Almost felt a little sad because I thought I was the only one in the world who liked that Double Dragon movie. Rented it at least 20 times as a kid. But, in truth, Iām glad you all like it, too because it deserves some love. Itās cheesy as heck but itās definitely fun and you canāt say the filmmakers were just phoning it in.
Also: Half Price Books is the best.
One hundred percent support this briefly becoming a Half Price Books celebration thread. @exodus that is a hot The Keep Laserdisc, which is a movie that I always confuse with The Gate for at least 3 minutes before remembering which one is which
I live in England and over here we donāt have āThrift Shopsā, instead we have āCharity Shopsā which are similar; though, I am not sure they are quite as good. Iām not sure if itās just survivorship bias, I only hear about the cool things people buy from Thrift Shops because theyāre the only ones that get posted and shared, but it seems to me like Thrift Shops tend to be larger and host a wider variety of things.
No matter, I do love second hand stores in general and could spend an entire day moving through my city going in and out of them.
I realised I typed that up without having something to show. So, here is a ceramic pidgeon I bought once. Also, a record I bought without knowing the album. I have since listened to it and Iām not a fan. I kept it though, because of an anime that I donāt even like. (Background is edited because it was originally my bedroom window.)
Just to confirm your suspicions, the charity shop and the thrift shop/store are very different beasts. Charity shops are mostly full of things that granddad left when he died, and usually are indeed tied to a charity. Thrift stores are supplied by everyone from all walks of life. If you donāt want it and itās still in good shape, take a few bags of stuff down there and donate it. Better than throwing stuff away, easier than selling it.
So at charity shops you almost never find anything really good, but at thrift stores there's just a huge cross section of society represented. Like if you go to a part of the bay area with a different immigrant community, you'll see different stuff. I have about 80 bollywood cassette tapes, I've gotten vietnamese cds and Laserdiscs, Cambodian Laserdiscs, the entire run of dreams come true albums, rare vhs tapes, scores of records, etc. Heck, all my Metallica LPs come from thrift stores. You used to be able to find games there with some regularity but I think most places have someone skimming the good stuff before it hits the floor now. My partner regularly finds pricey vintage dresses for $5 each. And that's to say nothing of the antique shops, which are more targeted in what they sell. Just last weekend I saw a game gear with its case in an antique shop run by grandmas.
Another key difference is they don't have to be tied to a charity specifically. It's usually a non profit but there's not necessarily a religious association or something it's benefitting other than giving people jobs training at their stores.
Anyway, I've been to charity shops in various parts of Europe and they suuuuuck compared to what we've got here. In Europe (dunno about the UK, but certainly continental Europe) the place to go is open air markets, if you want a similar breadth of goods, but if course there you've got to haggle with individuals rather than browse a pre-priced store. It's a little closer though.
what we have here is the car boot
I went to Santa Paula to pick up some solar panels last weekā¦ Itās basically a retirement community with a historic downtown. Not a lot going on, but thereās a goodwill, so I knew the chances were high thereād be good stuff.
Nothing THAT amazing, was on the fence about even mentioning it.
I left most of this behind because I donāt need any of it, but the prices were super reasonable, like $3-$8 for everything
The coolest item was the Microsoft wingman controller. This summer is when the Microsoft and SEGA controller connection had fully clicked in my brain, and now here it isā what is essentially the prototype for the original Xbox controller, with Z and C buttons. Layout of a saturn controller, but with materials that are the same as the original Xbox controllers.
I had that Superbad UMD in 9th grade. Got it at blockbuster for about the same price as it was marked here 
bust a move was nice to see too, I suppose!
I took the vintage TMBG dial a song magnet and a Wii motion plus adapter.
There were also many great quality (and aesthetic) VCRs, receivers, tape decks and Blue ray players from the past 40 years but I really, really donāt need a vcr for anything except to raise my CRT a couple inches off the deskā¦ Iād sooner get a DVD player.
There were some early 00ās Lenovo rubber dome keyboards that are always comfy. But despite being super reasonably priced, I canāt just be collecting junk like this.
The Microsoft Wingman would be great to use, (felt really comfortable) but I already have a wireless saturn pad, and I donāt exactly fetishize microsoft hardware, so I left it behind.
