Tales from the Thrift Store vol.6

Last Saturday, all the Goodwill stores throughout middle Tennessee were having a 50% off everything sale, so even though I'm not a big fan of Goodwill (pulling out all of the good donation's to auction online is terribly annoying), I decided to go see what's what anyway.

It's been a long time since I've been to a Goodwill, all of the stores back home in the Portland/metro area were terrible, and until just recently I didn't even know that there was one anywhere near me (35 minutes away), so if I had to guess, I'd say that it's been six or seven years since I had last stepped foot in one of their stores.

I knew that there would probably be a lot of people showing up for this sale, but I still wasn't fully prepared for what I saw when I got there.

I arrived about an hour after the store had opened, and their large parking lot was almost completely full. Walking up to the store, people were exiting in masse... all with full cart loads! Upon entering the store, I was hit with a wall of sound (and not the good Phil Spector kind), which was the result of literally hundreds of people all talking at the same time, like white noise from hell!

I've never been to a retail store on Black Friday before, but this is what I would imagine going to a Walmart on that day is like (thankfully no one was trampled to death while I was there). A more apt analogy might be that it was like looking at a plague of locusts eating everything in sight, or in this case... filling their carts with everything in sight.

After the initial shock, I started trying to find the videos (you had to know that that was where I was going first), while doing so I started to notice just how big this particular store was (I've since learned that it is the primary thrift store for Cookeville). If it's been a long time since I've even been in a Goodwill, than it's been even longer since I've been in one that was this big (15+ years?).

As I was walking to the back of the store, I couldn't help but be impressed with how much stuff they had, although it wasn't staying on the shelves very long. When I finally got back to the area where all the media (DVD's, VHS, books, etc.) was, I started to curse myself for not getting there sooner, because this section was absolutely packed with people, the funny/good thing was though that nobody seemed to be looking at the videos... ahhhh, obsolete technology!

They had a pretty good selection too, maybe 200 or so to look through. Lots of books too. I wasn't able to look through the couple of hundred records that they had though, as a rather large fellow (like three or four timer wider than me) had pulled up a chair to look through them and was blocking both shelves. I didn't feel like waiting, so I just passed. I'm still pretty happy with the stack of videos that I found (only 25 cents each), and even though I didn't need anything to read right now, I ended up walking away with two books as well:

I hadn't seen this before >> watched it that night >> very funny!

I think I might of seen this one when I was really young, but I probably won't know for sure until I give it another viewing.

Hot Shots and Hot Shots: Part Deux were two of the my most often rented movies (Class Act would top that list) before the age of 12. I haven't seen this one since whenever the last time that I rented it was... probably around age 12.

I already have this on DVD, but it never hurts to have a back-up copy, right? Although, if I'm being completely honest here... I now have two back-up copies :)

I've never heard of it, and the odds are high that I won't like it, but for a quarter, I certainly don't mind taking a chance.

Michael J. Fox doing an impression of Jimmy Durante... nuff said!

Bird watching, get it? This tape is still sealed by the way.

And now for the biggie:

Boom! This tape alone made the trip worth going. Why is that? Simple, this has been my most wanted video for at least fifteen years now. The tape has been long out of print (obviously), and it has never been released on DVD in North America, and to think that it was found here, at Goodwill of all places, is just crazy. I think my heart might have skipped a couple of beats when I saw it down at bottom of the rack. After all this time, I half expected to slide the tape out of the box and find a different movie, but thankfully the video gods were with me, as the correct tape was indeed in the box.

And for the record, She is not what one would normally refer to as a good movie. I am however a big fan of it because a) Sandahl Bergman is one of my earliest crushes, so I can, and will, watch her in anything, and b) It's one of the quirkiest/weirdest movies that you'll ever come across, which has always appealed to me as well.

This DVD was still in it's original shrink wrap, and as you can see by the cover, after almost twenty years, the anti-theft tape has begun to merge with the paper, which resulted in some paper loss when I went to open it. Even though it was under $1, I found myself still being slightly annoyed by this.

I haven't read any of the books in this series, but this one looked good, so I bought it.

When I first saw the title on the spine, I thought this book was going to be related in some way to the 1977 John Huston film... it wasn't.

And yes, I know, it's a Scholastic book. But I figure that if it's socially acceptable for adults to read things like Harry Potter, the Twilight books, and the Hunger Games books -- which are written for kids/teens -- than I can't be judged for wanting to read this kids/teens book about a giant squid.

All in all, I think I did pretty well, and the best part was that I got all that for just $4.12!

While standing in line for 15-20 minutes, I had plenty of time to take in my surroundings, as I was doing so, I noticed a sign on one of the front windows that was boldly announcing that this sale wasn't just a one time thing, no... it'll now be 50% off of everything on the first Saturday of each month. I guess I now know where I'll be come the first Saturday of next month too!


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.