Let's check in with Half Price Books again

Last year I started this section with a visit to Half Price Books. They used to have good deals, now... Yeah, that is an extremely beat-up copy of the Empire Deluxe hint book for $79.99. Is it rare? Maybe. Does GameFAQs still exist? [checks] Yes. Also, loose Gamecube memory card for $19.99.

It's Paper Mario for $275!! This is a game I bought in the early 2000s when Toys 'R Us cleared out their Nintnedo 64 inventory. I did not buy the only copy they had and there were over 700 other locations at the time. That's a long way of saying this is not a rare game and a whole lot of people got it cheap roughly 20-22 years ago. I bet someone will buy this copy too, that's so awful.

Some books for my latest hobby

If you follow this site you've noticed that I kinda got into 68k assembly programming recently. I don't know if I'll upgrade to x86 assembly but it's possible. It's likely enough that when I spotted these books for $1 each at an estate sale I had to nab them.

The real reason I bought these was for the disks. They were never opened. The books look mostly unused anyway. I suspect assembly was too difficult for them. Maybe that's why they switched to BASIC. It's really very simple though, it requires patience more than brain power.

Inflation comes to Madden games

Here's a copy of Madden 98 for $7.99 found at a local thrift store. This is first time I've seen an old version for more than $1-$2 in a while. Madden games are usually cheap for obvious reasons - they sold in huge numbers and most fans of the series prefer a version with current rosters. There are exceptions to the latter, like NHL '94 on the Genesis or NFL 2K2 on the Dreamcast.

Tempting but what would I do with this?

Locking storage for 15 Zip disks just under $5... I suppose 25 years ago I would have jumped on this. I didn't have anything on my Zip disks that needed a lock but still. Really, that lock is very useless. Someone could fit that whole tower into a pocket of their 1998 JNCO jeans. So I guess it's only preventing someone in your own house from (easily) seeing what you are storing? What exactly are you storing that this is a concern?

Of course if I bought that tower I could use it to store these bad boys I spotted a couple weeks later.

$49.99(!?) Genesis controller

I have to assume they intended to price this at $4.99 which is still a rip-off considering the condition. There is not a price where I would take that controller.

Facemaker for Atari 400/800 (almost)

I spotted this at an estate sale among a pile of books. I don't own an Atari 400/800, I don't plan to either. I also don't buy things just to flip them on ebay or whatever. I do, however, know a few people who have specific collecting interests that I would pick this up for.

I'll admit to being curious about it. I'm not the target demographic but find just about any old (new to me) software interesting. At a glace it seems to have more customization options than the Wii Mii editor did. I'm not trolling with that comment, I think it's at least close.

Alas, the box was empty. I asked the people running the sale if they had anything else like this or the computer it was for. They looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.

Returning to a previous sale

Last year I found a Family Boy for $5 at a sale with various import games. It was the first, and I assumed last, time I would ever see import games at a garage sale. I was sort of right and wrong. The same house, on the same weekend, had the same sale in 2023. So I decided to stop and see if there was anything new. I don't recall this broken Super Nintendo being there before. I have two working Super Nintendos, I don't need a broken one too. So I left this and maybe someone else considered it an amazing find.

In case you read my post last year (unlikely) and thought I was making it all up (likely)... here are the import games that were available this time. It was a smaller selection but not zero games. I don't know why this picture is so red. It was incredibly sunny and roughly 100 degrees when I took this. Also I don't really know how to take pictures properly and will never fix that.

The only thing I bought at this sale was this trivia game that I'll probably never open. Yes, I will drive by it again next year. No, I am not giving out the address.

Also tempting but, again, what would I do with this?

I didn't even look at the price... because if it was under $50 I might have taken it home. Then I'd be complaining how much space it took up. The cleaning effort seems rough too.

Spotted this Ms Pac-Man cocktail cabinet

I pulled over for an estate sale sign and it was overall meh. Everything was way overpriced. It's an estate sale, you're supposed to be getting rid of stuff. This particular house had a lot of home theater items that were not radically discounted. Down in the basement I spotted this original Ms Pac-Man cocktail cabinet with no price listed.

I talked to the people running the sale and they were debating whether to keep it. They were open to offers but I had exactly $25 in my pocket at the time and based on the other prices that wasn't going to cut it.

Other than a lot of fingerprints it seemed to be in good condition. It had probably been in the basement a long time without a ton of usage. These old cabinets are pretty indestructible too.

Maybe I should have haggled, it didn't seem to be worth it. It would be a cool thing to own but really how much would I use it? I've never owned an arcade cabinet because there just aren't any games that I'd play enough to justify the amount of space taken.