First Finds of the New Year

I have had a pretty good start for finds this year!

And I actually went a different route than I normally do when it comes to acquire things for my collections.

…Pawn shops!

I know this sounds like such a given, but you have to understand that pawn shops aren’t exactly abundant. In a nearby area to me, there are two of them. I’ve been to this area more times than I can count, but I always had an agenda of where I wanted/needed to go. I first spotted them a few months ago after a little driving around. This past weekend, I decided to checkout what they had.

Here’s the what the first one yielded.

I never had the pleasure(or displeasure), of playing either of these games before.  8 Eyes is basically a Castlevania clone, and Daydreamin’ Davey is decent from what I gleaned from the 5 minutes I tried it.  The gut at the shop wanted $5each.  He heard me groan, and said that $3 each was the best he could do.  I countered with 2 for $5, and he gladly accepted.  These are games I have not seen in the wild before, so they make for pretty good additions to the NES collection.

These 5 games, as well as what we’ll see next, are from the second of the 2 shops I checked out.

The store was having a 4 for $10 sale on all games not on a current console.  These 5 were the ones that caught my eye(although there were a few others that I need).  Mendel Palace is probably the most uncommon of the lot.  It’s a puzzle-like game that annoyed me when I tried it out.  Nothing super-rare, but nice additions nonetheless.

But the following is, perhaps, the best deal I found that day.

Any NES or SNES games complete in the box for $2.50 will get me every time.  There were a few other CIB games for these systems, but they were “otherwise marked”, so they didn’t apply to the deal.  Gyruss is missing the manual, but it’s the only one of the lot that I already have.  And on top of that, the copy I already had included the manual, which means I now have a complete copy.  The Super Nintendo games are not sought after, but again, I will buy CIB games for $2.50 a pop every day of the week.  $25 well spent!!

Camping in Lake George

I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July weekend.  For the holiday weekend, we went camping up at Schroon Valley Resort in Lake George.  Camping on vacation is a little different than a vacation when you stay at a hotel.  It seems to make you forget everything(in a good way).

Lake George is definitely a big tourist area.  It’s also a really beautiful area.  Let’s start off with a few pictures.

There are few attractions in the area, that have peaked my interest in the past, and I got to experience one of them this past weekend.  There is Dr. Morbid’s Haunted House, and there’s a wax museum.  We opted to check out the wax museum.  Now this wasn’t a typical celebrity or historical wax museum.  It seems the theme here was death and horror.  There were scenes of grisly murder, as well as scenes depicting the Salem witch trials, and even Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.  I asked if I could take pictures inside, and was told I could, just without the flash.  I couldn’t get the flash to shut off, so I only got a few shots inside of the attraction(and the didn’t come out too good).  But I also got a few shots inside of the lobby(where the flash wasn’t an issue).

It was a pretty decent sized walk through and great in it’s own cheesy way.  I will be going back to Lake George in September(for the Adirondack Nationals car show), so I’ll make it a point to go to Dr. Morbid’s and see which one is better.

My favorite part of these waterfront communities is the casino arcades.  Of course the prizes are never worth the amount of money you plunk down to win them, but it’s all about the thrill of winning!  The highlight of these games was when my wife hit 300 tickets on a single quarter.  Among all of the ticket spitting machines, you have you typical video games.  The picture I took of the classics accidentally got deleted, but I did get a few shots of the pinball machines.  I played 2 games on the Funhouse one, which is one of my all time favorite pinball games.

And I had to toss a quarter into this!

For 25 cents, the parrot will spin and flap it’s wings, then say, “I love the sound of money.  Here comes your present.”.  After the show, you get a little plastic egg with a small prize inside(like any toy vending machine, except it’s a plastic Easter egg)  The prizes aren’t all that great(I got a little plastic box to put teeth into for the tooth fairy), but the parrot’s performance is so worth it.

We ended up getting a decent amount of tickets for what we spent, so we got a few decent prizes.  My wife got a nice pink folding knife(which is very sharp), and a souvenir glass.  This is what I got.

I got the Ultimate Spider-Man “Action Vignette Figure” from one of the shops across the street.  These were $2.99 and they were blind-boxed.  I was hoping to get Venom, but this one’s alright.  It’s got nice color, but it’s got limited articulation.  I had to get the gumball machine because I have always wanted one.  This one is metal and glass, and for 800 points, seems to be of decent quality.  The car is a “Burnin’ Key Car”.  I remember a few different cars with this feature from when I was younger.  The name also sounds familiar, but Maisto isn’t a brand that I remember.  It’s still going to be a cool car to play with.

On the fourth there were fireworks, but again, I didn’t get many good pictures.  I did manage to get a couple though.

I had a great vacation here, and I can’t wait to go again in September.  I also managed to find a pawn shop in the area.  There was decent video game selection, and I ended up with a bunch of games to add to my NES collection.

I ended up paying $28.00 for all of those games(I made 2 separate trips).  I needed all of them except for Tecmo Super Bowl(the one I have acts screwy).  On my first trip I saw Turtles IV” Turtles in Time”(for SNES).  I went back the next day and it was still on the shelf, but I was informed that it just sold on Amazon!  Dammit!!  That was the only sucky part about the whole vacation, so I’m obviously not disappointed(although I really want that game).

So what did everyone else do?  Find anything at the garage sales?  Let’s hear about it.