pretty small haul, but some nice additions(and all for Nintendo cystems, no less!).

And here’s a hint of what’s coming up next.

Yard Sales #16 – Season Finale

Well, yesterday kicked off the beginning of fall.  I can’t say that I mind the change.  Although I’m going to miss the nice weather, the fall season has it’s perks.  One of them is not yard sales.  I’m sure this will be my last post about yard sales until April-May 2013.  And it’s sad, because you can really find some great stuff(for some great prices).  It’s really hit or miss when it comes to thrift stores and second hand shops(not to mention hit or miss prices…everyone is an expert 🙂 ).  But this installment yielded a very nice selection of stuff that I’m into.

We’ll start with cool, and end with coolest.

This was one of two Alfs spotted at the first sale that we stopped at.  This one and the other that I passed on were from a Burger King promotion, back in 1988.  This one had it’s tag intact(the other didn’t), so I figured it was worth the $1 asking price.  This will fit nicely with my unintentional Alf collection(we’ll have to see that one of these days).

Anything Zelda related is a must-buy in my book, as it’s my favorite video game franchise ever(I’m sure I’ve mentioned this a bunch of times)!  The best part is that the woman running the sale only wanted $1 each!  Both of these guides are for Twilight Princess.  The awesome hard cover edition is normally selling for $20-$30 dollars(or more).  And I’m sure the other(the Nintendo Power one), goes for around the same.  The thing with finds like these is, while they may be worth a little something on the secondary market, I’m not really inclined to get rid of them.

A little confession.

Twilight Princess, while I own it(for gamecube), and it’s from my favorite franchise, it’s the only Zelda game I have never played(I will work to rectify that)!

I got these at Richie Rich’s(you’ve heard about this place from me plenty of times before), so this may be consideere cheating…but I went to Richie’s while I was yard saling.  So, it counts.  These guys were hidden behind a few plush bears, but I spotted them!  They were marked at $4 each.  I countered with $1 each(they’re pretty rough).  I was told that I could take them at $2 each.  But the American Picker in me offered $3 for both.  And my deal was accepted.  Panthro appears to be okay, and his “action” works(for the most part).  Monkian’s face is roughed up badly, and his “action” does not work at all.  The villians from Thundercats seem hard to come by, and any Monkian, is better than no Monkian.

Normally, old-school Thundercats figures would be the find of the day.  But that was not the case this time around.

Oh no.  I found these guys!

Germs!  I hardly remember these guys, and I’ve seen them on a bunch of sites, but I’m having a hard time recalling if I actually owned any!  They seem right up my alley, and I immediately knew what they were when I saw them on a table ten feet away from me.  For 50 cents each, there was no way I was leaving them behind.

On the right is “Huppahickasilia”; “Commonly known as the hiccup”*.  And on the left we have “Sweatystinkiosis”; “Commonly known as body odor”*.  These are very fun, and quite nice looking to the eye.  It’ll be a fat chance before I find any of these again!

When I took them out of their test tubes(I’d take a guess that these are often missing), they felt(and smelled like ), they were brand new.  Taking a look at what the going rate for some of these, I’d say they were a pretty sweet find!  But as always, I’m not interested in getting rid of them!

What a great way to send off the 2012 season!

* – information obtained from The Dork Dimension.

Yard Sale Finds #15

I had high expectations for yard sales for the past couple of weeks.  And while I have found some things, there hasn’t been much that has interested me.  On top of that, some people are asking for too much for a lot of things.  This past weekend, I found a handful of things.  The weekend before, I hardly found anything.  So I lumped both weekends together, to make a more robust post.

First we’ll start with some reading material.

I am nowhere near as into wresting as I was back in the day.  I stopped watching somwhere back in 2002.  It seemed like it was more of a soap opera more than anything else.  I liked to watch it for the matches, and it seems like there’s too much dialogue, and plots to actually give you that consistantly.  But Hulk Hogan has been a favorite of mine since I was like 5 years old.  And from what I’ve read in the past, wresting biographies are a decent read.  This book has a cover price of $26!  But I got it for 25 cents.  So even if it’s horrible, I won’t be kicking myself for buying it.  The Guiness Book of World Records, is a bit dated since it’s the 2004 edition(not to mention it’s the paperback).  But it’s always a good book to flip though, making it perfect bathroom reading.  And for 25 cents, it was hard to resist.

