Great bargains from E-bay / Garage / Yard / Car boot sales

[Twilight Wolf]

That sucks. Sorry to hear that, dude.

Got some pretty good stuff today, I'd say! The first garage sale I hit up was actually being run by a friend of my Dad's. I got a 250GB 2.5" SATA HDD from him free - he didn't know what it was, so I explained, and he said I could have it. The coolest part of all, though, was the fact that he's got autographs from all four of the Beatles! And they're real! I got to check them out, which was totally awesome. He's been trying to sell them, but they're out of my range: $3800. He had some photocopies of those particular autographs, though, and he gave those to me, too!

Then the last garage sale I went to had a Virtual Boy with everything in the original box, and three games: "Mario's Tennis," "Red Alarm," and "Teleroboxer." Grand total? $7! I'm quite pleased, especially since it works flawlessly, unlike my other two.

 

[DK]

Xbox 360 and 2 wireless controllers with rechargable battery packs £60. A guy was trying to trade it in but only offered him £50 so i offerd him more when he left the store

 

[XCVG]

Went to the flea market earlier. Much more than last time. Saw some games, even an N64, but nothing I really wanted to buy. Came away with three power bricks, $1 each.

 

[Tibia]

My brother got a wireless GC controller at Goodwill for $2. He plugged it in, but the z-button doesn't work, so he gave it to me. I opened it up. It's a tact switch, and it's working, but the controller doesn't register it. I'm going to try to reflow the solder and see if that changes anything.

 

[XCVG]

Got an N64 from a friend. Got the console (missing jumper pak cover, but I have one from a cut-up case), cables, 3 controllers, a memory pack (3rd party) and an official rumble pak. No games, he sold them all. One controller is grey (gonna cut it up), Atomic Purple (goes with the others), and a really nice clear blue. Unfortunately the clear blue has a very bad stick (the others are okay) and a slightly damaged cord. I plan to swap out with the stick and cord from the grey one. I haven't actually paid yet (he trusts me... too much) the negotiated price is $10.

Maybe I'm a little pessimistic about getting deals. The guys at school seem to be the best source for me.

 

[nevermind1534]

An IBM Model M keyboard, still sealed in the box (manufactured 11/12/1997) for $3 at a flea market. I've already got it sold for $50

 

[XCVG]

Got a Game Boy Camera for $10 at the pawn shop. Not a great deal but I don't feel ripped off either.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Bought a disc-only copy of "Dead or Alive" for the PlayStation for $2.00 at Game Force. It was cheap, so I figured "Why not?"

 

[epicelite]

I was at Home Depot and they had a bargain bin 75% off!

I took a quick look and didn't see anything.
Then later when I was waiting to check out I looked again and dug around and found...
Maglight D/C Cell LED bulb upgrades ($3 each!)
Energizer energy to go cellphone charger! ($2.50 each!)

I would have gotten more but I am short on cash, so I got 2 of each.

 

[XCVG]

Bought a Mattel Hyperscan controller for $4 at Liquidation World. Thoughts, pics, and maybe a video coming soon.

EDIT:

Okay, it's a good thing this thing was cheap and I'll tell you why right now. It's exceedingly uncomfortable. I don't know why, but it feels weird. I THINK it's because the handles are too narrow but I'm not sure. The shape also makes using the shoulder buttons awkward, though the triggers are fine. The controller is also kind of ugly and feels kind of cheap.

The analog stick has a nice rubber top and feels pretty good. That's about the only thing that does. The start and select buttons are okay, not anything special but they would serve their purpose. There are four action buttons, labeled R, G, B and Y. It took me a while to figure out that they were named for their colors. The action buttons feel cheap and have little travel and almost no mush. They are also solid and opaque, not translucent or transparant as the picture on the box suggests. The shoulder buttons are crap, they are kind of large and awkward, they feel cheap, but that's not what's bad about them. They push straight down. Normal shoulder buttons hinge a bit, but these don't. That would be okay for one with only a little travel, but these push down quite a bit. The triggers are okay, they just push in though, not analog.