I saw on Facebook marketplace the other day a cheap wii for sale with a few games. This was the ad.
Now looking closely I could tell that backwards game was Mario Kart Double Dash. So I thought it was a pretty good deal for $50. A Wii with a few common games, MKDD, Mario Kart Wii, and New SMB.
When I picked it up and inspected it, it also had 5 remotes, one that was brand new, component cables and much to my surprise, Double Dash was pristine. Unfortunately no nunchakus, but thatās okay.
Then also a loose copy of Casino Royale was in there too, not sure why.
Story time!
back in 2017 or so, I found one of the Sonic Mania limited edition statues for $10. Just the statue, nothing else:
at the time, thatās about how much it was worthā like $16, haha
needless to say I didnāt have any space for it in my living space at the time, (a tipi in someoneās back yard, haha) so I flipped it for like $30 a couple months later.
Now that Iāve been infected with sonic mania, and Iām not moving 3+ times per year like I was back then, Iād really enjoy having the likeness of classic sonic in my space. I have a perfect spot for him.
But theyāre much more expensive and hard to find now. I canāt complain much, this summer my mega drive has been the centerpiece after all, which is much better than the fake Genesis the sonic statue stands on. But sonic merchandise is a whole can of worms to open up and start searching for. Iāll maybe find something quite affordable and appropriate for my space down the line.
But then I saw this, the statue Oshima made of sonic in the year 1990:
thatās so awesome
(also if I had that fake sonic mania genesis cartridgeā I would use a heat gun to remove the sticker and reapply it to a blank japanese mega drive chonker cartridge, hoping that the sticker footprints are the same dimensions)
I returned to the Half-Price Books and once again with the cool employees: the checkout lady commented on my Soul Calibur disc ($17), and within 30 seconds started talking about MAPPY. I got to use my āACAB except Mappyā joke in person in a public space. Half-Price Books rules
@tokucowboy disc-only soul calibur being $17 is distressing to me somehow
@exodus Itās not great compared to a few years ago, but in the void of 2022, itās still a couple bucks less than the cheapest ones on eBay for a US copy. Itās dumb spending, but Iāll do $17 for the little joy of finding old games in the physical wilds these days
I get it of course - just with that game in particular, they printed so many, and disc only copies were 99 cents at every thrift store untilaybe 5 years ago - itās just a spooky sign of the times is all!
I found this weird AR, maybe, visor last week.
Also one of these robots that remind me of Zoids even though they werenāt much alike and these ones came later.
I didnāt buy either!!!
Yesterday I went to a consignment shop in New Hampshire and found a little treasure trove:
MGS1, Ridge Racer 4, FFVII, FF Tactics, all CIB with instruction manuals, all in pristine condition. I might go back for a replacement copy of Lost Odyssey (mine has a worrying though as far as I remember not problematic number of scratches on more than one of the discs).
Iād heard of most of these games but definitely hadnāt seen a majority at any other secondhand store that Iāve been to in my time as a thrifty garaging flea (most of that time in the USA Midwest). It was novel just to be able to see these things in person! The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2!!! Not a lot of hardware, but some Saturn arcade sticks and those DK bongos (temptedā¦). I confess general ignorance of Street Fighter but they had a copy of SF Ex 3, which Iād never heard of or seen before (looking it up I can imagine why). Whatās this Dragon Blade game for the Wii? I sure donāt know. Iād never seen that ridiculous Suikoden cover before because Iād only seen images online of the European and Japanese release.
Would have been nice to pick up a few more things but being a consignment shop it was basically all eBay prices (although the condition was verifiably better than eBay for a few things which might be worth saving up for). I did pick up a cheap copy of Guilty Gear XX which might be fun to play with a buddy sometime (the instruction manual was fun to read). That copy of KOF XI was tempting but the disc had a huge awful scratch on it, I wondered if it might have been unplayable (clearly the theme of this post is disc scratches).
Today in a pile of DVDs someone left at Gamestop
Water damaged cover, no manual, but very much works
Anyone wanna make an offer?
@connrrr Is that Grittyās dad?
@robinhoodie Youppi could absolutely be responsible for abominations like Gritty, so sure
@connrrr Oh! He is from Montreal. I have enjoyed my time in that city. But it explains a lot.
