Sales
Yard Finds - XII
-David, webmaster DVGI
Sales
Yard Finds - XII
-David, webmaster DVGI
The final week of August, or at least the final week of August that has a Tuesday in it. August usually spells the end of the busiest time at the Sales Yard, the seasonal and one-time sellers quit coming out, the old standby's get rid of the last of their mass appeal stock, the junk dealers leave the business until next year, and the clouds of uncertainty roll on in. Granted that there is still plenty of decent Sales Yard weather for another couple months yet (and actually they hold it year round unless it rains heavily on the morning of Tuesday) but the big push has all but winded down. There are still plenty of deals to be found but now most of the things one may see out there won't be back around the next week unless it's from one of the prime sellers - goods and sellers have a funny way of disappearing at this time of the year. In other words if you see something you want you had better get wheeling and dealing now as you probably won't have another chance. Of course this means there are some new opportunities during this time of the year and on an extremely windy Tuesday that's just what I was out to look for.
The wind was really moving out the the
Sales Yard last tuesday, which is essentially a big dirt lot with a pair
of dirt parking areas adjacent to it. So in 
addition
to sellers trying to keep their goods from blowing away there was also
quite a bit of dust and dirt blowing through the area, especially in the
front. To kick things off I actually had some money this week to
spend which is always a change from the norm. However I was honestly
looking to make back anything I spent through sales of other items obtained.
That's the way I'm trying to keep things going now, buy items to resell
and if I see something rare or cheap for myself then it won't be as big
a hit for me to buy them. The Chinese junk dealer had absolutely
nothing this week which is really surprising. I hope his warehouse
isn't drying up because he brings a lot of traffic and a lot of good deals
to the Sales Yard and it wouldn't be the same without him - it already
isn't on the weeks he sits out.
Across the way was the guy with the plastic bins were everything is one dollar, I picked up an orange NES zapper and a copy of Seaman with microphone for two bucks the week before. I'll admit that this is like my new favorite seller, he's calm and cuts deals, not an arrogant ass like the hicks that sell a few spots over, has good items, and doesn't try to double talk you to get a couple extra bucks. It really didn't look like a whole lot had changed with his bins but I went through them anyway. I came across copies of Paperboy 2 and Top Gun: The Second Mission for the NES that were there last week and figured for a dollar each I should just buy them. Paperboy 2 has some label damage from moisture and Top Gun: The Second Mission went into an NES bundle I sold a week ago. In one of the bins I also came across a huge knot of NES controllers. I started undoing one but then figured I'd take the whole mess up to him and see if I could swing a deal. He asked me how much I would pay, I replied maybe five bucks, he said six and that was that. I was offering five dollars for JUST the NES controller knot, he said six for the controllers and the two cartridges - no way I could pass that up. Once I got the knot home I spent about three hours separating, disassembling, cleaning, reassembling and testing each controller. Turns out there were eight NES controllers, one SNES controller, a piece of wire and some fishing line in the knot. All the controllers worked fine except for one NES controller that has something wrong with the plug so it went into the parts box. I also replaced some worn parts in a couple controllers and had to drill out a few screws due to rust. One of these was put in the same box as the bundle I mentioned earlier but the others will be listed in the DVGI Storefront at a later date.
After that I didn't see a whole lot until
checking out the wares of a video game dealer that has grown rather large
over the years. A few summers ago when I was selling at the Sales
Yard almost every week, they had a very small operation, just a couple
tables. They had a few Super Famicom games they wanted next to nothing
for and me being the wiseass I am, explained to them how you can make them
work in a Super Nintendo. This was met with chatter in Spanish, one
of them pushing a Super Famicom cart into a Super Nintendo to no avail,
head shaking and laughing at me. Honestly I 
still
kick myself for just not buying the games. They were nothing rare,
stuff like Super Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Country in the US) and the like
but still, they were so cheap. Anyway, to make a longer story short
a couple weeks later I went over to their spot to see the games running
on a circumcised Super Nintendo, now they were $15 each. Man did
I feel stupid. (if you would like to modify
your SNES to play SFC games then check out the walkthrough in the mod files)
Now those guys have a huge operation, tons of games, rows of glass cases,
the works. What makes them different from most is that they have
their area so well walled in that they allow you to open the cases and
dig through the games. They are overpriced for a lot of stuff but
they carry everything from the R-Zone to Atari Jaguar as well as a handful
of import games. (speaking of which I really need to go through their
Jag games looking for rare stuff next time, same with SNES and GameBoy)
I concentrated most of my time looking through a decent assortment of Super
Famicom cartridges that I didn't see last time and honestly if you didn't
know what they were you wouldn't even notice them. I was skipping
through them rather quickly but I did notice a copy of Live-A-Live that
I pulled aside. Next I found the most unexpected single game find
I have come across at the Sales Yard, a copy of the Sailormoon S fighting
game - in a freaking plastic bag at that so it was probably from an import
store at one time. The head guy wanted $10 each, I put the copy of
Live-A-Live back since I'd rather play the translated version via emulation
but gladly paid the ten bucks for the Sailormoon S cart. Stupidly
I didn't bother to scour EVERY last game he had looking for rare titles
and imports but I guess I can do that on another visit.
At this point I was more than happy with
the items that I had found, especially considering I still had a decent
amount of cash on hand. In the second to last row I stumbled upon
a boxed Odyssey2. Last week I had thought it was an original Odyssey
and I had stupidly passed it up, however now I knew it was in fact an Odyssey2.
The guy selling it said he had another with more games and if I bought
this one he'd bring that one next week and sell it for 
the
same, he was asking $20. It was the complete system in the original
box with original inserts and four additional cartridges, one boxed.
It looked to be in really good condition save for the box having heavy
wear. What the hell I figured, gave the guy the $20 and carried the
system off with every intention of reselling it for a few bucks more.
Upon getting it home and giving it a light cleaning it became apparent
just how minty mint the system was. It was in great condition and
everything worked perfectly. I plan on selling it at the Digital
Press forums where I've been fortunate to sell many other game items over
the past few weeks. The DP forums are still down right now after
being compromised on the 30th of August but as soon as they're back up
off it goes. I really only expect to get maybe $40 for it, but that
depends on the DP rarity database value. If worse comes to worst
then I'll keep it for the time being, no big deal.
So that was it, another run to the sales yard and one of the final runs of Summer. It looks like I might be selling the last of some household items in a few weeks which would be a nice change pace and something I enjoy doing. Only problem with that is I've sold most of my game stock, I mean - stuff is actually moving for a change. Instead of me sitting on piles of this and that I've actually been sending things out. I will say one thing, I'm now more adapt to buy things for the sole reason of selling them and starting to be able to let go of certain items I really don't have any desire to own.
Acquired...
NES - Paperboy 2 (loose)
NES - Standard control pad (loose)
NES - Standard control pad (loose)
NES - Standard control pad (loose)
NES - Standard control pad (loose)
NES - Standard control pad (loose)
NES - Standard control pad (loose)
NES - Standard control pad (loose)
NES - Top Gun: The Second Mission (loose)
Odyssey2 - Console with all cables (boxed
complete)
Odyssey2 - Baseball (loose)
Odyssey2 - Blockout / Breakdown (loose)
Odyssey2 - Casino Slot Machine (boxed
complete)
Odyssey2 - Sub Chase / Armored Encounter
(loose)
Super Famicom - Sailormoon S Fighting
Game (loose)
Super Nintendo - Standard control pad
(loose)
Sold...
None
Written on 09-02-05 by David, insanedavid@classicplastic.net