yard sale information wanted

After going yard sale searching yesterday I got to thinking. I find, that at yard sales when you find system  it seems the games included are always the common games. I have never found a system with games, where most of the games were the good title games. kind of like finding a snes, with earthbound, final fantasy, wild guns, mega man etc.  Ive pretty much come to the conclusion that the people that would have these kind of games are more the serious gamers and hold onto their stuff. where the people that just have all common games probally just bought  a system for their kids one day and hence forth just sell it, to get it out of the attic.

has anyone found a lot at a yard sale with all the really good tiltes. if so how often

Comments

  • More often than not I find good gaming titles or semi rare games at garage sales. I am fortunate though as I think Washington State is one of the better places to find such items... 25% of the time I find something rare.
  • Originally posted by: otterpop

    More often than not I find good gaming titles or semi rare games at garage sales. I am fortunate though as I think Washington State is one of the better places to find such items... 25% of the time I find something rare.

    i find rarer titles such as earthbound, at yard sales, but it seems like there always just a handful of random games with no system.  I dont know but around here it seems people just bought the cheapest games, kind of like instead of paying for one good game they would buy 10 crappy ones

  • I think it depends on the area. If your in a low income area then you'll most likely just find a system and some common games like Mario since they probably couldn't afford buying their child any other games.
  • i think it has alot to do with the early bird gets the worm. The E-bay people get all the good stuff and leave the less desirable stuff for everyone else.
  • ^ ^ This, and lots of times people will have put that same NES system out at several different yard sales, perhaps for a couple of years, and people have picked through it before.
  • Originally posted by: otterpop

    More often than not I find good gaming titles or semi rare games at garage sales. I am fortunate though as I think Washington State is one of the better places to find such items... 25% of the time I find something rare.



    Not this part of Washington. I live in a smaller town, but it is a hub for the county. Most everything here is common, and in crappy condition because it belonged to tweakers or rednecks.

    The best find I had was some dude who cleaned it all out of his apartment. It had been left by the previous Tenants.

  • i've had 2 good rummage finds in the past month, it seems like a pretty dry area at least thus far
  • If you can get something 25% of the time that's most excellent, I'd put it maybe at 1% around here.
  • I would agree with the 25% estimate. I find so much stuff but I would say 1 out of 4 times I go out (once a month) I come home with a really nice score.
  • It's all luck of the draw, really, but depending on the overall "age" of the neighborhood's occupants, it can change even more.



    It sure is nice to find stuff though, and don't be afraid to ask if they have any video games that they didn't put out if you think there's a chance! That's the first rule in yard sale hunting.
  • I have never seen stand alone games for sale. It's always a bundle with the system and the games are always just Mario/Duck Hunt, Soccer, and maybe Zelda on a good day, then they ask $80 for it. It's awful!
  • I agree...just luck. I have found everything from nba live 95 to sealed SMB. Sales were da bomb this weekend, but nothing uber rare game wise, so I didn't post.
  • i never find anything at yard/garage sales, honestly ive never found a rare game in the wild
  • Originally posted by: qtoyoda

    i never find anything at yard/garage sales, honestly ive never found a rare game in the wild


    Then you're not looking hard enough....
  • I've found amazing deals on Craigslist and at thrift stores but never at a yard sale. Anytime one is advertised on Craigslist I always assume it will be cleaned out early so I don't even waste my time. But with that attitude I'll probably never hit a good one.
  • When the season is going good I'll get a big hit once every two weeks; though I might ask about games at 40 houses or so to get at the games "behind the scenes." I can't say I've ever come across a Chrono Trigger or an Earthbound, but there's all kinds of ps1 rarities I've run into that your average joe doesn't think about...harvest moon: back to nature and klonoa among kids games... $1 intelligent cube. I've met gamer-types who come out with Mega Man Legends 2 and Dragon Warrior 7 for $5 each...



    Oh, I did have an instance when a guy gave me Final Fantasy 2 and 3 cart-only + Gradius V for free, after I bought 150 bucks of stuff from him. All Shin Megami Tensei games w/ guides and artbooks, a Growlanser Generations Boxset, just unbelievable. $5 anime boxsets? They happen in my world.
  • I don't get too lucky at garage sales. I would say the rarest game I have found is Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (SNES), it's pretty dirty though. That same guy had Harvest Moon 64 which is why I showed up at the G-sale in the first place so I lucked out finding that extra bonus.



    It's funny, I bought an NES clone with 32 games for $40 last week - I think the rarest cart in there was an R4. Still a good deal, but dammit I usually expect one gem.
  • i've had better luck pulling larger lots of nes games off of craigslist. but i have had some great finds at garage sales. several unlicensed carts with the popular titles. the biggest garage sale score was last year in july. i found pesterminator, spiritual warfare, and 50 other games with an console for $20
  • I could go on and on for hours about the stuff I have found but I have been doing this for 10+ years and I get up at 7am every saturday and dont get home till 3-4 my route I take is probably 50 miles and then adding on all the turns to side roads etc. Then every sunday I get up at 5am to go to the flea market and dont get home till 11 or 12am. So I put alot of work in but it pays off.
  • Every garage sale around here seems to be cleaned out by resellers by about 9:05am. They will wait outside the sale before it opens and all rush in, its insane. However, that is mainly in the poorer areas where all the flea markets are, they generally dont come up near where I live. The only problem with where I live is that the 1 out of 1000 that have something want 10x market for it!
  • Originally posted by: Game Core

    I could go on and on for hours about the stuff I have found but I have been doing this for 10+ years and I get up at 7am every saturday and dont get home till 3-4 my route I take is probably 50 miles and then adding on all the turns to side roads etc. Then every sunday I get up at 5am to go to the flea market and dont get home till 11 or 12am. So I put alot of work in but it pays off.


    Which flea markets do you hit?  Perkie???
  • Perkie is a shithole! LOL. I hit certain ones =) There is already enough competition I don't need anymore.
  • I'm 2-3 hours from Oaks. You don't have to worry about me. I was just curious since I grew up in that area.
  • Ah gotcha! I mostly flea market in jersey and I go to the Q-mart on saturdays. Ewww Perkie LOL.
Sign In or Register to comment.