 

[Solyhatra]

I bought a HP Brio ba440 desktop pc...

Off of a Grammar School (in the art department)...

For £9.99

It fully works, broadband ready...

 

[nightwheel]

I got a free Compaq Presario 7470. Came with the original screen, all the books and papers, original keyboard and mouse, and most of the original supporting software except for the Windows 98 disk (I have a win 98 disk already anyways). It also came with a Windows 95 install disk and the Windows 95 manual w/ product key.

I've reverting it back Windows 98 since the person I got it from had installed Windows 95 on it after getting it. But I've seemed to have screwed up the Install some how, but that something for me to work on tomarrow

 

[Mario]

A school right next to my house was moving to a different location. To reduce what they have to pack up/move, and to generally just clean up, they threw out TONS of interesting things.

First, I got 15 unopened copies of Windows 2000 Pro

Some random electronics junk (fuse holders, bulb holder, wire nuts, some kind of brackets)

Just regular junk, which was a bunch of "attendance correction slips" which I duct taped together to make a giant notepad, some wire, and something called a Key-Bak (a retractable keyring)

22 clean baby food jars and 11 lids

Now, here comes the good stuff. I got an old Smith Corona electronic typewriter (can't find a date for it, guessing it's an early 90's model) with a FULL SPOOL of ink tape. The typewriter itself is also in excellent condition.

I found a giant USA atlas. Although the information is over 40 years old, it's a neat thing to have, and it's fun to look at the info in it. There was a page of TV broadcasting stations around the country; there were about 100 total.

It's enormous!

And now, my personal favorite. A medium-sized golden-rectangular electronics poster! ^_^

 

[themadhacker]

you posted that last year I think.

anyway, today I was at my church yard sale. I bought a very nice purple GBA. It apparently was only used once or twice. There are no scratches, no dirt around crevaces, no button or plastic wear, no corrusion or dust bunnies around screws, and no corrosion in the battery compartment, and all stickers are shiny and not worn. It turned out that everything was donation instead of a set price for everything, so I offered 5 bucks since it is in such nice condition.

 

[XCVG]

you posted that last year I think.

anyway, today I was at my church yard sale. I bought a very nice purple GBA. It apparently was only used once or twice. There are no scratches, no dirt around crevaces, no button or plastic wear, no corrusion or dust bunnies around screws, and no corrosion in the battery compartment, and all stickers are shiny and not worn. It turned out that everything was donation instead of a set price for everything, so I offered 5 bucks since it is in such nice condition.

LOL! Did they actually go for that?

 

[Yoshilime M.R.]

Golf nes
A boy and his blob Nes
Gyromite Nes with Rob controller part
Mechanized attack Nes

all boxed for 14 bucks with instruction Manuel and styro inserts.

Sonic 3
Vecterman
6-pack
TMNT tournament fighters
2 bucks for all.

 

[themadhacker]

you posted that last year I think.

anyway, today I was at my church yard sale. I bought a very nice purple GBA. It apparently was only used once or twice. There are no scratches, no dirt around crevaces, no button or plastic wear, no corrusion or dust bunnies around screws, and no corrosion in the battery compartment, and all stickers are shiny and not worn. It turned out that everything was donation instead of a set price for everything, so I offered 5 bucks since it is in such nice condition.

LOL! Did they actually go for that?

yup. Now I have a near mint GBA for my collection.

 

[pkmnjunky7]

My next door neighbor had a yardsale yesterday. I got a Sega Genesis and a Psone for 5 bucks. They both came with all the chords and the Genesis came with like 7 crappy sports games.

 

[Tibia]

I was helping my cousin move back into his apartment, and I snagged a phat PS1 with cords and two NES controllers. He was going to jsut throw them away.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Went to Savers yesterday and found a Dreamcast with a controller, power/video cables, and a fishing controller for $35. However, it happened to be half-price, so it was only $17.50 for everything! My sister will be getting it, along with a copy of "Shenmue," for Christmas. I'm keeping the fishing controller for myself for playing "Soul Calibur," though.