My first trip to the thrift store this year was alright. I found a nice assortment of ColecoVision games for under a buck each. Then again I have nothing to play these on so maybe I'll sell them.

Nah, on second thought I consider these to be an omen... they're a sign that this summer I will find a ColecoVision, one of the few missing systems I'm looking for.

Found this one in the clearance section of Half Price Books, nothing too special but still cool to pick-up.

I think I might believe in karma now. I gave an extra NES to someone at my office. He mentioned he'd been looking for one but couldn't find a good deal. Since I found a couple cheap ones in previous years it didn't pain me to give one away.

On the way home I stopped by Half Price Books and scored 11 games. Back in the clearance section they had six Saturn games for $2 each. I think Saturn and Sega CD games go directly to the clearance section at this location. The guy at the counter mocked me for buying Saturn games and I didn't have the energy to mock him for working retail.

In the regular game section they had a bunch of NES games for $3 each. That's not a super price so I only grabbed a handful of ones that were semi-uncommon.

Another OK find at Half Price Books - they had a couple original Game Boy games on clearance for $1 each. They also had this Mega Memory Card gizmo which I hadn't heard of before. I guess it's some device to copy save games from one cartridge to another. Don't know when I'd ever want to do that so maybe I'll ebay it.

This time around I spotted a copy of King's Quest V at Half Price Books for $1. I'll admit, I only bought it because the box was in good condition and the artwork is one of my favorites. It'll do until I find a sealed copy one day. Maybe I'll try installing it on my Windows 95 Virtual PC image.

Shadowrun for Genesis was a nice surprise to find there. I normally don't like to pay more than $3 for games without a box but it'll be a long time before I accidentally stumble across this one again.

Like the Sega Saturn games I found earlier in the year, Half Price Books had a bunch of Neo Geo Pocket Color games that apparently went directly to the clearance shelf. I don't own a Neo Geo Pocket Color but I knew that - a) I'll probably get one eventually, b) I can definitely ebay these for more than $2 if I don't.

I barely play the Game Gear but I won't pass up any game for $1, even a baseball one. The Link book was a totally random find, spotted it while looking for books for my daughter.

Here's the first garage sale find of the year, and a darn fine one at that. In mid-May there are a lot of neighborhood garage sales in my area. There's one in particular that I swear brings in people from other countries, or at least other states. It's a slightly-upper-middle-class neighborhood that's about 20 years old now. By my informal count there are 30-50 homes that participate. I've gone three years in a row now and every time it's totally packed.

If you were looking for video games this was a good year to go. Lots of people selling PlayStation 2 games for $1-$2 (nothing I was interested in), a few NES games here and there (all dupes for me), and even a boxed 32X (I already have two). After going to 20-30 sales I found a box of Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 games that they only wanted 50¢ a piece for (or $5 for all of them). Some of the TurboGrafx-16 games were duplicates but they're so rare to find in the wild and I couldn't argue with the price.

Despite the great TurboGrafx find, garage sales have been pretty dry this summer. There have been many neighborhood/community garage sales, more than I recall in previous years, but not many classic games. Fortunately Half Price Books has been a reliable source. On this visit they had a couple Game Boy Advance/Color games on clearance for a buck. I grabbed a couple Madden games because I figured they'd be fun for a bit. They also had a bunch of NES games for $4 each, Star Wars and Rad Racer II were the only non-dupes.

Another very fruitful trip to Half Price Books. Back in the clearance section they had a bunch of Sega Genesis games for $1-$2 each. Virtua Racing was one of my first game hunting finds but I bought another copy because this was in better condition and included the manual. I'll ebay the other one or something.

Of course I already have Madden '92 and Madden '94 but bought these because they were cheap and for some reason I feel the need to get all the EA sports games in box. Oh, and the Madden '94 was sealed... and the PGA Tour Golf III... two sealed games for $2 each. The shrinkwrap is torn a bit on each but they're still in amazing condition for their age.

It's still not been a great year for garage sales. I found someone selling a box of Atari stuff for $20 but I talked them down to $15. All the Atari games were duplicates but they had four paddle controllers in great shape which I needed. The Star Raiders controller was in there too and I've never even seen one in person.

In the box there were also ten Ti-99 games which I'll sell and probably break even on this whole lot so basically I scored some free controllers.

Oh, there was also a loose Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge in there. Too bad they didn't have any other NES games.

If you're tired of reading about stuff I found at Half Price Books then quit reading now. Anyway, another crop of good finds. I picked-up a couple Genesis favorites for $2 each. Some I had loose but wanted the box for.

