Sales Yard Finds - X
-David, webmaster DVGI

Wow, here we are at the tenth editorial concerning items picked up at the Sales Yard, the local Tuesday flea market.  When I started writing this column it was nothing more than an opportunity I saw to have some consistent site content, a running series if you would.  That was almost a year ago and I think I've averaged pretty well in writing about any finds that were worth finding.  I plan on running this editorial until I leave the town in which the flea market takes place, which is looking to be a couple years or so.  These have always been one of my favorite parts of the site to work on because there's always something new to write about.  While the frequency of reviews seems to dry up during the hot summer months, this editorial series is one I always strive to sit my ass down and write and it's going to remain that way.  With that let's begin the chronicle of the latest visit to the Sales Yard.

The second week in August brought with it a more mild temperature than the previous couple weeks so it seemed to be a great day for buying and selling.  Just the same I really wasn't in the mood for the five mile round trip walk so I used more conventional means this week.  Right off the bat there was a huge surprise.  Well, it wasn't right off the bat since I entered from the rear and didn't see until I got to the front, but the Chinese junk dealer was not there!  I figure he's skipping a week or two due to the heat.  However one of his buddies was in his spot, selling a bunch of crap that no one wanted.

On the plus side it seemed that pretty much every third seller had a pile of NES games and the prices weren't all that bad.  I'm in conservation mode right now so I didn't go on a buying frenzy, although if you had money to burn this was the week to be there as most sellers that had a box or so of NES games probably would have taken $20 - $30 for the whole lot.  I did come across a pair of titles that I simply could not pass by, especially since the seller agreed to two for five dollars.  Neither of them are rare but I never see them in the wild.  The games are Skull & Crossbones (which is one of the most difficult games to get to run on an NES emulator) and Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat which is basically like Super Off-Road but with indy cars, a personal favorite.  Just across from that seller I came across a few more NES cartridges, some PS2 games, and a complete longbox copy of Wipeout.  Now, I have the rerelease version of Wipeout in a standard jewel case but the longbox version is a longbox title I don't have.  The lady wanted seven bucks, saying how it was a PS2 game.  I corrected her and told her it's a really old PlayStation game and that they used to come in big boxes, showing her where it says "PlayStation" on the front.  Surprisingly she wised right up and took five dollars for it.  It's not rare or anything but it was complete and in that condition I'm not going to find it for less.  The front of the box has some very slight fading (seems to be common with Wipeout, something with the silver reflectiveness) and the disc tray had to be reglued but I was still happy to pick it up.

Continuing on I really just saw more of the same, cheap NES games and a few other items but nothing unique or as cool as the stuff I've come across in the last couple visits.  Passing one of the smaller miscellaneous junk dealers I've gotten some decent stuff from in the past, I noticed he was changing his signs from everything being a dollar to everything being a quarter.  Might as well dig through all his crap at that price.  After not seeing a whole lot I came across a rather large slot car set in its original box.  There was some slot car track on the ground near it but that was the cheap battery powered kind and I figured this was going to be the same.  However the track inside the box was of the higher quality electric variety.  Digging through the box I found the power adapter, the section of track with the throttle triggers attached, lots of the railing, and every piece of track I pulled out seemed to be in excellent condition.  Twenty-five cents later I was walking away with the oversized box under my arm.  Once I got it home I found that the operations booklet was in the box as well.  Using it I went over the included parts and every piece of track was there, including the crossovers, obstacle section, lap counter, and the loop.  The only things missing were two of the supports to raise the track up and one of the loop cradles.  I also found a car at the bottom of the box but the pinion gear was smashed so it doesn't run.  However I was able to test the throttles and power pack with the car and they work perfectly.  It's one of the larger sets from a couple years ago and I'm sure it was $80+ when purchased.  I dumped the large box for some more adequate storage and I'll probably end up permanently affixing the track to a sheet of particle board, sans the loop since that would limit operation to magnetically quipped cars only.

On the next row I came across a seller with a Dreamcast and Atari 5200, Atari 5200's seem to be as common as water at the Sales Yard lately.  The Dreamcast was complete with a normal first party controller, a green translucent first party controller, green VMU, system, power cord, but no AV - only a third party RF unit.  The moron selling it had the VMU shoved into the controller facing the wrong way, so it had some cracks in it but after flipping it around I got it to read.  He only wanted $15 for everything and after my $10 Dreamcast pickup a couple visits ago my uncle was looking for one himself.  Flat out you're not going to get that much stuff for that cheap, the $10 bundle I picked up was just damn lucky and $15 for the items this guy had wasn't bad.  The system was a little dirty and marked up a bit, and I didn't bring a game with me to try it (I always forget to do this) but the internal system clock had the correct date and time so the battery hadn't gone dead yet.  That means it couldn't have seen all that much use and the VMU had only two saves on it.  So I figured why not and under my advice my uncle bought it.  It needed some cleaning once I got it home and some of the marks on the system itself wouldn't come off with normal cleaning, but it runs fine and the VMU works properly.  More importantly the console emulation homebrews work on it which is what he wanted it for.

On the way out I spotted an Atari 2600 with a bunch of games but what caught my eye was an Atari Video Touch Pad.  These aren't rare by any stretch of the imagination and they came with and only worked with one game, Star Raiders, however this one had the Star Raiders overlay with it.  I just don't come across them with the overlay so I asked the guy how much he wanted.  He wanted to sell it all in one big lot for something like forty bucks and I told him I only wanted the pad.  He seemed game and asked how much I would pay, I responded maybe a couple bucks or so and that's what I got it for.  Aside from that I did pick up one import bootleg game but that's of no one's concern and I'll be replacing it with an original as soon as I come across one.

Not a bad visit to the Sales Yard however the non-game items I picked up outweighed the video games this time around.  Still, this is the best time of the year to get good deals since the "every week sellers" know that the prime season is coming to a close.  No matter how lean the funds are I just might have to stop by again next Tuesday.

Acquired...
Atari 2600 - Video Touch Pad with Star Raiders overlay (loose)
NES - Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat (loose)
NES - Skull & Crossbones (loose)
PS1 - Wipeout (complete longbox)

Sold...
None
 

Written on 08-13-05 by David, insanedavid@classicplastic.net

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