I am so glad to hear that people are still finding some good stuff!
I used to haunt places where I could find these things. I covered 5 states and collected a massive amount of good stuff over the years between 1993 and 2001 by hitting garage sales, thrift stores, and discount bins. I've kept the stuff I wanted, and sold the rest for far more than I paid either straight to collectors or via usenet, and later via ebay.
Back when finding this stuff was still common it was mostly considered junk of course, and you could get it for a song depending on where you lived. Usually thrown in boxes and sold for whatever someone would pay. Most even still worked. I still own one of every 2600 model released, and it was always great to get them for $1! Sometimes boxed! I've also found more Intellivisions, Colecovisions, C64, NES etc than you can shake a stick at. I always liked finding those colecovisions. If the power supply worked, you could sell it for more than a system itself.
I've managed to find 6 Vectrex systems over the years. I loved the Vectrex. I swear to God, kids would pay me a quarter to play games on that thing back in the day. Have a complete set of carts for it, but missing some of the overlays on some.
One of the rarest systems I've come across was the APF 1000 system. It worked, but I could never find any games aside from the one built in. That thing is RARE! I found 1 Mattel Aquarius, which I paid $3 for with a box of other parts. In the box was also an Intellivision Voice Synthesis Module and some Intellivision games which I guess they thought went with it. Addons like the voice modules were good finds, and I always snatched those up.
Games too were so fun to find. I've found nearly every Atari 2600 cartridge at one time or another. I still have a nearly complete collection of cartridges for 2600, and to a lesser extent Coleco and Intellivision and the 5200 and 7800s. I became an expert at opening those blasted 5200 controllers because they never worked right. The best way to get them working again was to use a pencil eraser, and by God I erased many controllers and got them working again before selling them for $20 a pair. Atari 5200 trackballs were good sellers when you could find them. 2600 Wico sticks were also good finds. Probably the best sticks made at that time.
Finding boxes and bags of games of every type was pretty common. Many, many were completely unopened. I found many rare 2600 games like Xonox single games and double enders, which I'd never even seen or heard of when they were released. Unopened Wizard games like Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. All the Atari Club games. I actually got one box of games which had chase the chuckwagon and tooth protectors in it! That family must have had a thing for mail in rebates. They were a little beat up, but you didn't see these very often. Never found any of the XXX rated 2600 carts in any lots I ever purchased.
Stuff I LOVED to find were cartridges for Atari the computers. You could get $20 easy for a bag of carts that the thrift stores sold for $1 or 2. Other good ones were Parker Bros carts. They could always be sold. The cartridges were cool, and they put out some good games. A lot on ebay of 10 common PB games like Frogger, Qbert, Popeye, etc was worth $10-$20 all day long, and considering I probably paid someone a dime each for them, I was pretty happy with that.
I really miss those days! The funnest thing was when you got a good haul, you had to go through it and test everything of course, and play the games you'd never seen or heard of. I'm still having a blast too! Along with my xbox 360, the Atari 2600 still sits connected to my TV ready to be cranked up at a moments notice. Once in awhile I'll see some old game system for sale, and cant help but take a look. Never know what you may find!
by stinow » Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:20 pm 
): needed the cash, so I'm not disappointed about that. Maybe I 'll find one again in my lifespan 
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