Tales from the Thrift Store vol. 11

This past Saturday was the monthly 50% off everything sale at Goodwill, and even though I wasn't really feeling it on this particular day, I went ahead and made the trip anyway.

I found a whole four things of interest, probably not enough to warrant a post, but I need a break from the card posts, so here's my four exciting finds for your viewing pleasure:

Back when I was around nine or ten years old, I remember hearing dudes going on and on about their infatuation with Sean Young. These were guys that were usually 10-15 years older than me, and not only would I hear it from guys that lived around me, I 'd hear about from guys on the radio too. I hadn't yet seen things like Blade runner or Dune, so I never really understood what all the fuss over her was about, and honestly, even after I saw her in a couple of things... I still didn't get it?

I mean don't get me wrong, she didn't need to go around wearing a paper bag over her head or anything, but if all of these crushes were based solely on looks alone, I didn't see it. There were certainly many more physically attractive actresses around during her prime years, most of whom, dare I say, were far better actresses too. I guess this can be chalked up to that old saying "to each his own".

As for this film, I had never even heard of it, sounded interesting though, and as usual, for a quarter I don't mind taking the chance.

I just finished watching the first season of Stargate Universe, which wasn't too bad, I think I like the first half of the season more than the second half, but overall it was still pretty enjoyable -- now I just need to find a cheap copy of the second season on DVD. Even though the show is done, I'm still feeling a bit Stargatey, so I might as well go back to the beginning. This movie used to be on television all the time, but it's been about a decade since the last time I watched it, and now that I'm thinking about the movie, it's a bit of a mystery as to why I haven't bought it before now?

I just recently mentioned how much I enjoy television movies from the 70's and 80's, so finding another one - which is still sealed - that I haven't seen before was a nice surprise. I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that this was supposed to be a pilot as well, one that never got picked up by any of the networks.

I seem to be having some decent luck in finding Xbox and PS2 games during the last couple of sales, and here's another one! I don't care enough to look it up, but I'm fairly certain that this MGS2 Substance is some sort of expansion edition, what with all of the talk about extra missions and such. I never played the Substance-free MGS2, so I don't how much better this one will be over the original.

This was one of those times when I'm not entirely sure that the trip was worth it:

Leave at 7:45 on a Saturday morning.
35 minutes to get there.
More people than usual at the store (how was that even possible?), many of whom were quite rude.
10 minutes of actual shopping.
4 items found
15 minutes spent in line.
$4 spent.
And 35 minutes to get back home.

So, was it worth it...?


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Tales from the Thrift Store vol. 10

I knew that I hadn't done a thrift store post in awhile, but I didn't realize that it had been over four months now since my last one... apparently time flies even when you're not having fun!

Normally I hit multiple thrift stores at least once a month, but in keeping with my lack of going anywhere that I don't have to for the last few months, I haven't been making the thrift store rounds. I think that the last time I went to one was in December, but that only yielded a pair of records and a video, which I didn't think (at the time) was enough to warrant a post.

During this drought of mine, I've also passed on multiple months worth of half-off Saturdays at the Goodwill - as much as I enjoy those sales, it's been hard to get up and want to go out when the temperature is in the twenties, or even it better, when that Saturday occurs during one of our many stretches of torrential downpours.

Now that the weather is starting to improve (allegedly), I decided a few weeks ago to target last weekends half-off sale as my return to the land of the thrifting, and for the first time in awhile... I actually did something that I said I was going to do!

Nostalgia is a helluva drug! Case in point... Asteroid! I wonder if anyone else reading this happened to watch Asteroid during it's original NBC airing back in 1997? If you did, then you probably already know that it is not a good movie, but that's okay, because I have such an affinity for older television movies (or as they were commonly referred to, "events"), that I'll pretty much grab any on DVD or VHS that I happen upon - although finding something that's from the 70's or 80's would be more ideal (television movies were far better during those two decades), but hey, I'll take films that were produced in the 90's as well, at least I remember watching most of those.

Side note: It's already been over twenty years since this film first aired on television!?!?!?

Not only have I not seen Moon 44, but I hadn't even heard of it before... that's something that doesn't happen very much anymore!

Gore on the ocean floor! I'm not entirely sure, but I think that the first time I saw this film was via a heavily edited version for television - it's probably trivial to some, but I sure wish I could remember when that was, and on what channel I watched it on (things like that are important to me).

Of the first four tapes that I've shown, this is the only that could actually be considered to be "good". I'm a big fan of films that feature shady government agencies and cover-ups. Although not the main character, Sam Waterston is so great in this, oh, and even though it's a relatively small role for him, Telly Savalas steals the show once he arrives.

