Garage Sale Finds the week of 6/7

I had a feeling I was going to hit a big score pretty soon with Garage Sales. I had decent finds early April and then things got slow. But after this weekend I am pretty happy. Onto the recap of this last week or so.

Starting with Friday 6/5, I went to one Garage Sale in the morning across town. The person had listed video games on their CL ad. When I got there, I saw my rival buying a GC memory card and passing on everything else. They had an Ouyas for $80 and it was complete. I might have been able to talk them down to $50. I checked eBay and it looks like they are coming up in price between $70-$100. She did have a GC with 3 controllers and no power brick. The A/V cable was shot but it was 1 official Indigo controller and 2 black ones. Even though I already have a GC, it will make for great trade fodder so I snagged it for asking price. It looks like the guy who just bought the memory card may only be a collector, although from the other sales I saw him at, I could have sworn he was a re-seller.

On Saturday, I went to one of the largest Garage Sales in the greater Seattle Area. The Lake Tapps Garage sale is held every June and there is usually between 50-100 houses selling items.

I have been lucky the last 5 years I have gone. CIB and sealed Zelda for NES, sealed Resident Evil 3 for PSX, a SNES with 6 games and hookups for $3, DS and GBA games for $0.50 apiece, a GBA SP for $5, those are some of the more notables finds, although last year was an almost bust, except for the PS2 I found for $1.

This year was fantastic. I didn't see any classic systems and almost no handheld games. I saw PS3 and 360 stuff and lots of Wii Shovelware. First sale I went to as soon as we parked, had PS2 and GC controllers marked $1. I grabbed a platinum GC controller and the guy mentioned he had other stuff. I waited around a few, but he was busy so I left.

I stopped at another sale 10 houses later and there were some crummy Wii games. But at another table there were GC games for $1. I picked up Cars and SpongeBob Lights, Camera, Pants. I asked the lady if I could get them for $1 for both. She said yes and thanked me for not stealing them. I wanted to ask if they had other GC games earlier in the day, but I decided to move on.

The next sale I hit after looking at several others and finding nothing, had PS3 and 360 games as well as consoles. They wanted $50 for a 360 console and had the 250 GB Black Slim and a 320 GB Modern Warfare Slim. They also had controllers for the PS3 and 360. All games were $10 each. They had a 120 GB PS3 slim for $50. I grabbed it and a blue dualshock 3 and COD Black Ops II. We haggled and instead of paying $70 I got it for $65. Still a great deal. I wanted one of the 360s but I was thinking about the hardware issues. PS3 has a few scratches but I cannot wait to fire it up. I may sell itor it may go into the bedroom to act as a media box.

The next sale I hit had a few things. DS games, a 360 Guitar, a $5 Game Gear, and a few other items. The Game Gear looked interesting and it came with the battery pack, but I decided against it since the guy mentioned he hadn't used it in over 10 years. The cart only DS games werere marked $4 each. I grabbed Time Hollow and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and offered $6. She took it.

The last sale was a house I have gone to the last two years. They always have Legos and have high prices. They had a huge stack of Wii games. The sign read all Lego/Mario games $8 and the others $5. I thought about Wii Sports Resort since I dont have it and I thought about grabbing Wii Sports. I saw they had Lego Indiana 1 and 2 and Lego Star Wars Complete. These are fun games but they can be $8 used at GS. I also passed on a few other Wii shovelware games. I did grab Mario Party 8 and New Super Mario Bros. I’m finding New Super Mario Bros a lot. Both games were complete. She said those are $10 each I said the sign says $8. I was going to offer $12 when I first saw them. She mentioned she wished her son was here since he knew the value of that stuff but she took the $16.

Overall, it was a good sale. I passed on some PS2 games and some OG Xbox games. I really wish I had seen some classic stuff. I didn't make it to the entire sale. After being there for two hours in the 80+ degrees, I was wiped.

Tip for the week-If you are going to a community sale, bring water and some snacks. They can make the few hours you spend there a lot easier.