Everything above set me back $3.75.  The Game Cube games were a mere $1 each.  Which was refreshing, because you have people these days, trying to sell the crappiest PS2 games for $5 or more.  The same people were also selling Wii games for $3 each(these people had great prices for everything), but there wasn’t anything I was interested in.  Bloodsport was still in the factory shrinkwrap, and was sold to me for $1.50.  I bought it at “The World’s Biggest Yard Sale”(it really wasn’t), from a seller who had probably more than 1000 DVDs(some brand new, and some used).  I didn’t stick around for too long to check everything out, as people were all up on this great deal.  The Pee-Wee’s Playhouse tape was 25 cents at a sale we stopped at later in the day.  It’s one of the original VHS releases from 1988.  The funny thing is that I found a brand new VCR head cleaner(still sealed with the FYE price tag in tact), which comes in handy, since I do have a small collection of VHS tapes.

Pretty much the only toys I saw were either newer toys from properties that were from somwhere in the last 10 years, or they were of the fast food variety.  So it was slim pickin’s.

Although her nose seems to be chewed off, there was no way I could turn down this Cheetarah figure for 50 cents.  She was my last fing of the day, and I almost didn’t see her!  I’m happy if I could find figures from the eighties, as they are getting harder and harder to find in the wild.  My old-school Thundercats collection is lacking, so I’ll take what I can find.  And lastly, I found a Micro Machine for 25 cents.  Unlike my last yard sale post, this one is an official Micro Machine by Galoob.  I checked on that before I inquired about it.  I probably still would have bought it even if it “wasn’t the real thing!”.

And that’s it.  I did pick up a few new things that I plan on reviewing this week.  I know I was MIA in July for the most part, but I would like to rectify that.  I have the urge to write more, and I have some stuff that I want to write about(a winning combination).

Yard Sale Finds #14 & Where I’ve Been

It’s been almost 2 weeks since I last posted something.  And I hate when this much time passes by without doing a single post.  But I really wasn’t feeling writing, even when I had the time.  I’m guessing that this has something to do with being Summer.  And that I haven’t really gotten any new toys or anything in a little while.  There just doesn’t seem to be anything on the market that I’m interested in.  I’m seeing that the new Ninja Turtles are being spotted, so that should all change soon.  But anywho, let’s get back into the swing of things.

The weekend before last, I was in Boston for the weekend.  I forgot to bring extra batteries for the camera, so I wasn’t able to get too many pictures.  The only pictures I was able to get, were a few from the aquarium.  I didn’t get an awful lot of variety(I had to keep alternating the batteries in the camera, just to get a few seconds for a shot).  But I was able to snap a few good ones.

I spent alot of time just watching the penguins.  I even got to watch them during feeding time.  We were told by one of the keepers, that the penguins are fed twice a day, and they are allowed to eat as much as they want.

Excuse the blurry photo.  But this guy was one of my favorites as well.  This is a leafy sea dragon.  It’s head resembles that of a sea horse, but his body looks like floating plant debris.  I’ve seen pictures of these guys before, but in person, it is almost impossible to tell that these are anything other than plant parts.

I got to touch a few little guys who looked like this one.  It was awesome!

Take a look at this cute fella.

Just one more.

This tortoise is over 50 years old and weighs 585 pounds.  That’s pretty amazing!

And last weekend I decided to hit up the local flea market.  This time, there were more vendors, but there was a lot less that I was interested in.  However, there were a few yard sales in the area that had some stuff.  On the weekend of August 4th, there is an event calling itself “The world’s biggest yard sale”.  I have high expectations for this.  But here’s my most recent haul.

Super Smash Bros. Melee, was the most expensive purchase at $5.00.  That’s actually a pretty good deal for this game, and I didn’t have it yet!  The light saber was in a box with a bunch of other light sabers.  But, this was the only one that made sounds, lighted up and extended itself at the push of a button.  This was a hell of a steal at just one dollar(!).  I thought the tiny pink Chevy was a Micro Machine, since I can remember having this as a kid.  But I was duped.  This is actually released by Road Champs, which I think was one of the better Micro Machines rip-offs.  And I was able to grab it for just a quarter.

The 3 items I just mentioned, all came from separate sales.  But the 4th item in the photo is the only item that interested me at the flea market.  I couldn’t say no for two bucks!

Notice that the can says Budweiser Light.  This is a promotional can from the first batch of what we know today as Bud Light!  This is full can from 1981!  Don’t believe me?

I just want to know why it says “not for consumption”?  But this was right up my alley.  I don’t know what else to say.  The guy selling these had 2 for sale at 2 bucks each(my friend Dean bought the other one), and said he had already sold a case of these.  I’ve never seen something like this before, so I figured I might as well grab it since it was appealing.