They also had Batman Returns for Game Gear for $1. I'm not really a fan but again I'll buy any game for $1 and it's not like Game Gear games are taking up that much space.

No Mercy for N64 was back there for $2. This is one of the better Video Games of the Monday Night War so I couldn't resist.

Last but not least was a sealed copy of Bases Loaded for the NES for the low price of $2. This game is in absolute perfect condition, like it was teleported to this store from 1988. It's really tempting to sell this because I'm sure some insane collector would overpay for it. I'm going to hold on to it for a while I think.

The 2010 hunting season officially has a theme now - sealed sports games at Half Price Books. If I was a more cynical person I'd suspect they were shrink wrapping them to boost the value of otherwise common games. Wait, I am a highly cynical person but have more than enough experience with shrink wrap to know the difference between a factory seal and one done in the backroom of the store. Anyway yeah, there's Lakers vs. Celtics for Genesis new in box for $5. Very nice find given it was such an early title.

Back in the clearance section they had three Sega Master System games for just $1 each. None of these are spectacular games but it's so uncommon to find them, especially chip games.

The Gauntlet and Rampart combo game was from a nearby Toys 'R Us that was clearing their remaining GBA stock for $3.

Another decent find in the clearance section of Half Price Books. This is now the third copy I have of Quake 2 (PC and N64 being the others). Two copies was already overkill so I guess I'll pass if I stumble across the Amiga version.

I also finally own a copy of Stadium Events, albeit under the substantially less valuable re-branding. Actually, I think I already had it on that 3-in-1 cart with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.

I spent a toasty Saturday morning hitting a few garage sales. For a brief moment I thought I found something really incredible. There, in a box of random old PC games, was a first edition Dungeons & Dragons box in excellent condition. I don't play but for but I do like the old books and buy them if I see them cheap. I leaped to grab the box only to find it was empty, the guy told me to take it for free. At the end of the day I can't complain though - scored that Eye of the Beholder trilogy for 50¢ at the same sale.

One Saturday I ran across a garage sale that was like being a kid in a candy store. Someone's game collection had grown too large so he was selling off a ton of games. Of course being a game collector he knew what games were worth so the prices were around eBay range. There were some good deals there though - when all was said and done I walked away with the games pictured to the left for $15.

Getting near the end of summer so the number of garage sales is shrinking. Spotted one that had a Super Nintendo with six games for $15, I got it down to $10. The Super Nintendo itself looked like it was used as a chew toy. The games were fine though and only one was a duplicate.

Not pictured is the extremely ratty Super Nintendo system which went directly into my box of junk for the next electronics recycling collection event in my town.

We took a little weekend trip to Manitowoc Wisconsin for some early fall outdoor fun and stuff. Unfortunately we got rained out on the first day so we spent it shopping in town. In between all the cheese stores we stumbled across a unique little place called The Junque Box. I'd post a link but apparently they don't have a web site. It's a hard store to describe - if you've ever seen "Homer's Phobia" (back from when the Simpsons was good) it's remarkably like the store John works at only with video games too.

Anyway, the owner was very open about making deals so I walked away with a nice stack of games for only $50. If for any reason you're in the Manitowoc area you have to check this store out.

Had another great trip to Half Price Books:

-Super Monkey Ball 2 for Gamecube ($2): My daughter and I played the first one a bit and this looks like a good sequel.

-Burnout for Gamecube ($7): This thing is still over $15 at GameStop and ebay.

-Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama for Genesis ($8): Not a great game but it's sealed so I'm not planning to play it anyway. It's insane how many sealed games I've found this year. Anyway, this is based off a comic by Keith Robinson of Intellivision fame.

-The Humans for Genesis ($1): It was a buck, what else was I supposed to do?

Here it is, the last find of 2010. My oldest daughter was out of school for the year so we spent a few hours at a place called People's Choice Family Fun Center in Waukegan. Normally I won't go east of Green Bay Ave. between Wadsworth Rd. and Rt. 176 but will make a rare exception for them. It's best described as a giant Chuck 'e Cheese with glow-in-the-dark mini-golf and a video store. The video store also buys and sells games for all systems which means they have a pretty decent stock of classic games on-hand.

This particular week they were running a 50% off sale on all their games. Even at 50% off their prices aren't great but I used it as an opportunity to grab some NES games that aren't too easy to find.

I don't expect to play Ultimate Stuntman or Mig-29 but for some reason feel compelled to buy unlicensed games whenever I see them. On the other hand, T&C Surf Design is an old favorite that I will play.

I actually don't like Startropics but figured I'd never find it this cheap again (or at all).