A few nice yard sale finds today, though nothing too earth-shattering.

The Find of the Day for me was an excellent condition copy of Vandal Hearts for the Playstation. I nearly didn’t stop at this sale because the classified ad listed “glassware, antiques,” etc., which is usually just code for “grandma died and we’re clearing out her house.” This was around 11:30 too, pretty late in the day for 32-bit gems to be just sitting around.

The funniest thing was that this was only game they had (too bad!), and the only other thing I saw that looked like it was made for someone under 40 was a single Spider-Man action figure. Most everything else, was the ad said, was antique.

The asking price was $1 and I happily paid it. This is my first ever copy of Vandal Hearts and it will be staying in the collection for sure. I’ve been on a tactics RPG kick lately, so perhaps I’ll end up playing it someday. (Then, I say that about the other 400 games that I own.) Now just to find Vandal Hearts 2…

Low point of the day: Snobby bitch mom trying to sell PS2 launch titles (those are from 2000, in case you forgot) and Game Boy Color games for $10 each. I held up Zone of the Enders. “This game is $5 at Gamestop.” “Oh no it’s not, I buy games there all the time.” I give up.

• Bust-a-Move, Game Gear, complete and minty — $2
• Pac-Man, Game Gear, complete and minty — $2
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble, Game Gear, complete and minty — $2
• Super Columns, Game Gear, complete and minty — $2 (These all came from the same guy who sold me the complete Genesis games two weeks ago.)
• Star Wars: Dark Forces/Jedi Knight Special Edition, PC — $1
• X-Com: UFO Defense, DOS/PC — $1
• Aladdin, Genesis — $0.50 (Much nostalgia for this one!)
• PS2 demos: Jampack, Dark Cloud 2, War of the Monsters — $0.25 ea
• Resident Evil 4 EGM preview DVD — $0.25
• Playstation 2 Kiosk 2-12 Spring 2004 promo demo — $0.25 (So cool to find these in the wild! I’ve never owned any kiosk demo discs before. All the demos came from a guy who used to work at both Software, Etc. and Wal-Mart.)
• Xbox Wal-Mart Demo Disk Version 2.0 — $0.25 (No idea what’s on here. I thought I might pop it in my 360 to find out, but then I remembered it’s probably not backwards compatible. Anybody know what’s on the disc? Put it in the comments!)Find of the Day:
• Vandal Hearts, PS1, complete — $1

Update 07.30.08: I had a friend pop the Xbox kiosk demo disc into his original Xbox, and here’s what’s on it:

Playable Demo:
NCAA Football 2003
RalliSport Challenge

Video:
Madden NFL 2003
NASCAR Thunder 2003
Prima Strategy Guides
Xbox Live - Play Online!
Xbox Now $199
Blinx: The Time Sweeper
Kakuto Chojin
Kung Fu Chaos
Mech Assault
NBA Inside Drive 2003
NFL Fever 2003
Quantum Redshift
Shenmue II
Sneakers
Whacked!
Xbox.com
Xbox Accessories
ESRB Ratings

Warning:
Microsoft Legal

I just got back from another successful Saturday morning of yard sales.

I was lucky enough to get my very first Sega Saturn today. This is the first one that I’ve seen in the wild at a reasonable price. The seller was asking $5, but I offered him $3, and he took it. (I admit, my definition of “reasonable price” is pretty lowball when it comes to yard saling.) It was pretty dirty and scuffed (photos are after cleaning) but to my surprise, it does, in fact, work. What surprises me most is how quiet it is for such an old CD-ROM system. Heck, my new PSP is noisier than this.

The last Sega Saturn set I saw in the wild was at the same Goodwill where I picked up the Super Famicom (!), though that set was a bit too pricey for me at $50. It had some nice games though — Bust-a-Move 2,  Sonic 3D, etc.

I was wondering why I keep finding copies of Final Fantasy XI at yard sales and Goodwills, and then I remembered Gamestop doesn’t take it for trade-in.

• Sega Saturn, 2 controllers, all hook-ups, with Virtua Fighter 2 and some hockey game that I’m not even going to bother to copy down — asking $5, offered $3
• Final Fantasy XI Xbox 360 — $2 (A Final Fantasy game that I don’t have, at a yard sale. How novel!)
• Vectorman, complete and mint –  $2
• Sonic 3D Blast, complete and mint –$2
• Frogger, Spyro the Dragon, Spyro: Ripto’s Rage, Ape Escape, all minty — $2
• Playstation pre-DualShock Analog Controller SCPH-1180, mint in box — $3 (Some crazies believe that this is the most comfortable Sony controller ever made. The PS1 and Genesis games all came from a guy who told me he had a ton of game stuff, but was eBaying portions of it. He told me he just sold a mint copy of Super Mario RPG for $91 on eBay [link]. I responded with a frustrated “aaahhh!!” Guess I wasn’t going to get any amazing deals from him.)
• Nintendo A/V hookups — $0.75
• TI-83 Plus graphing calculator — asking $5, offered $4 (Easy resale come August/September.)
• PSP charger — $1 (Great for my Crisis Core PSP, since I needed another American cable.)

aaaand the Find of the Day:
• Nintendo DS fatty — $5

Found this at the very first sale of the day. Amusingly, they also had a 1st-gen indigo GBA that they wanted $10 for. Huh? I’m sure the DS would not have lasted long had I not gotten there early. The lady said it worked OK, but she didn’t have the “batteries.” Er. By that, I guess she meant the power cable. I plugged it in immediately once I got home and hit Power. Nothing. I was disappointed as I was sure I had just bought someone’s brick. I kept pressing Power and then I heard the speakers clicking. A few more times, and it powered on. It lives! I guess it needed a minute to charge.

The touch screen is pretty scratched. Does anyone have any suggestions on fixing scratches? If so, leave a comment.

And no, Phoenix Wright wasn’t included.