There are a few village-wide sales this weekend, so maybe I’ll have better luck.  But as I mentioned previously, there is the “world’s biggest yard sale” a week from Saturday, that I’m hoping to have stellar results from.  I’ll keep you guys posted.

Bazooka

Howdy everyone!  I needed to take a bit of a hiatus from blogging but I’m back now!  It’s been a little dry in regards to toys, but I do have some stuff that I can make(at least little) posts for.

I went to a few yard sales in the past week or so, but I only obtained one new item!  And it was this guy.

Bazooka was in a bag with a bunch of other G.I. Joes, some of which were broken.  The bag said that they were $3.50 each, but the guy selling them said that he would give me a deal for all of them.  The only others that I noticed were another Bazooka, and a Gung-Ho who was just barely hanging on by his o-ring.  There were others, but I wasn’t familiar with them.  So, I decided against buying them all, and just took the single figure.  The paint is good, and the joints are as tight as the day he was purchased.  Not a homerun, but a decent addition for $2.00.

Yard Sale Finds #13

Well, this weekend was supposed to be a pretty decent weekend for yard/garage sales.  But the friggin’ rain ruined it!  There were two different towns that were having village-wide garage sales, and the rain seemed to make many people change their minds.  The people were out looking for the sales, but there were far fewer sales than I have seen in past years.

There were some deals to be had, and I even passed on a few items.  But we’re here to talk about what I was able to come home with.

There were tons of PS1 games for sale, but many of them were missing the instruction manuals, so they were of no real interest to me.  While this game is nothing special, but I am a hockey fan and I am a PS1 fan.  75 cents was about what I was willing to pay for it, so it was a good deal for both sides.

I know the above three items don’t look like much, but all three were mine for 25 cents!  The Officer Big Mac car is made by Ertl, but I’m not sure if it was a Happy Meal premium or sold in stores.  It’s marked 1984 and has the Ertl logo on the bottom, and the pull-back action still works like new.  I can never say no to either series of McDonald’s Changeables(the robots or dinosaurs), as long as I don’t already have them.  And obviously, I didn’t previously have this one.  The McDonald’s Happy Meal box is iconic, and this is a pretty neat toy.  The pack of NBA trading cards is a premium that was inserted into boxes of Drakes Cakes back in 1992.  I remember this promotion, as I was heavily into trading cards at the time(NHL, NBA and non-sports).  This is something you don’t see everyday, and I couldn’t pass it up.  I will not open them, but John Stockton is the top card, so that’s not half bad.

And now, the action figures.  I passed on Tabe from Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos because he was really dirty and was pretty much naked.  Even for $1, I just couldn’t make the purchase.  I also passed on a Transformers Animated Ultra Magnus.  But I had reasoning behind why I didn’t grab it.  I like the look of the Animated figures, and Ultra Magnus looks cool.  But When I picked him up, he was in robot mode, and I wasn’t sure if anything was missing.  It was $3, so it wasn’t too big a risk, but room is at a premium right now, and he is one of the larger figures from the Animated line(probably taller than my Voltron).  I’ll grab it next year if the old woman still has it, as I make it a point to visit her set-up every year(she always ahs a ton of action figures).

These three came from the old woman I briefly mentioned above.  And they cost her usual $1 per figure, of which I had no qualms of paying.  I found the Beetlejuice figure on my second time through(my first from the line).  Whiplash is a little dirty, but that will not be a problem that can’t be solved with a little soap and warm water.  And Fugitoid looked to be in pretty good shape, and you know I’m always looking for new additions to my old-school TMNT collection!

I spent a total of $4 on the day(everything you see above), so I didn’t do too bad.  I just wish that we didn’t get all the rain we did, because there would have been at least 3 times as many sales as there actually was.  But still a fun hunt nonetheless.

Yard Sale Finds #12, Dino-Riders & Reppin’ “The Pizza”

Has it been a week?

Well, the Rangers got eliminated from the conference finals on Friday(I’m a big fan of the Rangers, and they had a great season), so I’ll probably be posting stuff more often now.  This past weekend was pretty good for yard sales.  But surprisingly, there weren’t nearly as many as there usually are, considering it was Memorial Day weekend.  I did pretty good, and only spent a total of $5!  The bad news is that I only took 1 picture of everything together, and didn’t get any up close shots, as I had already put the things in their respective(new)places.  So here it is!

