Retro Nintendo

It's kind of Super Nintendo related…

I just wanted to share with you guys a super sweet deal that I got today. My wife likes to drag my tired ass out of bed on Saturday mornings at the ass crack of dawn to go yard saling. Traditionally, though I certainly look, I have had very poor luck finding any decent video game items, especially the fantastic retro stuff that we all know is out there. Today was different, though…

Being the studious yard saler that she is, my wife searched for yard sale ads on Craigslist the night before so she could plan out our route. It turns out that there was one nearby our house that advertised electronics. So the morning came and that's the first one we hit. Surprisingly, it ended up being about a block away from our house. We did the obligatory hesitant drive-by, and one table caught my eye. It looked like CDs and DVDs from the road. I decided to go check it out, but my wife didn't think she saw anything interesting, so she opted to stay in the car for this one.

I walked over to the table and immediately, my jaw dropped. The first thing I saw was \"Final Fantasy\" printed several times on several of the items. I looked more closely and found that there were quite a few game music albums. Before getting too excited, walked over to the 60+ year-old Santa Claus-proportioned man that I could see was the proprietor and asked him how much he was asking for the music CDs, because that could be a deal breaker. He told me $1 each.

I bounded back to the table and started going though every pile and forming a new stack of all the game CDs I could find. In all, though rushed, I ended up with 22 albums. My heart was beating quickly as I ambled over to make my offer for the pile of gold that I was holding with both hands and supporting with my chin. I asked him how much he wanted for the 22 albums. I was still concerned that he had misquoted me previously.

It took me a moment to comprehend what he said when he told me $18 for the lot of them. I couldn't believe it. Either he didn't know how valuable these were or he just didn't care. I pulled out a $20 and paid him for the CDs and for two toys that my wife, who had decided to come look around, had found for our 2-year-old son. We quickly loaded into the car and pulled away as I explained to my non-gamer wife what kind of deal I had made.

When we got home, I had spent a few hours cataloging my catch and assessing their conditions. Something was nagging at my unconscious, though. I felt like I needed to go back and double-check that I had gotten all of the albums. At about noon, we drove by again to see if they were still open for business (yard sales don't last very late into the morning in the Summer in Phoenix). I was pleased to see that they were still out. I asked to look through the discs one more time and was surprised to find five more albums that I had missed the first time around. Paying $5 more, I took them home and added them to the spreadsheet that I had created. Here is the amazing tally of what I got:

Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon
Final Fantasy IV Original Sound Version
Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack PLUS
Final Fantasy Love Will Grow
Final Fantasy Love Will Grow (Duplicate)
Final Fantasy Pray
Final Fantasy Tactics Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy Tactics Original Soundtrack (Duplicate)
Final Fantasy V Dear Friends
Final Fantasy V Original Sound Version
Final Fantasy V Original Sound Version (Duplicate)
Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale
Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale (Duplicate)
Final Fantasy VI Original Sound Version
Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks
Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection
Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec Final Fantasy VIII
Piano Collections Final Fantasy IV
Piano Collections Final Fantasy IX
Piano Collections Final Fantasy V
Piano Collections Final Fantasy VI
Piano Collections Final Fantasy VIII
Piano Collections Final Fantasy X
Symphonic Suite Final Fantasy

All discs are in immaculate condition, though some of the packaging and manuals had minor water damage. All for $23. I'm so excited! I've already ripped them all to iTunes (256 kbps VBR) and stashed away the discs in a cool dry place. This is by far the best find I have ever made at a yard sale, and it has renewed my faith in yard sales once again. I don't think I'll be complaining next time my wife tries to drag me out of bed early on a Saturday morning. In fact, I might just be the one dragging her out of bed.

So that's my story. I'm curious what great retro goodies other people have found at yard sales.

-neostryder