Because of all of the people, and their noise, I don't usually spend very much time at these Saturday sales. I basically get in, try to find a few things, and if I do find a few things, make sure that what is supposed to be in the box/case is actually in the box/case, and get out. As such, I will sometimes not notice certain things until I get home, for example...

... those first four tapes were part of a box set! This side of the set wasn't the side that was showing on the shelves, and the tapes were spread throughout both sides of the video rack, so it was fairly easy not to notice this. After some checking, I found that Millennium is the missing tape. I already own it on video and DVD, but now I feel compelled to keep an eye out for the copy that goes to this set, probably an OCD thing?

This is the second film of the Angel series, I've only ever seen the first two, so it would've been nice to have found the third or fourth movie, but I'm still thankful to have found this. For the record, this is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, the blending of humor and serious didn't really work out too well, that being said, I still enjoy it, especially Susan Tyrell's turn as the foul-mouthed Solly.

Back when I still had cable through Comcast, I used to love watching the free movies that were available on demand, or at least the ones that I deemed as "good". At some point, White Noise was added to the list of free movies, and even though it's supposedly quite flawed, I like Michael Keaton (a lot), so I decided to give it a go. About ten minutes in though, it froze, and even after sending Comcast an email about it, the glitch, or whatever it was, never did get fixed. It was eventually replaced by something else, and I never did get to see the rest of it, so for a buck, you better believe that I'm not gonna pass up the chance to finally finish the film.

About ten years ago I bought a super cheap PS2, not necessarily because I was interested in owning a PS2 mind you, it was more of an insurance policy in case my PS1 ever crapped out. You see, I have been hearing people say, for what seems like decades now, that the hardware on the original Playstation's will eventually stop working, what with it being a CD based gaming system and all. So when I had the opportunity to get a PS2 for $20, I figured I might as well go for it, at least I'd still be able to play my PS1 games should anything ever happen to the system - funny thing is, my PS1, that I've owned for twenty plus years now, and have logged more hours than I'd like to admit on, still works just as good as the day it came out of the box.

With that being said, do I regret buying my PS2? No, not really. It was a pretty solid deal at the time, $20 got me the console with two controls, a memory card, and ten games. Four of those games got traded in, and I've probably only bought 10-15 games in the decade since it's purchase. I don't know why exactly, but seeking out PS2 games just hasn't ever been that high of a priority for me, so on the rare occasion that I do decide to look at games, it's not hard to find one that I don't have, there's also a good chance that I won't be too familiar with most of the games that I come across either - Onimusha 2 being one of those, hadn't heard of it, but it looks fun, and for $2 it's worth taking a chance on.

Hey, I've heard of this one! Although it would've been pretty hard not to, what with it being one of the more popular franchises over the couple of decades. Now the question is, will I play it and understand what all of the hype was about? Or will I play it and be left to wonder what the big deal was?

After taking a break from these sales for a couple of months, it was nice to get back out there and find a bunch of crap and not have to pay very much for it. After all was said and done, I ended up with one DVD, two PS2 games, and five videos, all for just a little over $6.


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Tales from the Thrift Store vol. 8

This past Saturday's 50% off sale at Goodwill wasn't quite as bountiful for me as it usually is, in fact, it initially looked like I might not be bringing anything home with me.

The video section wasn't particularly well stocked this time, which was a little disappointing since that's my primary reason for going. The selection was such that I ended up not getting a single video!

But all was not lost, as I did manage to get three DVD's for a $1 each, and a video game for $3.

What I'm about to say might come as a shock to a few of you, but I've never seen this movie! I have been meaning to for years, but the opportunity to do so just hasn't presented itself. On a side note, seeing that this movie came out in 1999 makes me feel very old.

And here's one that I've never even heard of before! I like Dennis Quaid though, so I'm hoping that it won't be too bad.

Finally, something I've actually seen! The DVD selection as this Goodwill isn't very good, and the stuff that is there, tends to be very mainstream in nature (The Matrix, Will Ferrell movies, etc.), so being able to find something a little out of the ordinary was a nice surprise.

They have a shelf right above the records (or vinyl if you prefer) that usually has maybe 15-20 video games, almost always of the Xbox (original) and PS2 variety. Most of the time the selection is made up of just unwanted sports games, but this time they had a few non-sport titles, and since I've been feeling very Xboxy (Xboxey?) as of late, this was a good thing.

I'm probably only one of a few people (video game people) who has never played Splinter Cell, so since the disc looked pristine -- and it had the manual -- I figured for three bucks it was about time for me to give it a try. I almost bought one of the Madden games too, but that disc was scratched to hell (how does that even happen?), so definitely not worth trying for $3.

So there you have it, my shortest thrift store post yet. After leaving the Goodwill, I did go to a Big Lots that I had never been to before, a few fun things were found, but I'll save those purchases for another day.


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