Not bad.  The Game Boy Pocket was only 2 bucks(it works), and Paperboy was included!  “The Empire Strikes Back” Burger King glass was a steal for a mere quarter.  I’ve been a fan of those little fuzzy googly eye things(not sure if they have a formal name) since I was a kid, and a kit where I can make as many as I want for only 50 cents?!  Sold!  The Flower(from Bambi), figure was in a “free” box at one of the sales, as was the Deiner dinosaur eraser.  Some of these can fetch some good money, but I’m not planning on getting rid of it.  The Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas special was 75 cents, and I found it at the same sale that I found my favorite items.  Skeletor, Bruise Brother and the Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos figure were only 50 cents each!  These are the things I specifically look for when I’m out yard saling.  And they’re getting harder and harder to find in the wild.  The Madball(Bruise Brother), is definitely my find of the weekend.  Now, he is displayed right next to Touchdown Terror.

And check these out!

Now, I don’t plan on opening these.  But I do plan on doing a post with some more insight on these great little figures.  I got both of these together for $15 including shipping(do a search on Ebay right now, and you should be able to get them for $9.99 each with free shipping.  She has 6-8 packs of each different 2-pack).  I’ll save the story for when I do a more detailed write-up.

And reppin’ “The Pizza”!

If you have never read the words of The Surfing Pizza, get on it now!  “The Pizza” is one of my favorite blogs that I regularly read.  Pizza’s writing is far better than anything I’ve ever written.  And if you like what you read here, you’ll be a fan of “The Pizza”.  Recently Pizza got a batch of stickers promoting(is that the word I’m looking for?)The Surfing Pizza, and was sending them to anyone who wanted one(not sure if he has any left, but here’s the link).  He sent me 2, and the one you see above is on my car.  Get yours today!

I’ll be back in less than a week this time.  Ha!  I’ll try anyway.  🙂

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.

Visionaries & the $1 Nintendo 64

This past week I won a few auctions on Ebay, and they are starting to make their way to my mailbox(this will give me material to write about).  I’m pretty sure that I gave away what we’re going to see in the title.  But in case you didn’t catch it, I scored some Visionaries!

The blue guy is Leoric, and the red one is Witterquick.  I remember really wanting these figures when they were first released, but this is the one that got away, the one toy line I didn’t have anything from.

These 2 represent the good guys, and the only other one I have in my collection is a bad guy who is missing his chest hologram(along with everything else).  Each figure came with a weapon, a helmet and a holographic staff.  While none of their accessories weren’t included, the auction did include 3 of the holographic staffs!  I don’t believe that any of them correspond with the figures, but still pretty cool nonetheless.  A steal at 99 cents(+$4 shipping)!

And now to the $1 Nintendo 64.

But before we get to any pictures, let me set up the story of how I acquired such a thing.

On Saturday, myself, my wife, one of our friends and her son, went to go see if we could find any garage/yard sales.  It was a warm sunny day, so we thought that it would be perfect for sales.  We were wrong, but found a few.

There was a Boy Scout troop having a rummage sale.  When we got out of the car, we were told that for $3 we could fill a plastic bag with as much stuff as we wanted.  Not more than 30 seconds after this, they reduced the cost to $1 per stuffed bag!  I looked at the toys and other stuff that had for sale, but nothing caught my eye.  Then I happened upon a box with an N64 control deck and 4 games!  I picked up the games, and then went and purchased my $1 bag.  These games didn’t fill up the bag, so I grabbed a few other thing out of the box to go with them.

So I grabbed the control deck, a PS1 memory card, the MAX controller and the 4 N64 for games for $1.  I definitely got more than I paid for!  I didn’t have any of the games, so that’s a plus.  It’s not the ultimate score, but very nice, all things considered.  I’m going to end up selling the deck and the MAX on the Bay because I already have these items.  I’ll keep the memory card though, as you can never have enough of them.  😉

J’Quille

I scored this guy at a yard sale last summer for $2.00.

Now, I’m a fan of Star Wars, but if you showed me a picture of this guy, I’d have no idea who it was.  From the little bit of reseach I did, and from the information on the back of the card, J’Quille appeared for a few seconds on Jabba’s sail barge in Return of the Jedi.  The Star Wars universe is filled with awesome characters.  But in my opinion, the coolest looking ones are the ones in the cantina or the aforementioned barge.

The only accessories included are the blaster and stand you see pictured.  The blaster is made of a flimsy plastic not common(in my experience), with Star Wars figures.  This limits how you can pose the figure with the blaster, without it looking ridiculous.

Overall, I think this is a great looking representation of an obscure character.  The only thing that would make this better is if the figure sported faux fur.  C’mon, how cool would that be?