Tales from the Thrift Store vol. 7

Last weekend was the 50% off of everything sale at Goodwill that's now held on the first Saturday of each month, and since I'm mentioning it (in a post no less), one can safely assume that said sale is the source of today's show & tell.

I was feeling somewhat spry on this particular Saturday, so much so, that I was even able to leave on time for once (I'm almost always 15-20 minutes behind schedule). They open at 8am, and it was looking like I would be getting there with about ten minutes to spare, which I did. I expected to see a long line of "bargain" hunters eagerly waiting for the store to open, instead I was greeted by the sight of people already leaving the store, many of whom were pushing carts that had been filled with the spoils of war.

The store had obviously opened up considerably earlier than normal, so while I was still technically an early bird, I just wasn't one of the earliest birds! Now the only question was, would there be any worms left?

Believe it or not, I haven't seen this since it originally aired back in '94... it seemed like it might be time for another viewing.

This series is in the public domain, and has been for a long time. I also already have the entire series on DVD, but for a quarter I couldn't resist this still sealed tape... me thinks that the previous owner's may have taken the "Collector's Edition" a little too seriously.

I think I might be one of the few people left who hasn't seen this movie, sometime after Thanksgiving I'll change that.

Here's another series that I have all of on DVD, but I've never found one of the Amazing Stories VHS volumes before, and again it was only a quarter, so...

It's not what one would call a "good" movie by any stretch of the imagination, but Hackers is one of my favorite movies of all time, probably in my top 25. I already have it on DVD and VHS, but I didn't have this second video release. Without even looking at the date on the back, I could tell this was a later release because Angeline Jolie is given top billing on the cover. Jonny Lee Miller was the star of the movie, but she was the bigger name when this tape was released in 2000, so in an attempt to capitalize on that (and to sell more copies of course), her name and face were prominently featured on the front. Personally, I never considered her to be a star, and in my mind she was never a bigger name than Jonny Lee Miller.

Another cheap back-up copy.

I haven't seen this one before, and it's not the type of film that I go for, but it does have an awesome cast, so I might as well give it a go.

I hadn't heard of this one before, but I'll watch anything with Gene Barry in it, so it was kind of a no brainer. Sounds like it's going to be Hitchcockian in nature, which is just fine by me.

The cashiers always ask if you want to round up your total to support their job training program, you'd have to be a real heel not to, so after rounding up, my eight tapes set me back a whole $3.00... works for me!

As an aside, on my way back to the media section, I walked through the toy aisle. While doing so, I noticed about half a dozen baseball SLU's from the mid 90's. They were still in package, and with the discount they would have been $1.50 each. This was now the second time in a matter of weeks that I have been tempted by those poorly sculpted pieces of the past, and once again I was able to resist their pull. I did sort of want the cards, but $1.50 seemed like a lot to pay just for a SLU card of Mike Mussina, JT Snow, or Mike Greenwell (among others). After I was done shopping, I walked back down the toy aisle on my way to the checkout, as I did, I passed a guy that looked like he might be a few years older than me who was gathering up all of those SLU's -- I wasn't surprised to see someone else buying them, as that was a good price -- but the thing that caught my eye, was the look of sheer happiness that was pasted across his face, it was like seeing nostalgia in it's purest form. Even if I hadn't bought anything, being able to witness that moment would have been worth the entire trip alone.


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